WYNNETTE LOWES
NORTHERN BC – The number of homes sold through the MLS System of the BC Northern Real Estate Board totaled 399 units in August 2022. This was down sharply by 18.2 per cent from August 2021.
Home sales were 12.7 per cent below the five-year average and 7.6 per cent below the 10-year average for the month of August.
On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled 3,212 units over the first eight months of the year. This was a substantial decrease of 16.8 per cent from the same period in 2021.
“Sales activity in our board area remained below typical levels for this time of year as the monthly trend continues to decline. With the recent significant rate hike by the Bank of Canada and at least one more on the way it’s likely that it will take a few more months for the housing market to fully absorb the impact of these increases before we see declines begin to bottom out,” said Wynnette Lowes, President of the BC Northern Real Estate Board. “New listings are also trending below historical averages but not too much lower, and this new supply has been just enough to slowly lift overall inventories from their record lows. Right now, we seem to be in a transitionary period where both buyers and sellers are adjusting to a new rate environment and resetting their affordability and pricing expectations, respectively.”
The average price of homes sold in August 2022 was $418,479, a moderate gain of 4.8 per cent from August 2021.
The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $418,954, increasing by 10.6 per cent from the first eight months of 2021.
The Board cautions that the average residential price is a useful figure only for establishing trends and comparisons over a period of time. It does not indicate an actual price for a home due to the wide selection of housing available over a vast geographic area (the Board serves an area covering over 600,000 square kilometers or 72 per cent of the province).
The dollar value of all home sales in August 2022 was $167 million, a sharp decrease of 14.4 per cent from the same month in 2021.
The number of new listings was down modestly by 2.9 per cent from August 2021. There were 608 new residential listings in August 2022.
New listings were 4.4 per cent below the five-year average and 6.5 per cent below the 10-year average for the month of August.
Active residential listings numbered 1,997 units on the market at the end of August, an increase of 8.6 per cent from the end of August 2021.
Active listings were 10.8 per cent below the five-year average and 24.6 per cent below the 10-year average for the month of August.
Months of inventory numbered 5 at the end of August 2022, up from the 3.8 months recorded at the end of August 2021 and below the long-run average of 6.3 months for this time of year. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.
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