Real estate activity remains strong in the North Okanagan.
A total of 277 units worth $112.4 million were sold in July from Vernon to Enderby, up from 208 units worth $73 million during the same month in 2015.
“The volume of prospective buyers continues to outstrip the number of available properties, and we are unlikely to see much of a shift in market conditions until more product becomes available,” said Anthony Bastiaanssen, Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board president.
For residential sales, there were 138 units sold at $65.4 million in the North Okanagan compared to 114 units at $43 million in July 2015.
The July 2016 statistics were down from June when there were a total of 345 units sold, including 138 residential units.
Results from a June survey of buyers shows that 56 per cent of all purchasers in the valley are from within the Okanagan, with 18 per cent from the Lower Mainland or Vancouver Island and 12 per cent from Alberta.
Bastiaanssen says buyers from the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island have overtaken buyers from Alberta this year, reflecting economic conditions which have been less favourable in Alberta than in B.C.
“Given the recent focus on foreign buyers purchasing real estate elsewhere in the province, it’s worth noting that buyers from outside Canada have also remained relatively constant over the tracking period at around just under or just over two per cent, year over year,” he said.