Sales of residential detached homes dipped here for the first nine months of this year compared to the same period in 2022 but the average sales price topped the $500,000 mark, indicate figures provided by the BC Northern Real Estate Board.
From 128 homes sold from January to the end of September 2022, in the same time period this year the count dropped to 118. The average selling price increased slightly from $489,484 to $500,716.
And although the average selling price breached the $500,000 level, it ranks fourth in the north, just behind the $501,063 figure in 100 Mile House, $504,333 in Prince George and $521,840 in Smithers.
Information also shows that the average selling price over the past five years has increased significantly from $327,950 in 2018, to $391,279 in 2019, to $394,038 in 2020 and to $463,140 in 2021 before reaching the $489,484 mark last year and then passing through the $500,000 level to $500,716 this year.
On average, it took 58 days for a single-family home to sell this year.
Overall, for the first nine months of this year 222 properties sold in the Terrace area at a value of $95.9 million. That is 10 fewer properties compared to January to September 2022 when the value was $95.6 million.
Sales figures also show that 22 homes on acreage sold, 21 manufactured homes on land changed hands and 19 manufactured homes in parks were sold.
In Kitimat, the number of residential detached houses sold during the first nine months of 2022 also dropped this year — from 117 to 92. Yet the average selling price increased from $373,448 to $380,856 this year.
Prince Rupert saw a drop in residential detached house sales from 104 in 2022 to 71 this year. The average sales price also declined from $460,411 for the first nine months of 2022 to $446,188 this year.
Sales figures across northern B.C. as a whole were also down, reported the regional real estate board, with 3,354 properties worth $1.4 billion sold through the Multiple Listing Service for the first nine months of this year compared to the 4,210 properties worth $1.7 billion that sold in the first nine months of 2022.
But within the north, individual locations such as Prince George, Prince Rupert, Fort St. John, 100 Mile House and Williams Lake did record an increase in the third quarter of this year compared to the second quarter.
“Overall, the housing market in the BC Northern Real Estate Board area remains soft as high and rising interest rates have constrained affordability for buyers,” the board states.
It expects sales to remain cool in 2024 in face of a continued high interest rates and a softening labour market.