Soft.

That is the word being used to described home sales last month and for the year overall.

Doren Quinton, with the Kamloops & District Real Estate Association, says Sahali led the way in home sales both last month with 14 and in 2018 overall with 271.

Brocklehurst, Aberdeen, and Westsyde follow closely behind.

“For December we saw a little bit softer sales. We saw 123 sales compared to 185 last year in December. We typically see around 125 sales in December so we were pretty closely in line with our historical average there. For 2018 we saw just under 3,000 homes sold. We had 3,300 the year before so a little bit softer.”

He says the year over year decline represents about an 33% drop in sales.

As for the number if listings.

“It was very light in terms of the number of listings. We are still about 20% below the historical averages there. On another front we are seeing a number of homes under development, which are starting to hit the market now.”

Quinton says for the sixth consecutive year average home price increased jumping to $390,000 dollars up from $365,000 in 2017.

He notes the largest amount of buyers are shopping for homes selling between $300-500,000.

Quinton notes multi-family homes, condos and apartments, are seeing increased sales activity.

“It is certainly starting to play more of a role. Last month we had 82 single families homes that sold and 30 multi-family homes sold. As the affordability has declined we are seeing a bigger demand for multi-family homes and townhomes.”

Quinton notes that in other jurisdictions with robust real estate activity and rising prices there was a corresponding appetite for apartments and condos.