Housing Starts in Region Up

Tuesday, July 10, 2007 11:08 AM

The latest housing start stats have been released by Canada Mortgage and Housing and the numbers suggest that while nationally and in Vancouver the starts are still strong, they aren't as strong as they had been in the same period last year.

For Prince George, though, the news is very good. Housing starts in June were nearly double June of '06, when it comes to single detached homes, and with the start of two multiple family dwellings, the two categories combine to give P.G. a 100% increase over starts in the same month a year ago.

When it comes to January to June data, the information is still positive for Prince George. There was a little more than a 26% increase in single detached homes, and a decline in multiples, but the overall change comes to a 19.7% increase.

Analysts are predicting that as interest rates climb, buyers and builders are making the leap into the market now before it starts costing them more than they can handle.

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Posted on Tuesday, July 10, 2007 11:08 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Palopu on July 10 2007 7:33 PM

A lot of the housing starts are by contractors and a lot of these houses have For Sale Signs on them.

Its one thing to start it, it is another to sell it.

Posted by: lmorg on July 10 2007 11:59 PM

very true indeed.

Posted by: owl on July 11 2007 12:02 AM

The thing I find interesting in the above table is how few multiples, especially condos, there are built in PG compared to the rest of the cities in BC.

This is the percentage of multiples built in the above listed communities.

Vancouver 78.5%
Chilliwack 73.4%
Victoria 70.5%
Abbotsford 63.0%
Kelowna 55.4%
others 49.3%
Nanaimo 39.9%
Kamloops 39.3%
Vernon 36.9%
PG 1.4%

It looks to me that before any significant number of people will buy a condo in the downtown, they have to get into the habit of buying a condo anywhere in PG. In my view, that is what stands out in PG more than most other things, the lack of modern low, medium or high rise apartment condos. The few multiple we have were built predominately before 1980. The highrises I believe were all built before 1975. We are looking at 30+ year old housing stock in that category.

We must be the most sprawling city in BC. In addition, single family unattached residences are the most energy and material inefficient housing forms one can build. Not exactly �smart� housing development.

Posted by: lmorg on July 11 2007 8:14 AM

Maybe its because of the zoning in place for residential areas..has to be changed to multi family? I think council is opposed to that kind of a change in lets say college hts where the residential sprawl is happening.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on July 11 2007 9:12 AM

While I certianly agree with you all,I do however have a problem with any statistics issued by Morgage companies,real estate boards and reps for real estate companies etc.in general.
While the stats may not actually be incorrect,they may in fact be biased in favour of keeping the market rolling as long as possible.
They all have a vested interest in maintaining the hype and keeping it pumped up even as markets decline.
But maybe that's just me?
When I look at the economics over the long term,interest rates,etc. and the changes that will come sooner than later throughout our area in terms of employment,,I do think that caution as to what we actually believe would be wise!
I guess only time will tell but, we almost always see a case of overbuilding at the end of every "boom".
The trick is to be able see when the boom is ending,something that building contractors are not always that good at!