Housing prices stronger in Okanagan, Kamloops than rest of B.C.

While housing prices fell 11.5% across B.C. in December versus a year earlier, the picture was much better in the Okanagan.

Priced dropped only 2.4% year-over-year to $715,554 for all housing types combined throughout the Okanagan. Kamloops fared worse as prices dropped 14.5% year-over-year to $539,839.

The B.C. average housing sale price was $911,753 in December, according to data released today, Jan. 12, by the B.C. Real Estate Association.

The number of sales in B.C. fell 35.2% in 2022 versus 2021.

READ MORE: What's keeping big, new industrial players from choosing Kamloops and Kelowna

The real estate association’s chief economist said 2022 couldn't match 2021's record pace.

"While strong momentum from the end of 2021 carried through to the first quarter of the year, the pace and degree of Bank of Canada interest rate tightening ultimately precipitated a dramatic shift in the provincial housing market," Brendon Ogmundson said in the release.

A total of 80,874 housing units were sold in B.C. in 2022.

While that’s a huge drop from the 124,788 sold in 2021, it was still higher than the last pre-COVID year of 2019 when 77,331 residential unit sales sold, which was a 1.5% decline from 2018.

The average price in 2019 was $700,460. That’s more than $200,000 less than prices are now.

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