By Cheryl Jahn

November housing numbers decreasing

Dec 14, 2022 | 1:38 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The BC Real Estate Board has released its numbers for the past November over November a year ago.

For Northern BC, the number of units sold has dropped by nearly 42 percent. Remarkably, the average price in Northern BC didn’t see much of a reduction. It’s the only region in BC that didn’t have house prices drop. And the decrease in sales is below the provincial average. Given the red-hot housing market a year ago, that’s not a surprise.

“No, I mean, it’s not a big surprise,” says Breanne Cote, Vice President of the Northern BC Real Estate Board. “Last year was, you know, an unusual year. Record-setting in some regard. Last November was particularly busy. Normally in Prince George, we see a good slowdown in November, December, January, February, because with the weather last November, we didn’t see that so much. So being down from last November is no big surprise.”

Cote says Northern BC Board covers a massive area. Fom 100 Mile House to Prince Rupert, north to Fort St. John. And the numbers vary wildly. So some of the local numbers,

“I mean, in Prince George’s area last year, for the year 2021 sales, in November, we had about 150. And this year we have about 80. So we are down. But, you know, that’s to be expected. On average, we have about 100, 110 sales in November. So, you know, the 150 last year was unusual. The 80 this year is unusual, but we’re just kind of getting back into that more of a balanced market that we like to see in Prince George.”

Crime

Mounties search for man wanted on break and enter charges

5h ago

Traffic Enforcement

Police focus on slowing those with a lead foot in new ICBC campaign

5h ago

Plastics pollution

Single use plastics ban, a good start but doesn't go far enough says REAPS

17h ago

Housing is often reflective of the health of the economy and the slowdown province-wide is a direct result of the Bank of Canada raising interest rates and general apprehension about the economy. But Northern BC is bucking the trend when it comes to housing prices.

“Prices in our region, in B.C., northern region and in Prince George are still kind of holding pretty steady. Some of the province has seen a little bit of a decline in prices. But in the Prince George region, we are still slightly above what we were last year, and that’s probably just due to supply and demand and just there’s no inventory.”

The average selling price dropped by a whopping 17 percent in the Fraser Valley and 8 percent in Victoria.