Housing activity in the north continues to soldier on despite the tariffs and subsequent trade war between Canada and the US.
According to the BC Real Estate Association, 368 unit sales were tallied last month in our region, a 3% year-over-year spike when compared to April of 2024.
Economist, Amit Sidhu told Vista Radio our region continues to be more resilient than other areas.
“In the context of the north, it is a little bit less demanding in terms of how much you need to put forward on a down payment and what your monthly debt servicing costs will be. I think that is a large driver behind why the north has been very resilient.”
“Even amidst all of the uncertainty that is plaguing the province on a broad scale, the north is one of the regions that is remaining resilient because of the affordability factor.”
He added home buyers in most of the province remain hesitant due to the tariffs and trade war that is being instigated by the American government, killing all the momentum that was built at the end of 2024.
“If you look at market activity dating back to the final quarter of last year, the market was really starting to build some momentum. On a seasonally adjusted basis, we had our three strongest months of the year to close out 2024 in October, November and December.”
“We may receive a little bit of a bump in the way of monetary policy relief through some of Bank of Canada rate cuts. But, as the Bank of Canada has stated, monetary policy cannot outweigh the drastic consequences of tariffs on the housing market.”
Province-wide, 6,453 unit sales were tallied last month, a near 15% decline when compared to April of 2024. The average residential price in BC is $942,884 – a 6.1% drop from the same time last year ($1,003,638).
Northern BC is still on pace to record 41-hundred housing sales in 2025 according to the second-quarter forecast from the BC Real Estate Association .
That would amount to a 2% year-over-year spike when compared to 2024.
Due to tariffs and some market uncertainty, the province is predicted to see a 1% decline in home sales this year. 73,650 sales are anticipated for 2025 – down from the 74,479 tallied in 2024.
The average home price in the north is $439,426, a slight uptick from 12 months earlier.
It is a little bit higher in PG, which sits at $503,331.
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