BC Northern Real Estate Board says expected rate cuts likely to spur sales spike in PG

Barring anything unforeseen, BC’s housing market is expected to rebound in 2024 as interest rates could lower by the spring.

Kristine Newell with the BC Northern Real Estate Board says a lot of prospective buyers are waiting for the Bank of Canada interest rate to drop closer to that 4% range before making a big purchase.

“What we are forecasting sort of across the board is once they do decrease down below that six percent mark and down into the four percent, we are going to see a lot of activity in the market – the buyers are going to come back out and that could mean the difference over a $450,000 house and a $500,000 house.”

In the north, our region is expected to post 37 hundred unit sales in 2024, a 1.5% increase from 2023 – in addition, the average price for a single-family home is predicted to reach $420,000 – a small spike when compared to the year prior.

BCREA believes the rebound in 2024 will set the stage for a robust 2025. The agency stated due to pent-up demand from strong population growth, and favourable demographics even a small drop could make a huge difference.

“Going into the first quarter of this year, we are seeing more confidence. We’ve had a couple of announcements that the mortgage rates are not increasing and we do expect those announcements on the decreased rates to happen in the second and third quarters,” added Newell.

Provincial home sales are expected to spike by 7.8% this year to 78,775 transactions before jumping to 86,475 in 2025.

In 2023, 677 single-family homes came off the market in Prince George for an average price of 500 grand.

That’s a noticeable decline when compared to 2022 where 831 units changed hands for a little over $524,000.