Northern BC home sales experience noticeable surge in May

Housing sales in the north saw a strong surge in May.

According to data released by the BC Real Estate Association, 430 unit sales were tallied in our region last month – a huge increase from April when 292 houses came off the market.

Economist, Ryan McLaughlin told Vista Radio while that is a positive sign, more active listings are needed in order to create a balanced market.

“That would allow us to have a normal level of sales in the market. The market we’ve got right now is decent but if we had 3,000 active listings that could let us have balanced active listings to sales ratio, which would prevent prices from surging.”

McLaughlin stated on a seasonally adjusted basis, the north has approximately 2-thousand active listings at the moment – while that is well ahead of May of 2022 (1,437)  – the BCREA would like to see it reach the 3,000 mark similar to what was achieved in 2015.

“That is ultimately what drives price increases. If we could get just a better balance of the sales to active listings ratio that would prevent prices from rising so aggressively. Right now, the ratio is at about point-one-seven, it would be nicer if it was point-one.”

In addition, McLaughlin believes the Bank of Canada is nearing the end of its rate hiking cycle.

Last week, the central bank raised its key interest rate to 4.75%.

He mentioned if the country does enter a recession by the end of this year, that will spell good news for the housing market.

“Housing markets often change direction right when there is a recession in a positive direction – oftentimes, that is because the central bank is cutting rates and we are expecting a strong remainder of the year. It’s going to trend up a bit but we are already in a pretty healthy market in terms of level of sales.”

The average price for a home in northern BC is hovering around 419-thousand dollars.

Province-wide, a shade under 92 hundred unit sales were completed in May, a nearly 10% spike from May 2022.

The average residential price in BC is $1.02 million – up three percent from the exact same time period.