Rebound in BC’s real estate market missing Kamloops and the Okanagan

BC saw real estate sales increases of almost 10% in May compared to last year but the biggest rebound is limited to the Lower Mainland.

“Strong Rebound for BC Home Sales in May” reads the headline on a June 14 BC Real Estate Association news release.

Sales were up 9.9% in BC but were down 3.3% in the Okanagan and up by 3.5% in Kamloops.

Chilliwack had a 72.9% increase, the Fraser Valley was up 26.1% and Greater Vancouver 15.7%.

Those three markets accounted for 5,439 of the province’s 9,191 home sales in May, 59% of the total.

Kamloops and the Okanagan combined for 1,323 sales, or 14% of the market.

The South Peace market saw a drop of almost 60% in sales and Powell River was down 32.5%.

Vancouver Island was up by only 2.3% and Victoria by 2.5%.

READ MORE: Want a good deal on a house in the Thompson-Okanagan? Try Clinton or Keremeos

To put the year-over-year sales in perspective, there were 9,191 in May 2023, 8,214 last year, 12,638 in the red hot 2021 market and only 4,518 during the depths of COVID in May 2020.

In terms of prices, the average for BC was up 3% to $1,019,145 dominated, again, by the Lower Mainland where prices in the Greater Vancouver market averaged more than $1.3 million.

The average in the Okanagan was up 1.3% to $788,379 while prices fell 6.4% in Kamloops to $601,152.

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