Prince George experienced a steady September on the topic of housing starts according to the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation.
Spokesperson Leonard Catling tells MyPGNow.com the year-over-year comparison for the northern capital was a saw-off.
“You had 24 housing starts overall with the bulk of those being made up in single-detached homes with 18 and in September of 2018 there was 26 housing starts overall.”
So far in 2019, Prince George has recorded 247 housing starts, down from the same time last year where the mark was 342 with apartment living being the main focus.
“There have been seventy-eight apartment starts here so far in Prince George this year compared with 182 last year and overall we see a bit of a decline in housing starts but you need to take into consideration that 2018 was a very, very strong year.”
Cities of similar size such as Kamloops is going through the same kind of transition where 916 housing starts were recorded as of September of 2018.
This year, that figure is a third of that with a total of 382 homes breaking ground.
Much like Prince George, our neighbours to the south saw an influx in apartment housing last year with 630 units being constructed.
“There was very strong demand for apartments, affordable condos for homeownership as well as the rental market, there was a lot of demand for that and you did see elevated levels of apartment starts.”
Another comparable city in terms of population is Vernon the number of housing starts remains strong.
“They are ahead of last year’s pace and that’s mainly due to robust demand for rental apartments and affordable options,” added Catling.
The Okanagan community has 355 housing starts as of the end of last month compared to 324 in September of 2018.
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