The BC Real Estate Association says the housing market in the province including the north is softening once again.
This comes as the Bank of Canada adjusted its forecast for a 2% inflation rate from 2024 to 2025.
As a result, BCREA Economist, Ryan McLaughlin told Vista Radio the final third of 2023 should remain flat.
“Our forecast for the rest of the year is kind of a coolish market but maybe staying where it is in terms of pricing flattening for the rest of the year. And then as interest rates do begin to come down we are going to have a recovery back onto the trend of rising prices again.”
He added while the market is expected to remain soft, the likelihood of another significant rate hike from the Bank of Canada doesn’t appear to be on the table – at least for now.
“The most likely thing is that they won’t raise rates and they will keep them steady. This is because we got the GDP numbers and they look pretty cool for June and then as well the employment data came out and it was basically flat.”
“We sort of had this unanticipated little mini-boom in the housing market after it had gone quite soft following rate hikes. There was a pause in rates and then the housing market began recovering quite strongly. This was a little bit surprising.”
In July, 379 unit sales were recorded in the north, a 1.4% spike when compared to the same month last year.
The average price for a home in our region last month came in at roughly 436 grand – PG remains quite a bit higher with a price tag of $517,000.
As of July, 2,239 active listings were found in the north – a nearly 13% increase compared to the same time last year (1,986 listings).
Province-wide, there were 7,103 unit sales in July a spike of 26% when compared to 12 months earlier.
The average residential price in BC was $976,948, up 5.6% from July of 2022.