Saturday, July 31, 2010

Housing bargains to be had in Northern BC

As a drive through any Prince Rupert neighbourhood will show, it's a buyers market in real estate these days, and in British Columbia the best bargains it seems are to be found in the Northern BC real estate region.

The BC Real Estate Association has provided it's latest numbers, a third quarter update that shows that BC's housing markets are returning to the typical post recession demand patterns, with a gradual increase in home sales forecast through to 2011.

A larger inventory of homes for sale has provided for favourable supply conditions for would be home buyers, the most favourable of conditions in more than a year.

In British Columbia the average MLS residential price is anticipated to rise by 6 per cent to 492,800 and edge downwards to 489,500. But Northern BC has better pricing points than that, still one part of the province where the cost of housing is still somewhat reasonable and more amenable to a family budget, and a portion of the province where the trending in prices will go upwards over the next year.

The forecast for Northern BC's region (which includes Prince Rupert) will see a 6.4 per cent increase in the sales of units for the fall of 2010, which translates into around 3,850 units while the average price of unit this fall will be $217,500, with the 2011 projected average price going up in Northern BC to $224,000 with projected sales of 4100 units.

By comparison the projected average price this fall of a home in Victoria is $507,800,  in  the Okanagan it's anticipated to be at $389,000 while Vancouver remains the most expensive location in the province with a fall forecast of the average cost of a home to increase to  $654,500.

The BCREA report can be found on the organization's website.

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