Is it a sellers’ market once again in Prince George?

Coming off the heels of a strong 2024, the BC Northern Real Estate Board is optimistic housing activity in Prince George will remain strong this year.

The northern capital recorded 807 single-family home sales last year, only 23 fewer than the total established in 2022 (830).

President Kristine Newell told MyPGNow.com it will likely shift back into a sellers’ market this year due to certain factors.

“We are starting to get into those renewals where they are getting out of those one-percent rates they entered during the pandemic so that is probably going to encourage the sellers who likely over-leveraged and to look at reducing that price but it is also great for buyers who improve their purchasing power.”

Newell added while the current conditions give sellers a leg up, potential buyers also have a few more cards to play due to interest rates now under 5%.

“We are seeing a return to under 5% interest rates, which is fantastic and we have seen that amortization period has bumped up to 30 years for first-time buyers and for the new home buyers.”

The only way Prince George returns to a more balanced territory is to see some of our construction projects reach the finish line.

“We just need to start building more houses – more multi-family units. We are seeing a lot of them go up so that is really promising but we just need to put up more houses to improve our inventory.”

As for buying activity, 2024 saw some pretty late surges.

“We had a lot of sales happen in the third quarter, which is pretty unusual for this region. Usually, it is the second quarter and going into this year, we have some political questions that need to be answered still and people are thinking about tariffs and our own government in the air. There are a lot of question marks in the air.”

In its year-end wrap-up, the BC Northern Real Estate Board reported 4,667 property sales last year worth $1.9 billion dollars – up from the 4,229 recorded in 2023 worth 1.7 billion.