The BC Real Estate Association expects housing activity in the north to remain flat for the remainder of 2023.
That’s according to its third-quarter forecast where they project our region will top out at 36 hundred unit sales this year, a 16% decline from 2022.
Economist, Ryan McLaughlin told Vista Radio the north isn’t expected a change in fortunes until next year.
“Prices are expecting a little bit of an uptick next year with things resuming kind of back to their normal course – usually prices rise and that is a good baseline assumption. We are expecting a 4.8% increase in the BC North but that is coming off a basically flat 2023.”
McLaughlin added talk of any interest rate cuts from the Bank of Canada, may not occur until the end of 2024 or mid 2025.
“Interest rates are starting to bite for a lot of people and expectations have been pushed out on how long it will take for interest rates to go back down. There is talk the Bank of Canada will hike interest rates again in September.”
In addition, active listings in the BC Northern Real Estate Board have rebounded nicely since reaching their all-time low of 830 in January of 2022.
McLaughlin mentioned while active listings are at about the 23-hundred mark, we are still seeing too many price jumps for single-family homes.
“That is kind of what has happened over the course of the year so far. We haven’t had phenomenal sales but, we’ve had so few listings that it doesn’t take many sales for the sales to active listings ratio to start rising.”
The average price for a home in Northern BC is expected to reach $415,000 in 2023, pretty much remaining flat when compared to last year ($414,886).
BC’s average home price is predicted to hover around 976 grand.
(With files from Brendan Pawliw-MyPGNow)
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