{"id":9292,"date":"2026-11-07T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/?p=7977519"},"modified":"2026-11-07T18:00:26","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T01:00:26","slug":"court-ordered-home-sales-skyrocket-across-kamloops-okanagan-but-source-elusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/news\/9292\/court-ordered-home-sales-skyrocket-across-kamloops-okanagan-but-source-elusive\/","title":{"rendered":"Court-ordered home sales skyrocket across Kamloops, Okanagan but source elusive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Court-ordered real estate sales in Kelowna increased fourfold in the last five years, and 2026 is on track to go even higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from property search platform Zealty.ca<\/a> shows that court-ordered listings across the Okanagan went from 35 in 2021 to 111 last year. So far this year, up until the beginning of October, there has been 102, showing that it’s likely to surpass last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Southern Interior, Kelowna accounts for most of the court-ordered sales, with the number jumping to 61 in 2025, up from 15 in 2021. Up until the beginning of October, there have been 49 court-ordered sales this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With interest prime lending rates slashed to 2.45% at the onset of COVID and staying low for two years, anyone renewing their mortgage in the last couple of years has had to deal with the higher rates \u2013 currently sitting at 4.7% \u2013 and with those rates come steeper payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone is expecting a raise and most people are shocked that it’s not more,\u201d Vernon mortgage broker Jeremy Schaffner told iNFOnews.ca<\/a>. \u201cI certainly haven\u2019t seen anyone panic-stricken, obviously no one wants their payments to increase, but nobody seems to have been forced to sell or completely refinance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the numbers are clear, Schaffner suggested that growth might be more isolated because he hasn’t seen much doom and gloom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He recently did a renewal on a $620,000 mortgage taken out five years ago. That mortgage now sits at $515,00 and the monthly payment has increased from $2,900 to $3,300. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Court-ordered sales data doesn\u2019t show whether those properties were someone\u2019s home or not but Schaffner suspects speculators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverybody was eager to buy in the upswing and rent out\u2026 then of course the Airbnb ban came in and quashed a lot of that,\u201d he said. “All of a sudden when you can’t rent for $200 a night and it’s got to be $1,500 a month or $2,000 a month, it definitely changes things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the Southern Interior, the median price for a court-ordered sale is $626,500, with 16% of sales involving property over $1 million. Of the 44 Okanagan court-ordered sales that closed this year, 84% sold below their BC Assessment value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The priciest listing this year was a house on Casorso Road in Kelowna, which was listed for $7.9 million in a court-ordered sale and sold for $7.2 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SUBMITTED\/Zealty.ca<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mortgage broker Brock Rodgers deals with clients in the Shuswap and North Okanagan and said he hasn\u2019t seen any dire situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have seen lenders be more competitive with their renewal rates than they’ve ever been,\u201d Brock said. \u201cSimply because it’s a tough market for everyone, including lenders.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He doubts working families are defaulting on debts just because of interest rates. Brock said for anyone whose mortgage is under $500,000 it might be a $100 to $300 increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere’s lots of clients where\u2026 $200 hurts a lot, and there’s a lot of clients\u2026 (where) $400 doesn’t hurt at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes clients can re-amortize, taking their mortgage back to 25 years, but keeping the payments lower. While doing that isn\u2019t ideal, it does take the stress off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appears that most people were expecting it to be worse than it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelowna mortgage broker Daryl French said the vast majority of people renewing their mortgages are actually pleasantly surprised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey’re coming in thinking their payments are going to go up $500 or $1,000,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depending on their mortgage, the reality is often far lower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s been very busy on renewals the last two years and we’re not seeing any problems. Most clients that we’re dealing with are able to make the adjustment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, those with a closed variable mortgage, where the monthly payment stays the same regardless of the interest rate, will be hit the hardest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose are the ones that I think hurt the most\u2026they\u2019ve gone backwards on their amortization and haven’t paid down their mortgage like a conventional mortgage,\u201d French said. \u201cNow instead of having a lower balance and a higher interest rate you’ve got a higher balance and a higher interest rate right, that hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Payments on this type of mortgage are likely to go up substantially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A $7.8M Kelowna property sold in a court-ordered sale for $7.2M. FACEBOOK\/Jane Hoffman Realty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

French, like Schaffner, credits the stress test for keeping people out of trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stress test required all borrowers to qualify at the rate of 5.2% regardless of what the actual rate was. French said he wasn\u2019t supportive of it originally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut you look at today\u2026 we\u2019re now renewing mortgages in that\u2026 mid-4 % range and people qualified at 5.2%,\u201d he said. \u201c(The increase) shouldn’t in theory be a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

French says the court-ordered sales stats don\u2019t show the whole picture, pointing out that in 2021 people in financial trouble could sell their property in a week, so there was no need to go into foreclosure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zealty.ca president Hamidreza Etebarian said province-wide, 2026 has seen more than 1,000 court-ordered sales, the highest in 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt shows that there is issues and there’s problems,\u201d Etebarian said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the financial crisis in 2009, the issue was unemployment affecting working and middle-class people. Now the issue is interest rates, Etebarian said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s a mix of any\u2026 demographic,\u201d Etebarian said. \u201cEven wealthy people are actually struggling because they upgraded too much, they couldn’t afford it and now we\u2019ve seen a mix of investors, individuals, families, rich people, middle-class people, and lower-class people basically struggling with their mortgages\u2026 all because… the rates have gone up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe numbers are\u2026 quite shocking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One piece of government legislation likely helped boost that number by a lot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":9293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"guid":"","_duplicate_post":false,"rank_math_canonical_url":"","source":"","byline":"","published":"","updated":"","_infotelid":"","_prepressid":"","_multisite_post_sync":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1680,541,543],"tags":[],"region":[322,323,324,325],"class_list":["post-9292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-local","category-topnews","region-kamloops","region-kelowna","region-penticton","region-vernon"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/news\/9292\/court-ordered-home-sales-skyrocket-across-kamloops-okanagan-but-source-elusive\/","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Court-ordered home sales skyrocket across Kamloops, Okanagan but source elusive","url":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/news\/9292\/court-ordered-home-sales-skyrocket-across-kamloops-okanagan-but-source-elusive\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/news\/9292\/court-ordered-home-sales-skyrocket-across-kamloops-okanagan-but-source-elusive\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/inhome-IMG_9275.jpeg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/inhome-IMG_9275.jpeg"},"articleSection":"Featured","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Bulmer"}],"creator":["Ben Bulmer"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"iNhome","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-11-08T01:00:00Z","datePublished":"2026-11-08T01:00:00Z","dateModified":"2026-11-08T01:00:26Z"},"rendered":"