You never know quite what you're going to get with Kelowna's apartment rental statistics these days.
After a five-month slide, the median monthly rent for a typical one-bedroom apartment in the city popped up 3.8% to $1,650 from $1,590 in June.
The monthly rent peaked at $1,980 in January and then kept dropping in February, March, April, May and June.
The reason for the slips was that potential renters dug in their heels as rents approached $2,000 a month, saying enough is enough.
Plus, there's been a lot of apartment building construction in Kelowna over the past few years, boosting the number of units available, increasing competition and thus pushing prices down a bit.
The five-month blip contributed to Kelowna plunging from No. 3 on the list of the most expensive places in Canada to rent an apartment to No. 14 in June.
The slight resurgence in July allowed Kelowna to inch up to No. 13.
In the meantime, Kelowna has been leap-frogged by Burnaby, Victoria, Halifax, Ottawa, Kitchener, Calgary, Hamilton, Oshawa, Barrie and London on the list.
The facts and figures come from Zumper, the online platform that lists apartments for rent and also compiles the monthly Canadian Rent Report.
The rankings are based on the median monthly rent for a typical one-bedroom apartment in the 22 cities surveyed.
Vancouver, Toronto, Burnaby and Victoria have consistently been the priciest cities with one-bed rents of $2,800, $2,400, $2,390 and $2,020, respectively, in July.
In fact, Vancouver's $2,800 is an all-time high.
Zumper's rent report also lists two-bed rents, but they aren't used for the rankings, the one-bed rents are.
However, it's interesting to note that the median monthly rent for a typical two-bedroom apartment in Kelowna in July was $2,510, up 6% from $2,370 in June and up 9% from what it was in July 2022.
That actually makes Kelowna the fifth most expensive city in the country to rent a two-bed.
The July increases may be a sign of things to come as UBC Okanagan and Okanagan College students start to return to the city this month and search for an apartment in order to start classes next month.
The increased competition from students, combined with the usual September-back-to-normal could keep rents on the rise.
This again brings us to Kelowna's housing unaffordability.
Apartment rents at $1,650 a month for a one-bed and $2,510 for a two-bed are out of reach for many low-and-middle income earners or students or seniors on a fixed income.
That means some people who might want their own place or a bigger and better apartment end up staying where they are because they can't afford it.
Staying put may mean being stuck in a smaller, cheaper place, sharing with roommates or continuing to live with mom and dad.
You'll see on the chart below the 10 most expensive cities in Canada to rent a one-bedroom apartment.
Conversely, the cheapest cities to rent a one-bed are Edmonton and Saskatoon at $1,130 a month, Regina at $1,160 and Winnipeg at $1,200.
The full Canadian National Rent Report is here: https://www.zumper.com/blog/rental-price-data-canada
