It is not easy being a Realtor at the moment. Clients like to hear your forecast and market predictions and yet we are living in a time of instability and unpredictability from a global perspective that is confusing many learned economists.

If your Realtor looks at the most recent board stats, then they will be able to advise you that listing periods are significantly longer than last year, the number of listings are up significantly and prices are remaining relatively stable.

What is interesting about the present market place is how many people are "testing the waters" with a listing. There is a saying that a rising tide floats all ships, that, however was last year and perhaps it was an extreme "spring tide" but now is not the time to test the water. If you don't need to sell, hold on for a while, the results may surprise you.

In my articles, a few people have said that I focus on resorts and tourism and less on real estate. I find the opposite to be true. Resorts and tourism is the future of the valley outside of an service industry for an aging population. As tourism increases, so will the pace and value of real estate, across the board.

If you were a major developer looking for a place to start your next real estate project, you would typically look at key indicators such as job statistics, in bound migration, tourism demand for the region, transportation access, vacancy rates and one or two other key parameters. If you analyze the Okanagan, it gets positive check marks in most of these columns. As we deal with the present challenges of a US economy that will get worse before it gets better and oil prices that as we have maintained, are yet to surface at a consumer level with the price of almost all goods, not just the price at the pump we will also see that this area is a magnificent area to spend the rest of your life in retirement or for recreation.

The upside for you as a "retail" real estate client is that I believe that financing in the development industry is going to be difficult to access for more than a few months. We have already seen a few new developments go on hold and a few more will follow. The good news is the appetite for buying here will remain. I would expect sales volumes and values to increase over the summer months as people make critical buying decisions, particularly in the more balanced market we have today. That will have a positive impact on the resale market that we have all been watching so carefully.

We are also seeing investments in attractive tourism properties, destinations. The Grand Hotel is rumored to be in the final throws of discussions with Delta Hotels who would no doubt have plans to turn the property into a flag ship resort hotel for them. Marriott has been looking at the Vintage Landing project for a possible Ritz Carlton location and there are rumors of Fairmont Hotels looking at the region also. One of our first articles we posted to Castanet had to do with the evolution of branded hotels in Kelowna. This is part of (and a very important part) Kelowna's transition to a tourism economy. With it comes an increased awareness of the region and all it has to offer, better occupancies in the hotels and more in bound migration as a result. There are rumours of a major alliance in the works at Mount Baldy, the areas newly expanded ski operation.

In my office, activity has picked up considerably, not that it needed to. In terms of sales activity, we are almost a mirror image of last years activity, however, the summer season is upon us and Albertan's are traveling again with a view to spending a nice vacation here this year and perhaps for many more years into the future.

Kelowna is known for sun and warmth, something that retirees are attracted to in many instances. Remember that if a retiree is looking to buy and has perhaps 20 years productive life remaining, giving up a buying opportunity this summer is like saying goodbye to 5% of warm summers, that is a significant reduction in quality of life in my mind. The only downside to the Alberta migration to BC is the Alberta governments recent royalty program which is having a marked impact on corporate activity in Alberta, with corporations choosing to headquarter in Texas which has always had very strong ties with our cousins to the East.

Overall, CMHC is still predicting gentle appreciation and our feeling is that the Okanagan will fair will this year in comparison to other major urban markets across Canada.

I hope you are enjoying the summer. It won't last too long and neither will the slow down in the housing markets.