Bank of Canada rate cuts likely to aid fall surge in PG home sales

BC Northern Real Estate Board President Kristine Newell is optimistic home sales in Prince George will pick up as we enter the fall.

In August, 77 single-family homes came off the market for an average price of $540,000 – down from 90 transactions during the same month last year for roughly the exact same selling price.

Newell told MyPGNow.com the third consecutive interest rate cut from the Bank of Canada should also give prospective buyer some added confidence.

“With those cuts, there were some sellers who were waiting for that good news to get their places on the mark. Also, just the season change is when we start looking forward to enjoying your current and then wanting to go somewhere new before the snow hits – so there is a push to get your home on the market this time of year.”

“We usually see a bump up once school gets back in session and people are soft of back to normal trying of getting into those before the Christmas break. With the rate cuts, it adds more confidence to the market and we are going to see a bump in the third quarter and we sort of anticipated that from the beginning of the year that these rate cuts would take most affect in the third quarter.”

Year-to-date, 542 single-family homes have changed hands in PG for an average price of $522,000 – up from 501 sales in August of 2023, which went for just 510-grand.

The average price for a home in Northern BC is $425,170 – a 2.5% decrease when compared to the same time last year. Provincially, the average price for July was $959,480 – a decline of 0.8% when compared to 12 months earlier.