by Tad Lake 
Continuing on the high demand and low supply trend, the Nelson real estate market will continue to see houses price rises and a supply of listings remaining low.
Homes in the West Kootenay’s area are selling for the initial listing prices, with even several houses going for a higher price than what it was listed for with multiple offers scenarios happening more and more.
The President of Kootenay Association of Realtors, Chuck Bennett, says there is no sign that the trend will slow down in the near future. Although the average home prices haven’t seen a significant spike upward, they will continue to rise consistently.
“This tells me that we are in a healthy market phase where both, the seller as well as the buyer, can derive high value for their real estate decisions,” says Bennett. ”The big jump in year-to-date sales, however, can be attributed to the fact that post-pandemic, the Kootenay region has indeed become an attractive destination for home buyers in BC.”
In the Kootenay region alone, sales were up by 63.8% in February 2021 with CA$28,268,540 compared to last year’s sales of the same month of CA$17,247,983 for sales volume.
The Year-to-date Kootenay MLSⓇ residential sales in March 2021 was CA$372.9 million, a 102.4% increase compared to last year’s first three months sum. The MLSⓇ residential unit sales were up as well, with a 60.8% increase at 875 units sold year-to-date. Part of this increase can largely be attributed to the pandemic effect on businesses having to shut down temporarily and many citizens putting the project of selling their homes on ice as Covid-19 hit the country earlier last year. In the first week of April 2021, there were 865 active residential listings available in the Kootenay region, with over 100 MLSⓇ listings in the Nelson area.
What Is a Multiple Listing Service (MLS?)
A multiple listing service (MLS) is a database established by cooperating real estate brokers to provide data about properties for sale. An MLS allows brokers to see one another’s listings of properties for sale to connect home buyers to sellers. Under this arrangement, both the listing and selling broker benefit by consolidating and sharing information and sharing commissions. Source: Investopedia
If we look at the Nelson real estate market numbers specifically, we can see the same trend happening in the average sale price being up
9% at CA$568.750 whilst a smaller uptick in the average listing price at CA$576.000 (4%) for the month of January.
The continued increase in demand for homes combined with a steady increase in sale prices will likely attract new home sellers to the market, but the overwhelming demand is undoubtedly going to keep the supply low and keep the prices high.
Bennett added that “In such a scenario, inventory numbers are bound to be low. As average prices are bound to rise in multiple offer situations, as a realtor, I can attest that this is a good time for the sellers in the market. Which in turn is the reason why we will continue to see more new listings in the market through summer. There is a spike in average prices indeed, but it is more of a consistent rise that we see in healthy markets,”
For a single-family home in the Nelson region, the average time on the market in January 2021 was down 39% at 62.5 days compared to last year’s 103.5 days of the same month.
Earlier this year, Ramaish Shah, a deputy assessor for BC Assessment, addressed the city council of Nelson and said:
“So you are seeing higher list prices, higher sales prices and homes going for almost what they are asking, and taking less time to sell.”
“The Kootenays, in general, have been very attractive to people, whether that’s as a second home or for people re-locating to the Kootenays, and that has brought challenges as well,” said Shah.
The constant increase in price for homes within the city of Nelson might push some buyers to look for options a bit further out on the outskirts of the town.
“But, then again, there’s not much available in the rural market as well,” Shah explained. “Overall, I would see strong demand for homes in the Kootenays, that is likely to continue.”
The short supply of listings available and the demand for homes still on an uptrend, as Shah pointed out, will likely keep the average list price in Nelson high.
