OUCH!  A Slowing Market and Forest Fires Hit Market Hard

Items of Note for September:

• Only 98 Unit Sales - If we go back all the way to 2002 the only Sept with lower sales was in 2008 (88).
• Active Listings are finally getting back to normal - only 8% below the 10 Year Average   
• The overall North Okanagan market entered into a Buyers Market.

Unit Sales With only 98 Unit Sales Sept was down 18% from last year (120) and was 42% below the 10 Year Average of 169 Unit Sales.  Sept sales were also down significantly from Aug sales (98 vs146).  And if we go back all the way to 2002 the only Sept with lower sales was in 2008 (88).

Median Sales Price

• Sept Median Selling Price was $595,000.  That is up slightly from Aug's $592,500 but down 3% from Sept 2022 ($615,000).

Benchmark Price for Single Family homes and Townhomes down 3 months in a row .

• Benchmark Price for Single Family homes in Sept was down 4.5% from Aug ($728,100 vs $763,100) and down slightly from 2022 ($728,100). 
• Townhome prices were down 4.6% from Aug ($549,800 vs $576,400).  The $549,800 is lower then the previous 21 month low of $551,100 in January (which seems highly questionable based on current selling prices so possibly a misprint).
• Condo prices were down 8% from Aug ($321,500 vs 350,400) and down slightly from 2022 ($321,500)

The number of Active Listings is up 25% from 2022 (903 vs 720) and is only 8% below the 10 year average of 982.

New Listings hitting the market were up 19% Year-over-Year (268 vs 225) and up 11% over the 10 year average (242).

The overall North Okanagan market has slipped into a Buyer's Market.
The Sales to Active Listings ratio is 11% (down from 17% in Aug). Between 12-25% is considered a Balanced Market.
The Sales to New Listing ratio is 37% (down from 56% in Aug).  Between 40-60% is considered a Balanced Market.

Days to Sell Average is a low 70 days.  While this is up from 59 in Aug and 48 in Sept 2022 the Days to Sell average is still quite low historically.


Central Okanagan

Sales continued to be slow in the Central Okanagan as well.  Sept's 264 Unit Sales is 43% below the 10 year average of 465 for Sept.  Both Sept and Aug saw10-year lows for Unit Sales for their respective months.

Sept saw 956 New Listings hit the market (a ten year high for the month of Sept) which is 22% above the 10 year average of 785. 

And the 2516 current Active Listings is 14% above the 10 year average of 2214.

With a Sales to Active Listings ratio of 10% and Sales to New Listings ratio of 28% the Central OK is in a Buyer's Market.  

The Benchmark Price for Single Family homes in the Central Okanagan is currently $1,006,300 which is down 6% from Aug ($1,068,600).
The Benchmark Price for Townhomes decreased 3%, while Condo prices decreased 8% from August.

Conclusion

September brought very slow sales and plenty of new listings.  In the North Okanagan that translated into Active Listing levels almost getting back to normal (which has been a long time coming).  And the Benchmark Price for Single Family homes continued to soften since peaking in June (down about 7%). 

In the Central Okanagan the number of Active Listings is well above average while Single Family home prices finally cooled down after being in the $1,050,000 - $1,070,000 range since April.

How much were September numbers influenced by all the wildfires in the area?  The market had been slowing down since June, however it does appear that wildfires, smoke and travel bans to Okanagan likely had a major impact on the real estate market.  October should give us a better understanding of how much of the slow down were market driven and how much was due to fires.

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