A Typical January - Just Slower

North Okanagan Items of Note for January:

• Median Sales Price up Year-over-Year but down big from December's huge gains 
• Unit Sales up 11% Year-over-Year but 32% below 10 Year average
• Overall North Okanagan market moves from Balanced Market to a Buyer's Market

While North Okanagan Unit Sales were up 11% Year-over-Year (61 vs 55), sales are still quite sluggish.  In the past 10 years, in the North Okanagan, only last year saw fewer sales (55) for the month of January.  January 2024 unit sales were 32% below the 10-Year Average of 90 unit sales and 31% below the 23-Year Average of 88 unit sales. 

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• Yearly unit sales hit 10 year low
• Bank of Canada overnight rates starts year at 4.25%, ends at 5%
• Prices up and down (and up?) but all things considered remain surprisingly resilient
• House inventory finally back to normal levels
• 2023 ends in a Balanced Market

Unit Sales

• Total Unit Sales for the year were down 17% from 2022 (1516 vs 1826) 
• Sales 23% below the 10 Year Average (1516 vs 1971)
• 2023 hits 10 year low for Unit Sales

While recording a 10 year low in unit sales may seem unsettling, it probably shouldn't be too surprising given:

• How hot the market was from mid 2020 to March 2022
• How much and how quickly interest rates rose - the central bank raised interest rates 10 times between March, 2022 and July, 2023, bringing its benchmark rate from 0.25% to 5.00% in one of the most aggressive monetary policy tightening campaigns on record.

To give 2023 sales totals a bit of perspective consider that during the 6-year period right before 2014 (2008 thru 2013) yearly sales totals were all lower than the 1516 sales recorded in 2023 (1315, 1462, 1324, 1187, 1308, 1401). 

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