According to the BC Real Estate Association, the north finished 2019 on a nosedive in terms of sales.
However, Chief Economist, Brendon Ogmundson told MyPGNow.com while sales went down, prices went up.
“Prices were strong, up around 20% year-over-year essentially but that has to do more with the artifacts of low prices at the end of 2018 than any sort of strength in the underlying market from the past year.”
Ogmundson expects the market to rebound in 2020 despite some lingering issues involving trade and the forestry sector.
“We’re probably going to have some of these trade problems next year as well, that’s not going to go away anytime soon but I do think for other markets there will be enough new economic activity ramping up that it should help offset some of that weakness.”
“In a lot of communities like Mackenzie or others where the economy is very resource-based, we’re seeing a lot of weakness with sawmills either closing or production is curtailed.”
The average price in the BC Northern Region is about 349-thousand dollars, while Prince George is over $371,000 (single-family).
In BC, the average price is just over $700,000, down about two points from the same time in 2018.