It’s like the lull between storms as far as the local Real Estate market is concerned as the buying and selling of properties in Prince Rupert returns to more normal patterns in 2006. Fueled by the excitement of the container port project announcement last year, the real estate market exploded with a number of investors gobbling up properties akin to a Monopoly player on a house buying binge.
As that project heads into its construction phase that frantic buying and selling has tapered off to a more sedate level, as the normal patterns return for a brief intermission.
It’s expected that upon completion of the port project next year the level of market activity will once again pick up and approach the wild days of 2005. With things leveling off in 2006, the average price of a house in Rupert at the moment is $124,000.
The Daily News had a look at the ebb and flow of market forces, complete with stats on the change over two years, all of it contained in a page two story in Wednesday’s paper.
REAL ESTATE BOUNCES AFTER TERMINAL ANNOUNCEMENT
By Sarah Fox
The Daily News
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Page Two
After a huge jump in sales in Prince Rupert last year, the market has returned to a more normal pace. However, numbers are still higher than 2004 and realtors are expecting another big real estate boom next year, once the container port is completed.
“The announcement of the container port financing accounted for the big jump in sales last year,” said Ted Shepard, president of the B. C. Northern Real Estate Board.
“When we had the announcement of the container port financing we had a jump in sales almost immediately last year and a lot of those sales were to investors or to people who decided now was the time to get into the market.”
Realtors in this area have sold a total of 94 properties through Multiple Listing Service so this year, compared to 151 by the end of May last year, but slightly ahead of the 83 sold in the same period in 2004.
The average price of a house selling in Prince Rupert is $124,000.
“The original flurry of investment money has died off and now we’re back to a normal market where people are moving in and moving out and we haven’t seen a net increase in the population,” said Shepard.
“But, when the container port gets up and running then we’ll have permanent full-time people working who will bring their families and they’ll buy or rent housing, and that will start the market activity again next year.”
Shepard says there is optimism in Prince Rupert over the future now that the container port construction has started and both Ridley Terminals and Prince Rupert Grain are doing well.
“There’s a feeling of optimism that we lacked until 2005,” he said.
According to the B. C. Northern Real Estate Board, sales through the Multiple Listings Service for all of Northern B. C. is up 33 per cent from last year and has reached a record high of $392 million in the first five months of this year.
This number includes sales from communities north of 100 Mile House and Burns Lake region right up to Prince Rupert.
“We knew the market was active in most of our communities, but until we got the latest statistical reports, we didn’t realize how active,” said Shepard.
“The economy in the northern 70 per cent of the province is definitely in a positive economic climate.
“The StatsCan release of average family incomes in the northern part of the province shows why people are buying real estate – they can afford it, because our prices still remain within easy reach of the average buyer.”
A housing affordability study of Northern B. C., prepared for the Northern Real Estate Board says, “owning a home in northern B. C. remains significantly more affordable compared with the burden home ownerships in Vancouver.”
The average price of a single family sold in Northern B. C. is 2005 was about $143,000 compared to more than $460,000 in Vancouver.
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