The average selling price of a home in the Kamloops region in March rose to $545,915, a 29 per cent bump from $422,673 in February.
According to the Kamloops and District Real Estate Association, the average selling price of single-family and multi-family homes in the region last month hit record levels.
The average selling price of a single-family home in March was $686,216, a 40 per cent increase from March of 2020. There were 201 such sales in the Kamloops region last month. Through the first three months of 2021, there have been 522 sales of single-family homes, with the average selling price, year to date, being $633,905.
On the multi-family home side, the average selling price in March was $412,538, a 16 per cent increase from March 2020. There were 145 units sold last month. Through the first three months of 2021, there have been 377 sales of multi-family homes, with the average selling price, year to date, being $403,374.
The association said the combined sales in March of 372 units was a 104 per cent increase from March 2020. Total sales dollar volume in March stood at $203.1 million, a 164 per cent rise over 2020, which was $76.9 million. There were 651 active listings in the Kamloops region as of April 3.
“It has been a year since we first recorded a drop in sales numbers due to the coronavirus lockdown, and what a year this has been for Kamloops real estate,” Kamloops and District Real Estate Association president Chelsea Mann said. “We’re indeed setting sales records in the region and I don’t see any downtrend in the months to come. With that said, we must also not ignore the fact that this sharp rise in sales figures is relative to a sluggish period in the 2020 market.”
Mann said average prices continue to skyrocket and, at the current rate, unit sales for 2021 will better than any other period the market has ever seen.
“The current real estate market situation in Kamloops can be compared to the one we saw in 2016, where a sudden rise in demand led to a sharp rise in average prices. This year, there is no end for this demand in sight, as increased work from home opportunities is getting more people interested in moving to smaller markets like ours. While numbers suggest that buyers of Kamloops real estate are mostly local, we’re starting to see a shift in this trend and all property types are selling quite fast,” she said.
While 480 new listings were added last month, Mann said inventory continues to be low.
"We’ve been on track to recovery for the last 10 months and, like other regions in the province, we’ve been consistently selling more than we did a year before,” Mann said. “Understandably, this has led to a shortage in inventory.”
