What's moving our local real estate market?

Up to 40% of Kelowna area sales come from non-local buyers.

In the past 16 months Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board (OMREB) has been collecting information from its members with regards to where buyers are coming from both geographically and demographically.  OMREB area covers the Central Okanagan, North Okanagan and Shuswap - from Peachland to Revelstoke.

On average since January 2011 to December 2011, home buyers have been coming from:

• within the Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board area (56.47%);
• Alberta (14.90%);
• Lower Mainland/Vancouvers Island (11.13%);
• other areas of BC (8.30%);
• Saskatchewan/Manitoba (3.09%);
• Eastern Canada/Maritimes (3.13%);
• outside Canada (2.37%); and
• Northwest Territories/Yukon* (0%)

*NWT/Yukon first reported Sept 2011 (0.5%)

On average, during 2011:

• move-up buyers accounted for 23.96% of the purchasers;
• first-time buyers comprised 20.84%; .and
• 53.2% of buyer purchases were in Kelowna and West Kelowna!

Here's a graphc look at what buyers are focused on owning in: