It's never good to be pegged as an 'underperformer'.

Yet, that's exactly what the Kelowna housing market is, according to Francis Braam, the broker-owner of Royal LePage Kelowna.

"Definitely, Kelowna is underperforming," he said.

"Sales are 45% off their peak. When it goes south in Kelowna, it goes south hard. But, when it comes back, it comes back hard, too."

That begs the question: When does it come back hard?

Braam admitted he doesn't have a crystal ball, but he said the comeback won't be this year or early next.

Photo credit: Royal LePageFrancis Braam is the broker-owner of Royal LePage Kelowna.

Braam made his comments as Royal LePage released its Q3 Home Price Update & Market Forecast.

The report covers 66 communities across Canada, but, we'll zone in on Kelowna.

In the third quarter of this year — the period covering July, August and September — the median price of a typical single-family in Kelowna was $1,104,600, down 1.3% or $13,000 from the $1,119,600 it was a year earlier.

The same comparison for a typical condominium reveals a 4.1% increase to $483,800 from $464,800.

Photo credit: Royal LePageOver the past year, the price of a single-family home in Kelowna has dipped a bit, the price of a condominium inched up.

"I don't think prices will move in Q4 and next year," said Braam.

"Potential buyers are waiting for mortgage interest rates to drop more before they take action."

Mortgage interest rates have declined slightly three times already this year and are expected to come down gradually for the rest of the year and into next.

While lower rates may prompt some fence-sitting potential buyers to pull the trigger, it won't be enough to push prices up, according to Braam.

Plus, there's lots of people that would like to buy, but don't qualify for a mortgage, so they'll continue as renters not buyers.

Braam said the real price correction in Kelowna was over two year ago when the average selling price of a single-family home hit a record-high of $1,250,000 in March 2022 and then plunged to $1,050,000 by September 2022.

Remember what Braam said about when Kelowna goes south, it goes south hard.

That loss in value of $200,000 in just three months set Kelowna up for the next two years because prices have essentially flatlined since.

"Don't get me wrong, Kelowna is still unaffordable even with that big adjustment," said Braam.

"And it looks like it will stay that way because prices have held tough for the past two years and will likely stay the same for at least the next while."

Thus said, Braam indicated there are still pockets of activity in the market.

"Lower-priced condos are moving, expensive ones are not," he said.

"And if you need a place to live and you qualify for a mortgage, people are buying houses."

However, there continues to be a lot of fence sitting and wait-and-see.

"Overall, we're three million homes short in this country," Braam pointed out.

"So people will have to continue to buy homes and prices will stay the same or go up eventually."

Some of the biggest single-family house price gains in the country over the past year were seen in Richmond Hill, Ontario (up 11% to $1,760,000), Quebec City (up 11% to $413,400) and Red Deer (up 10.8% to $516,900).

Cities with slight declines like Kelowna, include Whitby, Ontario (off 1.7% to $1,071,700), Toronto (down 1.3% tp $1,672,000) and Vancouver (a dip of 1.1% to $2,244,000).