October 2016

Homeowners have been taking advantage of the easy development permit process in inner-city Kelowna to build carriage homes on their properties. Known as lane or laneway homes or even granny suites in other Canadian municipalities, carriage homes are detached residences in the back yard of Kelowna homes with entry off the rear lane. Kelowna allowed construction of these homes on private property in 2001 and they continue to grow in popularity. The city was actually the first in the province to allow these smaller homes to be constructed.

The city gives the green light to as many as 40 permits for carriage houses annually. To date Kelowna has more than 425 of these homes in city lane ways. Because the vacancy rate for rental accommodation in the city

Winter in the Okanagan is the reason why so many people from the shivering prairies move or retire to Kelowna.  Our winters are mild.  So mild in fact that many people don’t even own a pair of winter boots.

So mild that there’s a fellow in the Glenmore area that likes to mow his grass on Christmas Day just because he can.

However, if you follow the Farmer’s Almanac, it is predicting that we may just have above average precipitation and that temperatures are going to be colder.  Why not plan for it now?  It may save you time when the flurries hit and aggravation when you can’t find your gloves and winter toque.

Gutters and Downspouts

This is a chore to take care of when most of the leaves have dropped and there are few pine cones falling

It had to happen.  The summer sizzle fizzled throughout September according to the Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board (OMREB) in their monthly sales report released last week.

Sales of residential homes throughout the Okanagan were down last month, from 1,020 in August to 884.  That’s a drop of 13.3% from the previous month but still 25% more than the activity that took place in September 2015.

Board president Anthony Bastiaanssen says usually a slowdown indicates a move towards a more balanced market however considering how the high the temperature was in the market this year; an honest-to-goodness cool down will be very gradual.

Not enough listings and too many people looking

Sales are down but days on the market and selling prices