Courtenay is the largest community in the Comox Valley. It was home to 25,599 people according to the 2016 Census and it has been growing constantly since then. Naturally is would be expected to be, and does, drive the Comox Valley real estate market. This city accounted for 53.3% of the single-family homes sales in this region this year while comprising 38% of the population.
From a real estate perspective, there are five subareas in the City of Courtenay. These are Courtenay East with 18.4% of single-family home sales, Courtenay City with 18.1%, Courtenay South with 4.7%, Courtenay North with 4.4% and Courtenay West with 3.2%. Crown Isle adds another 4.5% and it is located in Courtenay East. The total volume of homes that changed hands this year is down a bit from last year but prices are up over last year. For example, Courtenay single-family home prices rose from an average of around $540,000 in November 2018 to about 580,000 in November 2019.
Courtenay City is essentially the downtown core area of the city and there were 11 single family homes listed in November 2019 compared to 25 the year prior. Sales of this home type in this area were comparable between the two year with 10 sold in November 2018 compared to 11 in 2019. Days to Sell rose from 30 to 60 days. Courtenay East is located to the East of the Courtenay River and beyond the agricultural land located between Back Road and Comox Avenue. There were 7 single-family homes listed in November 2019 compared to 12 the year prior and fewer homes of this type were sold (8 compared to 12 the year prior). Courtenay North, in November 2019 had one home listed and 2 sold compared to 2 and 4 the year prior. The numbers for Courtenay South were 2 listed 1 sold in November 2019 compared to 4 listed and 1 sold in the same month the year before. As one can see from some of these numbers they are recorded in small in some areas and, as a result, one should be careful not to draw any conclusions based on a month or two of sales in some of the smaller areas. There are knowledgeable local area real estate experts who know the real estate market in the City of Courtenay and they can interpolate and extract information on the local market and its trends.
Besides listings sales. and price, other important home statistics include days to sell and inventory. These statistics often vary by area and home type. For example, the median selling price of a condo (apartment style) in the Comox Valley in November 2019 was 250,000 and they took an average of 94 days to sell compared to a year prior when they only took 37 days to sell. In contrast, single family homes took only slightly longer to sell in 2019 compared to 2018. Clearly, there are a significant number of statistics with which to analyze the Courtenay real estate market and one must be careful not to misinterpret what the market is actually telling us.