Housing boom expected to continue well into 2022 in Northern BC

“It was a really really strong year for sales up about 30%, prices up about 15 percent,, and a lot of momentum heading into 2022,” said Brendon Ogmundson, Chief Economist for the BC Real Estate Association on activity in the northern half of the province.

According to the BCNREB, while new listings have remained steady throughout 2021 compared to prior years, very high sales activity drove active listings to the lowest level since records begin in 2000.

These factors drove the sales to active listings ratio to record highs in 2021, surpassing the frenetic market activity for 2005-06, reaching a record of 40% in March. This, in turn, caused the average sale price in northern BC to surge 17.6% from $325,615 in 2020 to $382,786 in 2021.

Ogmundson said he expects the market to continue booming for at least the early part of 2022 before an increase in interest rates or an end to the pandemic trend of more people than ever moving away from bigger city centres settles things down.

All of these factors impact supply, which is currently being outpaced by demand and has been for quite some time.

Housing markets across the north ended the year with sales trending about 25 percent above long-term average levels, pointing to a fast start to 2022. Unfortunately, the region will also start the year with extremely low supply, which means continued upward pressure on home prices.

As far as any relief for homebuyers, don’t expect any in a big way until 2023 according to Ogmundson.

by Caden Fanshaw

Housing boom expected to continue well into 2022 in Northern BC

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