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Is the Kamloops housing market turning a corner?

It all depends on how you want to look at it.

Yes, home sales in Kamloops were up in February compared to January.

And, the benchmark selling prices of single-family homes, townhouses and condominiums in the city climbed slightly last month compared to January.

That's good news and indicates the local housing market may have bottomed out and is now stabilizing.

However, if you're comparing to boomtime February 2022, February 2023's sales are down by over 50% and prices are well off the record highs set last spring.

So, it's all relative.

Baby steps for now while the frenzied pace of sales and price escalations are well in the rear view mirror.

</who>This three-bedroom, two-bathroom house on Invermere Place in Kamloops is listed for sale for $609,900, which is a little less than the $615,500 benchmark selling price of a typical single-family home in Kamloops in February.

"The uptick in sales activity compared to the previous month suggests that we are heading in a positive direction," said Lyndi Cruickshank, president of the 2,600-member Association of Interior Realtors.

"The overstimulated boom of the last few years, along with multiple mortgage rate hike made many buyers and sellers hesitant to make any moves. Now that the dust is starting to settle, these buyers and sellers can move forward in a transitionally healthier real estate market more reminiscent of pre-pandemic conditions."

Let's put this all into numbers, according to the Association of Interior Realtors.

In Kamloops last month, 89 single-family homes sold, up from 61 in January, but still a 49% plummet from the number of sales in February 2022 when the market was red-hot.

The benchmark selling price of a typical single-family home in February in Kamloops was $615,500, up slightly from $605,100 in January, but a $205,490 plunge from the record-high of $820,990 in June 2022.

For townhouses, last month there were only 14 sales, down from 18 of January and down a whopping 66% from February 2022.

The benchmark selling price of a typical townhouse in Kamloops in February was $520,600, up a bit from the $511,700 in January, but down from the record-high of $569,400 set in the spring of 2022.

When it comes to condos, there were only 25 sales in February, up from an even-more-sluggish 11 in January, and half of the number of sales in February 2022.

The benchmark selling price of a typical condo in Kamloops popped up to $354,000 in February from $336,400 in January, but still well off the record-high of $403,323 in June 2022.

Despite prices softening from last spring's pinnacle, Kamloops is still unaffordable for many.

That's why there's still no rush to buy homes that have been discounted.

Another sign of sales picking up is the reduced average number of days it takes to sell a property.

In February that was 61 days for single-family homes, down from 70 in January.

For townhouses, last month it was 43 days, down from 72 in January.

However, for condos, in February it took 65 sales to sell, up from 47 in January.

When the market was hot last spring, most homes sold within a month of being listed, often for more than list price because there were multiple bidders.



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