Vernon Foothills

The Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board has released the sales statistics for March 2008. The North Okanagan region (like most other areas in Canada) are showing a slowdown in the number of sales and an increase in number of listings. Anecdotal reports from talking to realtors indicate that this slowdown has continued into April. Active listings in the North Okanagan for March 2008 were up 32% over March 2007 while the number of units sold dropped 30%. I expect we’ll see some downward pressure on prices if this slowing trend continue.

You can get the full results by visiting their site: http://www.omreb.com/index2.htm

The home that we purchased in the foothills happens to have a geothermal heating/cooling system. If you aren’t familiar with geothermal systems you can get an overview of what it is and how it works at BC Hydro’s website

A few of my friends have asked me what my typical energy costs are so I decided I would share some of these costs here so that you can compare against your own.

We have a 5 bedroom house, approx 3000 square ft. in size. We have a gas stove, a gas clothes dryer, 2 gas fireplaces and a gas hot-water tank. We use a ground-source geothermal heat pump to heat and cool our home. During the winter and summer months when our geothermal system is doing a lot of work heating and cooling, our electricity bills are approx $125/month. Our gas usage seems to be fairly consistent year around at roughly $60/month. The only personal comparison that I can make is with our former home located in the lower mainland. It was built in 1998 and is similar in size to our current house but is heated with a high efficiency gas furnace. During the winter months, which are not as cold as Vernon’s, our gas costs alone would reach over $300/month while our electricity usage was typically $70 to $100/month.

If you would like to share your energy usage numbers please post a reply.

The Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board just released their stats report for September 2007. You can get the full results by visiting their site: http://www.omreb.com/index2.htm 

 One interesting thing I found about the report for the North Okanagan is the following:

•  There were 26 active single family listings in the $600K - $1M range in Sept 2007 compared with 6 in Sept 2006.  There were 4 sales in the $600K - $1M range in Sept 2007 compared with 5 sales in Sept 2006.  We have more expensive homes for sales than this time last year but the number of sales remains the same.  With an increase in supply but constant demand its possible we will see some downward pressure on prices in this range but since its just one months worth of data it is a little too early to say for certain.

According to the Daily Courier it took less than one hour for Predator Ridge Golf Resort to sell 14 coach homes last weekend. The homes were priced between $549,999 and $629,000 and overlook the fifth green of the golf course.  You can learn more about Predator Ridge through their website: http://www.predatorridge.com/.

According to the Daily Courier the housing market in the North Okanagan continues to sizzle. Total sales dollars of all property types in the North Okanagan increased in June by 31.56% when compared to June 2006.

Read the full story 

Predator Ridge Golf Club Ltd and Predator Ridge Development Ltd. has been sold to Wesbild Holdings Ltd. Wesbild Holdings Ltd also happens to be the developer of Turtle Mountain so this recent purchase would indicate that they believe strongly in the future of the Okanagan and of Vernon in particular. You can read the full story on Canada.com

Looks like things at Turtle Mountain are taking shape. Four local builders have begun building showhomes up there at the moment and there are 56 lots currently available as part of Phase 1. The builders are: Okanagan Trend West, Dycor Homes, Inspiration Homes and Constructive Concepts

Here’s an interesting article from the Vancouver Sun on environmentally friendly homes. Some of the builders mentioned in the article are building homes here in the Foothills.

I’ve just noticed that the Tri Lake Ridge area in the Foothills has 31 new lots for sale with a price range of $165K - $325K. The area is called Tri Lake Ridge because of the three-lake view: Kalamalka Lake, Okanagan Lake and Swan Lake.  You can obtain more info from the realtors  Patti and Norm Brenner.

According to a story that recently appeared in The Globe and Mail house prices are finally beginning to settle down a little bit. I personally think thats a good thing as the growth we’ve seen in the last few years is certainly not sustainable. The article states that house prices in Vernon have actually not changed at all in the last 6 months.