People are buying houses again in Kamloops

Mortgage interest rate trauma has subsided and consumer confidence is creeping back.

And, as such, potential home buyers have come out of the woodwork in Kamloops.

Plus, it's almost summer, the time most Canadians will make the biggest purchase of their lives and move.

So, as a result, home sales are on the rise while prices figure out what they want to do.

For instance, last month, 233 homes of all kinds (single-family, townhouses and condominiums) sold.

That's up from 159 in April, 172 in March, 128 in February and 90 in January.

However, it's still way off the peak of spring 2021 when the market was red-hot.

Prices aren't on such a straightforward trajectory.

The benchmark selling price of a typical single-family home in Kamloops in May was $633,700, a bit of a drop from the $635,400 it was in April, but up from March's $622,400.

The $633,700 is still well off the record-high of $820,990 in June 2022.

For townhouses, May's benchmark was $524,200, a slip from $542,000 in April and $527,300 in March, but still no where near the $569,400 record-high of spring 2022.

The benchmark selling price of a typical condo in the city in May was $390,600, up from $373,400 in April and $383,300 in March, but still below the $403,323 record-high in June 2022.

"Some buyers seem to have recovered from the rate shock and re-evaluated or have adjusted their expectations of what they desire to more realistic expectations so that they can resume their real estate efforts," said Chelsea Mann, president of the 2,600-member Association of Interior Realtors and a realtor with Century 21 Realty Executives in Kamloops.

"While this is great to see, interest rates are still top of mind for many buyers."

Consumer confidence goes both ways.

So, while potential buyers are thinking of taking the plunge, sellers are willing to list their homes in hopes of a relatively quick sale and a fair price.

In May, the inventory of homes for sale of all types (single-family, townhouse and condo) was 842, up a significant 15% from the same month last year.

What's happened to the real estate market in the past two years is historic.

The pandemic caused people to rethink their lives and some decided to sell up and move to lifestyle havens like Kamloops if they were going to be working from home.

That prompted a spike in sales and prices.

By spring 2022, the boom waned and sales and prices sagged.

They further dropped when inflation reared its ugly head, the price of everything else went up, the bottom fell out of consumer confidence and interest rates were jacked in an effort to tame the runaway train.

Inflation is now scaling back, the housing market has stabilized and people have seemed to accept the new reality and buy or sell a home if they need or want to.

Kamloops is still considered a 'buyers' market' in which potential purchasers can possibly take their time shopping around for a home and likely negotiate the price down.

However, with sales and (sometimes) price increases, it is moving into 'balanced' territory.

"It will be interesting to see if this momentum continues to help bring a more balanced market," said Mann.