Real estate activity continues to rise in Houston and in Burns Lake, based on sales information as of the end of Sept. 30, indicates the B.C. Northern Real Estate Board.
To the end of September, 49 properties worth $11.4 million sold in the Houston area, compared to 22 properties worth $4.7 million for the same period in 2020.
For sales of residential detached houses, 33 sold to the end of September in Houston at an average price of $250,175.
That’s more than the $221,199 average price for the same period in 2020 and considerably more than the average price of $186,382 to the end of September in 2019.
There were 97 property sales in Burns Lake to the end of September worth $23 million, a jump over the 54 properties worth $10.5 million sold in the same period last year.
Of those sales, 26 were residential detached house sales. That’s more than the 19 house sales for the same period last year and just one shy of the 27 that sold during the same period in 2019.
But the average price in Burns Lake did drop as of the end of September to $186,650 compared to $189,971 in 2020. The average price in 2019 was $167,311.
Across the north, Terrace had the highest average house selling price of $463,140 with the lowest average selling price being $175,937 in Mackenzie.
And across the north, the average selling price was $394,310.
As of Sept. 30, 213 properties worth $76.3 million sold in Smithers compared to 188 properties worth $62 million selling in the first nine months of last year.
The average single detached house selling price for the 84 homes that sold in Smithers was $398,707, more than the $363,7443 average price of the 75 homes selling to the end of September last year. And both of those prices were a very large jump from the $302,006 average selling price of the 82 homes that sold in the first nine months of 2019.
Large industrial projects such as the LNG Canada plant at Kitimat and its companion project, the Coastal GasLink pipeline, as well as B.C. Hydro’s Site C dam project in the northeast are helping drive up prices, says the regional real estate board.
But it and the provincial B.C. Real Estate Assocation (BCREA) are also pointing to extremely low inventory of homes for sale, a factor which can also increase prices.
“Prices are likely to continue rising throughout the year,” a release from the BC Northern Real Estate Board states.
“As a result the BCREA forecasts that home prices will rise by close to 20 per cent in 2021.”