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Housing Markets Still Hot

Posted On: 2008-06-04

Housing market still hot
by Marshall Jones - Story: 34397
Oct 14, 2007 / 1:00 pm

The Central Okanagan housing market continues to show no signs of cooling down.

Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board figures for the month of September show another double-digit increase in sales over the same time last year.

Brenda Moshansky, director of communications, says the 25 per cent rise in total dollar sales is just another typically atypical month for the area. She sees no end in sight to this growth in real estate.

“A peak is when it stops growing and we don’t see that in sight,” she says. “Next year we forecast substantially lower growth at eight to nine per cent increase in pricing, so if that is substantiated that would be a tremendous moderation, but we had predicted much lower numbers this year and we have broken all of those.”

She said the Central Okanagan is being fuelled by solid demand, not speculation, as the area has become established as a lifestyle destination for Albertans, other British Columbians and even an influx from the U.S. and Europe.

That makes the area rather independent from national and even provincial market factors. But the rise in home prices is creating a vicious circle.

New housing starts are expected to decrease sharply next year because of the labour shortage and—not surprisingly—a lack of affordable housing for construction workers.

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