Real Estate Market Remains Hot

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 02:33 PM

Chances are your home is worth more today than it was a year ago at this time. The B.C. Northern Real Estate Board says while fewer single family homes were sold in Prince George by the end of September this year compared to the same time in 2005, the average price has increased, up nearly $44 thousand dollars.

The BC Northern Real Estate Board reports that throughout the north, 5647 properties have been sold through the MLS® in the first nine months of the year, up from 4934 properties in the same period in 2005. The total value of all these properties was $851.3 million, compared to $639.6 million last year , a 33% increase.

Here are the details on the communities:

Prince George: Within City limits, $255.1 million worth of real estate was sold representing 1568 properties of all classifications, compared to last year by this time when 1434 properties worth a total of $196.4 million had changed hands.

In the Bowl area west of the Bypass, The average price was $187,990

In the area east of the Bypass half of the 210 single family homes that sold were under $131,500 and took an average of 45 days to sell.

In the north part of the City, 185 single family homes sold for an average price of $213,488

In the southwest sector of the City, the average price was $233,827

Here are the average prices in other communities and the number of single family homes sold to date:

Community	September 30, 2005	Units	December 31, 2005	Units	September 30, 2006	Units
Prince George	146,832	986	147,821	1,262	191,629	950
100 Mile House	128,491	172	130,110	202	200,501	225
Williams Lake	134,663	110	136,961	146	175,329	144
Quesnel	116,090	178	116,061	226	141,383	211
Prince Rupert	115,923	162	118,738	189	147,395	129
Houston	84,472	22	86,829	27	108,434	26
Smithers	121,437	125	123,758	154	160,551	137
Burns Lake	107,714	14	102,000	22	119,955	55
Vanderhoof**	102,312	66	105,206	90	124,422	58
Fort St. James*					128,000	12
Fort St. John**	190,755	371	194,053	500	259,954	327
Fort Nelson*					227,198	62
Mackenzie	98,838	53	97,752	61	112,247	24
Terrace	126,827	151	126,612	193	142,501	178
Kitimat	101,536	55	101,297	79	123,423	103

*Fort St. James & Fort Nelson: no previous data available

** Fort St. John previously included Fort Nelson and Vanderhoof previously included Fort St. James

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Posted on Wednesday, October 11, 2006 02:33 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Chadermando on October 11 2006 9:16 PM

Unsustainable speculation by the morgage lenders in my opinion.

They are now offering interest only loans with 0% down payment.

Any renter can buy a home joining in on the speculation with the freebe on a downpayment and principle payments.

They sold less homes so it is not driven by market demand. In the real world the US housing sector is going through a major pullback in all sectors and PG is a town that relies on the US housing market for our core survival.

The big disconnect will become apparent IMO within a year once the peakout is seen on the horizon and the American housing market fundimentals catch up with PG reality. If we drop back to last years prices that would now be a 20+ percent pullback in equity value that will hammer people that are over leveraged with todays generous bankers, and the real estate death spiral will then be a real danger.

The only winner will be the bankers on their interest payment collections.

Time Will Tell

Posted by: Chadermando on October 11 2006 9:41 PM

Excellent article...
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ann_pettifor/2006/10/economists_have_a_blind_spot_f.html

"Why is a lending bubble the real problem? Because housing and other asset bubbles are but an expression of that much bigger bubble: the giant credit/debt bubble, which in turn is the result of easy (unregulated) but costly lending. When the housing bubble bursts, it will be because the lending bubble has burst, not because 'there are too many homes on the range'.

Those of us who are pessimists believe that it is the US credit bubble that is bursting. This is happening in what is a de facto deflationary environment. Why should this be scary? Because the value or cost of debt rises in a deflationary environment (the opposite happens under inflationary conditions) and these increasingly expensive debts will further drain American consumers of their hard-earned wealth. Even while the US Federal Reserve pauses on interest rates, falling inflation means that "paused" interest rates are rising in real terms. "

-----------------------------------------

Which begs the question is economics itself a bubble....

Posted by: thereasonableman on October 11 2006 11:34 PM

Anybody got any bubble bath ?

Posted by: thereasonableman on October 11 2006 11:36 PM

I've got a two-bedroom birdhouse for sale, prime location, close to feeder. Inquire within.

Posted by: Free Enterprise on October 12 2006 1:45 PM

American market will have little to no impact on the Canadian market (see CIBC World Market for details as they and many others express why http://research.cibcwm.com/res/Eco/EcoResearch.html). The growth in PG is solid and will continue to grow as buying a home is still in most case cheaper than building. PG is the cheapest place to buy and live in BC and has the most to gain with becoming a distribution hub for air, train and highway. So call your favorite realtor.

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on October 12 2006 8:05 PM

I like Free Enterprise's post. I going to bet he is right. Now if the major players would spend the money, we would be solid.