The rest of of Canada have had a good 2015 in the real estate sector, particularly Vancouver and Toronto, but Prince George B.C. cannot be left behind either and it continued go grow over 2015, both in price and the number of sales recorded. The trend is seen to continue even this year.
According to princegeorgecitizen.com, based on the B.C. Northern Real Estate Board, single family homes in the city sold for $284,611 on average, according to year-end numbers, up $13,0131 or 4.8 per cent from 2014. During such period, 976 such homes were sold, an increase of 26 sales or 2.7 per cent over 2014. Meaning to say, it adds up to a market of $278 million, an increase of $19.8 million or 7.7 per cent.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said with the rest of the region. For example, in Fort St. John, the price is averaging at $425,083, up $6,437 or 1.5 per cent, however, 156 fewer sales were made, representing a 37-per-cent decline to 266 in 2015. It means the market in that city dropped 36 per cent, to $113 million last year from $177 million the year before.
The average price dropped $19,422 or 6.1 per cent, to $298,624, while there were just four more sales than there were in 2014 in Kitimat, one of the areas hit the hardest.
BCNREB past president Ken Laursen said, "Prince George is a little more diversified than the rest of our board area. The rest of our board area, when you take a look and think about it, is very commodity dependent. Here in Prince George, being the biggest centre of the board, we have health care, we have the university, we're still a break and bulk area, so we're still seeing slow and steady growth."
She added, "B.C. is still going to lead the country in growth. A lot of that is going to be down in the Lower Mainland, the bigger centre. But I take that and say 'you know what, that's Prince George. It's kind of like the Lower Mainland of northern B.C. So we'll see slow steady growth, maybe not as much as previous years, but still anticipate things moving ahead."
Based on properties of all types, 1,442 properties worth $377 million were sold in 2015, compared with 1449 properties worth $355.5 million in 2014. By the end of last year, there were 481 properties of all types available through the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) compared to 556 properties at the end of 2014.
It would have been better if the neighboring areas have fared as well as Prince George.
