Blog > Housing Inventory Levels are High: South Okanagan Market Update
Welcome to the South Okanagan Market Update. Today is March 9th, 2025. We're looking back to see what's happening as far as February 2025, and then we're going to do a quick overview looking at a few years back and just giving you a display of how the market's changed over the last few years.
We're going to look at inventory levels that display the supply and demand. Here we go. So February 2025, the units sold were 101, active listings 1,111, and that gives us 11 months of inventory. Right now we are seeing a buyer's market with this amount of inventory. If we look back to February 2023, number of units sold. So that's pretty similar to what we're seeing now sales wise. However, the active listings were 748. So that was more of a balanced market. And going back a little bit further, around the COVID time when things were a lot busier, people were heading to the Okanagan from other larger centers. February 2021. Units sold 205, so double what we're seeing right now. However, active listings at that time were only 491. So that, is basically a seller's market and how we get that, inventory value is we look at the number of active listings to the number of units sold, It will give us the number of months. The formula that we use is, eight months of inventory is a buyer's market, (eight plus). Between five and eight months of inventory is depicts a balanced market and less than five months of inventory depicts a seller's market. So you see, we're at 11 months of inventory right now. So that is. Eight plus months of inventory that we've got, due to the number of sales, a buyer's market, uh. February, 2023, there were 7.3 months of inventory and that's between five and eight months, so a balanced market. As far as February, 2021, quite a brisk market, So 205. There we were 2.4 months of inventory. That is less than five months of inventory would depict a seller's market. Stay tuned for the next segment, which is on the home pricing index, where prices have been and where they are now and where they can go. Thanks for watching.
Welcome to the Home Pricing Index section of the South Okanagan Market Update. We're looking at benchmark prices according to the MLS Home Pricing Index. I've taken a few categories here to show you, and dates, time, time frames of course, to show you how the market's been performing here in the South Okanagan.
As far as the beginning, we're looking at starting in the 2021 time frame. And we're going right through to February 2025. We've seen, uh, pricing definitely going up. A little bit of a roller coaster ride here. And then, where we're at when we actually peaked in the South Okanagan, prices peaked around mid-2022. And then, we are a little bit lower today in February 2025 from where we were at that time. So just to give you a quick example here, uh, we're going to take a Osoyoos Rural, which is the top line here. In July 2022, The Home Pricing Index displays $1,310,800 for the benchmark price. And in July 2022, and in February 2025, where we're at right now, $1,140,900. So we have seen a bit of a decline. The same goes for an area here in Penticton. I'm going to focus here down on another area, which is Oliver, and it's the Oliver Single Family homes. In July 2022, we were peaking at $665,100. And as of today, the home pricing index benchmark price is displaying at, $577,500, so that's where we're at today. As far as where prices will go, we don't have a crystal ball, but what we can see here, with the inventory growing, if that, uh, the sales volume doesn't start picking up, we could see some downward pressure on prices as we move into spring, but we'll see, time will tell.
Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next month.
Jeffrey Sefton is an Oliver, BC Real Estate Agent. As a member of the Okanagan Home Team with Real Broker, BC., Jeffrey specializes in residential real estate listings (home sales), and assists people in relocating to the sunny South Okanagan. His primary service areas include Oliver, Osoyoos, Okanagan Falls and Penticton. Don't hesitate to contact Jeffrey to get your home sold for top dollar or to find your next home in the Okanagan.
Jeffrey Sefton
Okanagan Home Team | Real
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