The average selling price of a single-family home here has climbed 26 per cent in the last year, indicate Multiple Listing Service (MLS) figures released by the BC Northern Real Estate Board.
As of the end of March, the average price broke the $400,000 barrier, rising to $439,154, considerably more than the $346,886 price at the end of March 2020 and the $376,626 as at the end of March 2019.
The number of single-family home sales also increased — from 29 for the January to March 2019 period to 33 this January to March. In 2019, 26 homes sold in the first three months of that year.
Additionally, four manufactured homes in parks and two manufactured homes on other land parcels sold in the first three months of this year.
In all, 69 properties sold through MLS in the first three months of this year compared to 58 properties in the first quarter of 2020. The value was $28.5 million, higher than the $18.9 million value last year.
The Terrace area price increase was more than the average 22 per cent hike within northern B.C. and the average price was also higher than the northern average of $361,102.
In Kitimat the number of single family home sales for the first three months of this year stood at 35, far more than the 11 for the same period in 2020 and the 12 for the same period in 2019. The average selling price, however, climbed only 2.9 per cent from $356,853 in the first three months of last year to $367,416 in the first three months of this year.
Prince Rupert experienced a dramatic surge of 47 per cent in the average selling price — $302,818 as of the end of March last year to $430,162 as of the end of March this year. There were 43 MLS home sales there in the first three months of this year compared to 29 for the same period in 2020.
Real estate analysts attributed the pricing growth to a continuing recovery from last spring, when the COVID-19 pandemic first began to take hold.
Total MLS unit sales in the north were up 83 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared to the first three months of 2020.
Analysts also attributed price increases to a drop in the number of listings.
“With the supply of listings near record lows and sales at a record high, home prices continue to rise at an accelerated rate,” said Shawna Kinsley, the president of the BC Northern Real Estate Board.
She’s predicting an active real estate year overall, keying on the effect of the LNG Canada project in Kitimat and its associated Coastal GasLink pipeline.
