The number of homes sold through the MLS® System of the South Okanagan Real Estate Board totaled 128 units in March 2019. This was down 28.1% from March 2018 and was a little below the 10-year average for the month.
On a year-to-date basis, home sales totalled 296 units over the first three months of the year a decline of 35.5% from the same period in 2018.
“Looking past the monthly ups and downs, the bigger picture so far in 2019 is one of average supply and average demand, with sales running in between the lows of the 2009-2013 period and the highs of more recent years,” said Dori Lionello, President of the South Okanagan Real Estate Board. “The slowdown in demand that began about a year ago, along with a normalization in supply has put the market back into well balanced territory compared to the sellers’ market conditions of the last few years.”
The average price of homes sold in March 2019 was $380,166, edging up 1.1% from March 2018.
The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $386,023, down 2.6% from the first three months of 2018.
The dollar value of all home sales in March 2019 was $48.7 million, falling 27.3% from the same month in 2018.
There were 334 new residential listings in March 2019, up 3.7% (12 listings) on a year-over-year basis.
Active residential listings numbered 1,158 units at the end of March, up 36.6% from the end of March 2018. The long-term average for supply at this time of the year is a little over 1,200 listings.
Months of inventory numbered 9 at the end of March 2019, up from the 4.8 months recorded at the end of March 2018 and very close to the long-run average of 9.3 months for this time of year. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.
Sales of all property types numbered 142 units in March 2019, a decline of 31.4% from March 2018. The total value of all properties sold was $54.5 million, falling 41.9% from March 2018.
Home sales in the Northern Region numbered 21 units in March 2019. This was an increase of 16.7% (three sales) from March 2018. The average price of homes sold in the Northern Region for March 2019 was $289,977, up 57.7% from March 2018. That said, averages can suffer increased volatility with smaller sample sizes.