A slow start to home sales in Kamloops in 2024 didn’t last too long, according to at least one local realtor.
Quinn Pache, with Pache Latta Realty, says reasons for that include interest rate declines and an increase in houses being put up for sale. “As we got into summer and going into fall, just people got a lot more comfortable with the fact that interest rates were dropping and going to continue to drop. And I think that eased a lot of people’s minds to be willing to invest in real estate again, or to make the move that they’ve been wanting to so we saw a really busy fall occur, and that went straight into winter as well.”
Pache says there were more homes hitting the market than past years which has helped the market normalize since the craziness that came with the rock bottom interest rates and low housing stock that were around during the COVID-19 pandemic. “There’s definitely some more stock in the market. And I think people were seeing how other houses were selling, and they were selling really quick in the fall, so they instead of holding out and maybe waiting till the spring, people want to get their house on the market right away. And we’ve seen a lot of those houses sell in the last month and a half.”
“We’re seeing places, depending on their price point, they’re able to sit on the market for 45 to 60 days. However, if they’re priced well, things are still moving quickly,” says Pache.
A total of 2,547 units were sold in the Tournament Capital in 2024. Total sales volume came to $1,535,786,269.
With the recent release of BC Assessment values showing the average single family home in Kamloops was up about 2%, Pache believes that trend is likely to conitnue in the years ahead. “I think the realistic expectation as we go forward, is people are not going to be buying a house one year and selling it the next year for $100,000 [profit] or more, but there’s still going to be these small, incremental increases in Kamloops real estate just as the city naturally expands and more people are moving here.”
“Really what that’s going to come down to is the amount of inventory. So if a lot of people are excited and they want to sell their house and we have a lot of inventory, we’re going to see those prices stay relatively the same as they are right now. However, if inventory shrinks and these new rules come in for the new mortgages and interest rates continue to drop, we can see those prices jump up a little bit more than our normal predictions.”
“Overall, when we look at 2025 I think we’re going to see prices relatively stay the same around that $700,000 mark for a single family home.” The Association of Interior Realtors info graphic for the month of December indicates that the benchmark price for the a single family home in Kamloops and District was $648,100 and took an average of 72 days to sell.
