Home sales in the north are expected to drop 13% this year.
That’s according to the first quarter housing forecast unveiled today (Wednesday) by the BC Real Estate Association (BCREA).
Chief Economist, Brendon Ogmundson told Vista Radio this comes after our region posted a near record-high last year.
“In 2021, the north fell about 60 sales short of the previous record last year so even coming down 13% over last year to about 48-hundred sales is still a pretty strong year.”
Seven out of ten board areas hit record-highs in terms of sales last year, a pace Ogmundson believes isn’t likely to last long-term.
“We don’t tend to stay at record highs for very long so it’s kind of natural that a decline is going to happen. A lot of the records that were set last year was due to a really strong spring during the first part of 2021.”
He also anticipates higher mortgage and Bank of Canada rates to take effect during the second half of this year, which could lead to a 20 to 25% drop in home sales over the next two years.
In addition, the BC housing market is entering 2022 with the lowest level of active listings on record and significant downside momentum.
Ogmundson mentioned the north is one of many regions across the province that’s facing a bit of crunch when it comes to active supply.
“Due to the pandemic and how strong the recovery and sales were and how they were distributed across the province and how people migrated just meant a lot of markets, the north included realized a pretty significant decline in the total inventory of homes for sale.”
The BCREA is projecting home sales to rise by 8.5% in 2022 with much of that gain to occur in the first half of the year.