Vernon Foothills

The Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board has released their statistics for September 2008. Here are some highlights:

•  The average price of residential real estate in the North Okanagan region dropped almost 7% when compared to September 2007. Most of this drop, however, is in specific segments, namely recreational and residential with farm. In Sep. 2007 the average price of a recreational property was $692,500 compared to $277,500 for Sep. 2008.
• The number of active listings in the North Okanagan region currently stands at 9847 which represents an almost 22 month supply of real estate.
• There were 507 active lot listings in the North Okanagan region in Sept 2008 and only eight of those sold. At that rate of selling it will take over five years to deplete the inventory of lots.

Overall the market continues to favour the buyer and we can expect further price declines to occur.

A gas line and phone line were ruptured today just below the Foothills area. The incident occured sometime before noon. The ruptured gas line could be heard making a very loud hiss and gas could be smelled throughout the Foothills area.

Telus is currently installing fibre in the Foothills. It looks like their plan is to offer fibre right to our doors which will allow them to offer all sorts of new services like Telus TV and much higher internet speeds.  I’ve heard rumours that Telus will begin offering services over this new fibre sometime around June 2009.

I have just finished perusing the latest stats from the Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board. Here’s a breakdown of some of that data:

•  There are close to 10,000 active listings in the North Okanagan
• There were approximately 500 units sold in each of July and August 2008, which is roughly half the volume of July and August 2007.
• The above translates into a roughly 20 month supply of real estate.
•  recreational properties were hit hard in 2008. 8 units have sold so far this year compared to 27 during the same period in 2007.
• 9 lots sold in August 2008. The current inventory is at 497.  At that pace it will take over 4 years to sell existing inventory and there are many lots continuing to be developed in the North Okanagan. 
• average price of a detached single family house is still up about 8% so far in 2008 compared to same period in 2007.
• There are 146 active residential listings over $1 million dollars. Only 3 sales were made in that category in August 2008 (5 in July). 

Conclusion: Prices will be coming down. If you are a buyer, take your time. 

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