Prince George weakest performer in real estate survey
Written by MARK NIELSENCitizen staffWednesday, 30 April 2008
Prince George is the weak spot in a major realtor's semi-annual survey of real estate prices.
Century 21's 2008 spring national house price survey, released Wednesday, showed the price of a typical bungalow in lower College Heights dipping two per cent year over year to $219,900, showed no change for a townhouse in the Valleyview subdivision at $190,000, and a scant two-per-cent increase to $266,900 for a two-story house in the Heritage subdivision.
Almost every one of the other 21 subdivisions in the survey representing communities across B.C. showed significantly stronger increases.
The numbers clash somewhat with those from the B.C. Northern Real Estate Board for the first quarter of 2008. They show the average price of a single family home for Prince George as a whole at $246,839, up about six per cent from the typical price over the same period last year.
However, Prince George real estate agents sold 193 single-detached houses over that period, down from the 243 in 2007.
Prince George real estate agent Gary Shannon, a director on the BCNREB, conceded that the market is softening because of the forestry slowdown following an upward trend that has seen the average house price rise 84 per cent since 2003.
"We're not going to see some tremendous rises this year I don't think," he said.
However, he believes stronger growth should return within the next 18 months to two years.
By then, Shannon predicts cargo jets will be landing at the Prince George Airport -- the runway extension and fuel apron are scheduled for completion in October -- the container terminal at Prince Rupert will be taking on more work and hopefully the ongoing mineral exploration will be translating into some new mines.
"These things don't happen overnight, they take a little bit of time," he said.
In contrast to previous forestry downturns, Shannon said this one hasn't struck the city as hard.
"The forest industry is still important but it's not having near the impact it had 10 or 15 years ago," he said. "There are too many other things offsetting the forest economy right now, we're just not going to be moving forward quite as strong, that's all."
B.C. Real Estate Board economist Cameron Muir offered much the same comments as Shannon, saying single-digit growth is predicted for Prince George until late 2009 when the U.S. new home market should begin to turn around.
He said an increase in listings may be playing a role. He didn't have numbers specifically for Prince George but for northern B.C. as a whole he said listings are up 34 per cent compared to 24 per cent for the province.
"Homebuyers have much greater selection in the marketplace and there are much less chances for multiple offers," he said. "With a lot of competition among home sellers, that provides much less upward pressure on home prices."
The B.C. northern market is in a "balanced condition" Muir added.
"More of an equilibrium between demand and supply and when we look across the province we're seeing that materialize in most markets," he said.
As a result, prices in most markets in the province will be increasing by single digits rather than the double digits of the last few years, he said.
A BCNREB study release last week showed put the cost of buying a house in Prince George at roughly 32 per cent of family income, compared to 74 per cent in Vancouver and 69 per cent for the province as a whole
posted by Colin @ 11:04 AM
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