A Prince George realtor says it will be pretty tough for the local housing market to become buyer-friendly in 2023.
A new report from RBC suggests high-interest rates will hold back home buyers in most of Canada with the exception of Ontario and BC – stating both province’s sales to new listings are headed towards “balanced territory.
Bob Quinlan with RE/MAX Core Realty told MyPGNow.com not much has changed in the housing landscape except for interest rates.
“As we say, interest rates are the only things that have changed and that is affecting mortgage payments, qualifying to buy a home, on variable mortgage rates renewing, investors reluctant to purchase because the rent may not service the debt and expenses on the property they are looking at.”
“But, the market does look healthy with the building and developing that is going on.”
Quinlan adds in order for PG to become a buyer’s market next year, prices will have to drop considerably.
“When I look at November of last year to November of this year, certainly the number of sales has dropped but prices have increased. When I look from October of this year to November of this year, the number of sales have decreased a little bit but the prices have still increased.”
Earlier this month, MyPGNow.com chatted with BC Real Estate Association Chief Economist, Brendon Ogmundon.
He expects more difficult days ahead for prospective home buyers with interest rates continuing to trend upward.
“Five-year fixed rates are probably going to stay high for most of 2023. The Bank of Canada probably isn’t going to cut rates until maybe the end of next year so as long as we have rates as high as they are, it will be really difficult to see sales activity improve much.”
In addition, home sales across the north have declined by 42% over the past 12 months.
248 unit sales were recorded last month – a far cry compared to November of 2021 when 426 homes were taken off the market.
“We are also 20 to 25% below what is considered normal for this time of year. We have had very, very slow, sales activity across the north. In Prince George, sales were down about 50% year-over-year but prices are still filling up considerably,” added Ogmundson.
In November, the average price for a single-family home in Northern BC hovered around 412 thousand dollars – a mark that has held steady over the past 12 months.
In Prince George, the price for a single-family home is quite a bit higher at $530,000, a year-over-year spike of 14% (from November of 2021).