Did Your Home Lose Value?

Central Okanagan Sales Fell in August. Is Your Home Worth Less?

Short answer: Not necessarily. Central Okanagan residential sales were down 9.4% from August 2025, but active listings were also down 12.5% and new listings were down 17%. Detached benchmark pricing was almost unchanged, while townhomes and condos weakened. The useful question is not whether "the market" fell. It is what buyers are doing with homes like yours.

There is a question I expect more homeowners to ask after seeing the August numbers.

Sales are down. Does that mean my home is worth less?

It sounds logical.

But I would not make that conclusion from the sales number alone.

Central Okanagan residential sales fell to 327 in August, down 9.4% from the same month last year.

At the same time, active listings fell 12.5% to 2,925.

New listings dropped 17%.

So demand weakened.

Supply weakened too.

That matters.

The August headline is only part of the story

Here is the broad Central Okanagan comparison:

Source: Association of Interior REALTORS®. The residential total includes several housing types and excludes land.

If sales were falling while listings were growing quickly, I would be more concerned about sellers losing negotiating power across the board.

That was not the year-over-year setup in August.

There were fewer buyers completing purchases.

There were also fewer homes competing for those buyers.

What you own matters more than the overall number

This becomes clearer when we separate property types.

The AIR single-family benchmark excludes lakefront and acreage properties.

That table tells a much better story than the overall sales count.

Detached sales fell almost 10%.

Yet the benchmark price barely moved.

One possible reason is supply. Detached inventory was down almost 19%.

Townhouses were different. Inventory was nearly unchanged, while the benchmark price fell 3.3%.

Condos were different again. The benchmark price was down 5.5%.

Same Central Okanagan market.

Very different outcomes.

This is why the average homeowner can get the market wrong

Suppose you own a detached home.

You see sales down 9.4% and assume you need to reduce your price expectations by something similar.

That would be a mistake.

Now suppose you own a condo.

You look at the detached benchmark and assume values are holding everywhere.

That could be a mistake too.

The broad market tells you what is happening around you.

It does not tell you what your home is worth.

For that, I would want to know:

• What property type do you own?
• What price band are you in?
• What neighbourhood are you competing in?
• How many similar homes are available?
• What have comparable homes actually sold for?
• Are buyers rejecting your segment or simply taking longer?

Homes are taking longer to sell

There is one August number sellers should pay attention to.

Time.

AIR reported average selling times of:

• 60 days for single-family homes
• 64 days for townhomes
• 79 days for condos

All three were longer than a year earlier.

That tells me buyers have become more patient.

They are comparing.

They are rejecting homes they feel are overpriced.

And they may wait rather than force a purchase.

For sellers, that makes initial positioning more important.

Not because you need to underprice your home.

Because buyers have more time to decide whether your price makes sense.

A long listing period does not automatically mean the price is wrong

Days on market is information.

It is not the entire answer.

A home may take longer because:

• the price is too high
• condition does not match the price
• there are better substitutes
• the layout has a smaller buyer pool
• the property's price band is moving slowly
• the right buyer simply has not appeared yet

The first question I would ask is not:

How many days has it been listed?

It is:

Why have buyers not chosen it yet?

That distinction can save a seller from making the wrong adjustment.

Small neighbourhood numbers need even more caution

The AIR report also publishes benchmark prices for individual Central Okanagan areas.

For detached homes in August:

• Black Mountain was up 2.4%
• Lower Mission was up 2.0%
• Wilden was up 2.4%
• Westbank Centre was down 4.5%
• Springfield/Spall was down 12.7%

Those numbers show how differently areas can move.

But monthly neighbourhood sales samples can be small.

I would not use one neighbourhood percentage to price a home.

It is context.

Recent comparable properties remain much more important.

What would concern me as a seller?

I would become more cautious if several things happened together:

Inventory starts rising.

Sales continue falling.

Days on market keep climbing.

Price reductions become more common.

And comparable properties begin selling below previous support levels.

That would tell me supply and demand were moving more clearly against sellers.

August did not show that entire pattern.

Yet.

What would support sellers?

The opposite matters too.

If inventory continues thinning into fall and winter while demand stays reasonably steady, sellers of scarce or well-positioned homes may face less direct competition.

That does not mean every home becomes easier to sell.

It means the amount of competing supply matters.

A strong property in a thin segment can behave very differently from the overall market.

What I would do before deciding whether to sell

I would ignore the broad headline for a moment.

Then I would narrow the market down.

Start with your property type.

Then price range.

Then neighbourhood.

Then condition.

Then look at the homes a buyer would realistically choose instead of yours.

That is your market.

Not all 2,925 listings.

My takeaway

August was slower.

But slower sales did not produce the same result everywhere.

Detached benchmark prices held relatively steady.

Townhomes softened.

Condos softened more.

Inventory also contracted.

So if you are thinking about selling, I would not ask:

Is the Central Okanagan market down?

I would ask:

What are buyers doing with homes like mine?

That answer is much more useful.

If you want me to run that comparison on your property, send me the address.

I can look at the homes buyers would actually compare yours against, the recent sales, current competition and where I think the real pricing range sits.

Mark Coons, BBA, CE
PERSONAL REALTOR CORPORATION® | eXp Realty Kelowna
Team Lead, Selling Okanagan Group
Relocated to Kelowna in 2018
📞 778-946-6454
📩 [email protected]