A local Kamloops realtor says some new residents moving to town are buying not one, but two, houses here.

Royal LePage realtor Quinn Pache says, for his own personal sales, it’s about a 50-50 split when it comes to homebuyers who live here already versus those who are moving here from elsewhere. And he says many buyers who are moving here aren’t buying just one home.

“And we see that now, that we have people from out of town who are not just buying one but two houses. And that is really shortening our inventory, and primarily all my clients from out of town are buying not just one but two houses,” Pache says.

“What we’re seeing is, people sell their house for $2 million on the coast and they come to Kamloops. But instead of just buying one house, they’re buying a nice, $800,000 house to live in, but they’re also buying a secondary residence to rent out.”

In March, the average property in the Tournament Capital sold for $568,000, which was a new record. That included $412,500 for multi-family homes and $686,000 for single-family homes.

Kamloops and District Real Estate Association president Chelsea Mann says many sellers are reviewing multiple offers within just days of listing.

“We’re still seeing that trend, of homes hitting the market, having a few days of showings going through, and then the sellers sitting down to look at offers after a few days,” Mann says.

“In March, we saw the highest number of new listings hit the market. So you’d think that would cool things down. However, we’re selling at almost the same rate as new listings are hitting the market. So we have not caught up on that supply side.”

Last month, most communities within the Thompson and Nicola regions saw about double the number of sales compared to March of 2020.