PG Housing Starts Up Year Over Year Despite October Dip
Prince George, B.C. – Housing starts dropped sharply in Prince George last month, but according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), it’s not indicative of overall market activity this year.
New stats show total housing starts dropped from 23 in October 2014 to 8 in October 2015.
“On the multiple family side, no units got underway for the month which was down from seven units started in the same month last year,” says senior market analyst Taylor Pardy.
“And single detached starts were down to eight units in October compared to 16 in the same month in 2014.”
But despite the drop, he says overall market activity in 2015 is still up.
“So far in 2015 there have been 136 single detached starts in Prince George compared to 104 over the same period in 2014. And on the multiple family side there have been 73 starts this year compared to just 14 over the same period in 2014.”
Looking ahead, he’s predicting steady growth.
“The current forecast for Prince George is that total starts will reach 230 units to end off 2015, followed by 210 in 2016 and 220 in 2017.”
What does he attribute the steady growth to?
“Construction starts will be supported over that horizon by the low Canadian dollar which may lend support to export and service oriented sectors,” says Pardy.”As well as population growth and in particular, a tighter resell market.”
Comments
Ive been wondering…who is buying all of these houses?
-park view, vista view, university heights (wow lots there!), creekside (current and future), not to mention the 5th/tabor row/condos. Are these buyers relocating from other houses in PG? If so, who is buying the homes they are moving from? Are they new residents to town? Is our population/tax base growing? Its been something that ive been wondering about since the Lithium One boom up on the hill…doesnt seem to be slowing down, not that its a bad thing, just curious.
“Long after the joy of the febezzle is a distant memory, the debts incurred by households against their homes will remain. Unhappily for many, the apparent treat of rising home prices resulting from the trick of expanding the quantity of money and credit will be revealed to have been just another trick.”
Treat or trick? Is our ‘wealth’ in Canada nothing but an illusion?
http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/2015/11/02/treat-or-trick-is-our-wealth-in-canada-nothing-but-an-illusion
Latest household credit numbers for Canada (to the end of September, 2015):
http://credit.bankofcanada.ca/householdcredit
Maybe people are realizing the benefits of PG over living in Vancouver in terms of costs and standard of living and moving up here.
If one was to “cash out” and leave Vancouver, there are many markets with prices comparable to PG. despite what the realtor’s may claim. PG is no bargain. We have a low average price because we do not have a large number of multi million dollar homes bumping up the average. There are a lot of options, in many markets, if one is willing to part with half a million dollars. And a lot of those markets demand that a driveway and lawn is already in place at the time of sale. I like my life/home in PG but please, real estate in this town is far from a bargain.
As far as people flocking to this northern oasis, I guess we’ll have to wait for census numbers.
I have noticed thatore commercial and industrial investment in PG is happening so maybe this is the after effect of these investments of more people moving into town.
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