Over 12,400 unit sales occurred in May according to the BC Real Estate Association (BCREA).
That’s a decline of 7.9% from the same time last year.
The average home price in the province grew to $752,536 – a 4.2% hike compared to the same period in 2016.
However, Chief Economist Cameron Muir says the supply is not keeping up with the demand.
“Sales have been trending up since the beginning of year with big markets such as Vancouver since January home sales are up over 30% on a seasonally adjusted basis and really the entire southern half of the province has seen very tight supply conditions leading to arising prices in most of the market places,” says Muir. “Home prices in the north are up 5% in May compared to a year ago and overall listings are down about 13% – the combination of those two has made market conditions tighter across the north.”
The province’s strong economy should do some good for BC’s housing sector.
“2017 is likely going to be the third consecutive year where we see 3% plus real GDP growth , so strong growth has led to strong job growth and contributed to a sizeable increase in migrants coming from other provinces searching for jobs. As a result, just that basic demographic demand, confidence from people who have secured full-time employment over the past few years is leading to increased activity in the housing market – in addition, many markets are heavily weighted with the baby boomer children and millennials who are entering the housing market,” says Muir.
Muir adds commodity prices continue to lag, stunting further progress in the north.
“Commodity prices are relatively weak from a historical perspective with the price of oil hovering around $50 a barrel. I think we’re going to be stuck with that kind of level of pricing for quite some time, we have some challenges especially in the export market. China has kind of moved away from infrastructure development towards more service and tertiary activity so that requires less of raw material input.”
The average home price in Prince George continues to hover around $300,000.
The BC Northern average price so far in 2017 is $276,000 – up 5.2% from 2016 where the price was under $263,000.
Residential units were a little more expensive in the region last month nearing $284,000.
That’s a jump of 4.7% compared to May of 2016 at $271,000.