Local representatives of the real estate, banking and construction industries say when it comes to property prices in the Central Okanagan, the current level is likely as low as it will go.

“There were opportunities in January and February to get some good deals,” said Cliff Shillington, owner of Re/Max Kelowna.

“But sellers have recognized the change and adjusted their prices. You can’t steal a property from somebody any more.”

Shillington said unlike a few months ago, sellers are now regularly getting between 90 per cent and 94 per cent of their asking prices. As a result, he said prices are similar to where they were at this time in 2007.

Shillington, along with Central Okanagan Home Builders’ Association president Howard Rensler and Bank of Montreal mortgage specialist Guy Cole, told reporters this week the bottom appears to have been reached in the property market here and sales and sale prices are picking up.

Rensler even went so far as to boldly declare the recession, as far as residential construction in the Central Okanagan is concerned, is over.

“That’s the good news. The bad news is that this is what recovery looks like,” he said.

Like Shillington and Cole, Rensler said the recent downturn in the property market was caused as much by consumer confidence as anything else. And Cole, whose bank organized the media briefing, admitted the gathering was, in part, to address that lack of confidence by consumers.

He said the numbers bear out the “good” news. As an example, he pointed to the fact his mortgage specialists at the bank—throughout the entire Interior—are fielding more calls from people looking for mortgages now than they were a year ago

“It feels good to have the phones ringing off the hook,” he said.

But while the trio tried its best to put a positive spin on a picture that was being painted as pretty bleak up to a month ago, it was not all good news, especially for people looking to get into the property market for the first time here.

While mortgage rates are still low and are expected to stay that way for the foreseeable future and the price of housing has come down somewhat, it is still high, making it tough for first time buyers to realize the dream of owning a single-family home.

Shillington said today, the entry point for many is a condominium.

Rensler sees it a little differently.

He said there will always be pockets of affordable housing, but they may be farther out from Kelowna proper, meaning longer commutes.

He added while that is something that is not unusual in larger centres elsewhere, it will require a change of thinking for many people here.

Bank of Montreal senior economist Sal Guatari, who joined the panel by phone from Toronto, said while house prices have come down across B.C., they are still relatively high in the Kelowna area. He felt prices may have stabilized here and will not likely see the spectacular rises that were experienced over the last four years for some time to come.

As for the amount of housing available here, the local trio feel the market is balancing out from where it was before the downturn in the economy last fall.

Rensler said he believes that the shift in the housing market has also forced construction speculators—people who build individual houses with the express intention of immediately selling them at high prices to make a quick profit—to quit the local market.

“Speculating is for those with deep pockets and white livers,” he said.