Ok, this is going to be complicated.
The Association of Interior Realtors has changed the way it tracks the typical price of homes sold in the South Okanagan, favouring a benchmark system rather than average or median.
What does this mean?
Well, the benchmark price of a typical single-family home in the South Okanagan in April was $490,000, whereas the average in March was a whopping $804,000.
Prices have not plummeted in Penticton and area, in fact, it's quite the opposite, the market is hot and sales and prices are on the rise.
However, the way price statistics are collected and reported has changed.
The Association of Interior Realtors, which formed Jan. 1 through an amalgamation of the Okanagan Mainline and South Okanagan real estate boards, has made the move for all the regions in the province it covers.
Benchmark is considered a better representation because it sets a value on a house, townhouse or condo with typical attributes in the city.
Average price is now considered misleading because a few atypical sales of multi-million dollar homes can skew the average higher.
That's how the benchmark value of a typical single-family home in Penticton in April ended up at $490,000, rather than closer to the $804,000 average of March.
The $490,000 is estimated to be an 18 % increase over the benchmark price in April 2020.
The benchmarks for a townhouse, at $419,000, and a condominium, at $327,800, are also on the rise at 19% and 7%, respectively.
In total, 259 homes of all kinds sold in the South Okanagan last month, a huge jump from April 2020.
To be fair, April 2020 was the start of the pandemic and house sales plummeted quickly.
But since then, sales have accelerated at an astounding rate.
Amid uncertainty, house prices stalled when COVID hit, but quickly started to leapfrog.
Mortgage interest rates are rock bottom, giving people the confidence to take on purchase if they have a good-paying job or income from investments.
Plus, the pandemic forced introspection on many with some of them deciding they needed a bigger and better place, fueling demand for homes and driving up prices.
As well, that same introspection led some people in big cities like Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto to move to smaller, lifestyle cities like Penticton for better quality of life, especially if they are allowed to work from home because of COVID.
All this means homes for sale are being snapped up quickly, often after a bidding with the ultimate buyer paying over the list price.
This has also led to a shortage of home on the market.
"Currently supply is still not catching up to demand. We are in a supply drought when it comes to listings," said Kim Heizmann, president of the 1,600-member Association of Interior Realtors.
"Despite the supply drought, the market remains strong and is starting to rationalize. With vaccine rollouts underway, once more and more people get vaccinated and we get some mobility and comfort back, hopefully we will see more homes come on market."
