
While pent-up pandemic demand for Kamloops real estate appears to have subsided, the local realty association says housing in the area is becoming increasingly unaffordable because of a lack of supply.
Kamloops and District Real Estate Association president Chelsea Mann says the number of home sales has come down slightly in recent months, although she says there are still bidding wars because of an “extreme” lack of supply.
Mann says there’s no signs that demand for Kamloops-area housing will drop off substantially, but she suspects upward pressure on prices to be a key issue.
Upward pressure on average prices in real estate is a real predicament because as affordability continues to erode for Buyers because of the lack of supply, some sellers are holding off from listing,” she says. Although they stand to benefit financially on the sale, they will be faced with difficulty in finding their next home once they become the buyer.
“We can’t deny that COVID-19 may still be restricting sellers from listing their homes at the moment as well, but hopefully this is something that will address itself in due time. This problem of extreme lack of inventory is a puzzle that will stay with us for a while.”
Mann suspects inventory issues will last at least another 12 months, meaning the Kamloops area will continue to be a seller’s market.
In September, KADREA says the average home in its boundaries sold for $552,814, which is an 11 per cent increase from September of 2020 when the average price was $498,190.
For the Kamloops sub area, which also covers Sun Peaks and Tobiano, the average price last month was just over $595,000, which is up by 12 per cent from just under $530,000 12 months ago. Last month, the average single-family home in the Kamloops sub area sold for close to $688,000 (up 20.8 per cent from Sep. 2020), while the average multi-family unit sold for just under $392,000 (up 9.1 per cent)