Image: Contributed
Report co-author A.J. Hazzi
The average price of single-family homes in at least three Kelowna neighbourhoods jumped by 23 per cent or more over the past year, driven primarily by baby boomers heading into retirement and millennials buying their first homes.
Housing prices and statistics for the Okanagan Valley are widely available and regularly published, but a newly released “microstudy” of the Okanagan real estate market provides new insight into specific local neighbourhoods.
Yesterday, Vantage West Realty published The Vantage Report, taking a deep dive into the year-over-year progress of home sales in 15 distinct Central Okanagan neighbourhoods.
“Our goal is to release informative, insightful and timely information about the communities where we play, work, worship, raise our children and call home,” says local realtor and report co-author A. J. Hazzi.
Hazzi, whose “passion” is studying local market cycles, says the new report is one of the most comprehensive looks at retail trends in the region.
Image: The Vantage Report
Among other things, it shows average single-family home prices approaching the million-dollar mark in both the Mission and Southeast Kelowna/Crawford neighbourhoods.
In the Mission area, the $977,126 average price tag on a single-family home represents a 22.9 per cent increase from 2016 to 2017. The $757,259 average in Black Mountain is a straight 23 per cent year-over-year jump.
Meanwhile, the report shows that, in the north and south ends of downtown Kelowna, homes have gone from prices in the mid $400,000s to the low $700,000s.
In The Vantage Report, Hazzi lays out the generational forces driving that demand.
Many millennials are now hitting the point where they are buying their first homes, driving markets from the bottom up. Alongside them, retiring baby boomers are downsizing, taking the profit from their old homes and moving into new developments in a lower price bracket.
However, Hazzi sees the rise in the Kelowna market as healthy growth, driven by good solid economic fundamentals.
“The days of speculation are long gone,” he says. “Today, we have tight lending rules and locally we have a diverse labour market, with new jobs created in the tech and film sector along with good paying jobs in healthcare and construction.
“Strong inward migration, construction starts, and a healthy first time buyer market is indicative of the early stage of a real estate boom,” he adds.
Adding to the micro-market analysis of 15 neighbourhoods, The Vantage Report also offers a market-wide analysis and future forecast, including a look at the market impact of the lakeshore flooding.
The full report is available from Vantage West Realty Group or online at thevantagereport.com
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