The city's real estate market continued on its rebound from the drop it suffered four years ago, according to the latest update from the B.C. Northern Real Estate Board.
As of the end of September, the average selling price for a single-family home stood at $251,968, a level not previously seen in the city's history, as 677 such homes exchanged hands, working out to $170.6 million worth of activity.
By the same point in 2007, 866 such homes had sold for an average $239,392, for a peak of $207.3 million in activity. Two years later, the sales were 641 for $232,123 each, amounting to $148.8 million, before the market began to recover.
Board president Joni Brown attributed the progress to a reasonably strong regional economy and low interest rates.
She characterized the gain as a "steady, realistic pace."
"It's not drastic but we're going in the right direction whereas a lot of the rest of the province is going in the other direction," Brown said. "We're very fortunate to see an upward incline instead of a softening."
She also predicted the momentum will continue for some time yet.
"All the economists are forecasting that we'll continue to have a decent market over the next couple of years," Brown said.
The figures follow on other positive economic news in the last few months.
As of the end of August, city hall had issued 370 building permits for $92.7 million worth of construction, of which 80 permits were for new-single-family homes adding up to $20.2 million. That's up from 337 permits for $54.8 million in construction with $17.1 million of that total spread over 71 new homes by the end of August last year.
And the number of people holding down jobs in the city had reached a record 51,800 in August, according to Statistics Canada. Figures for September will be released today.
For properties of all types, 984 sales for $234.2 million were made by the end of September, compared with 947 properties worth $214.2 million by the three-quarters point last year.
Looking closer at specific areas of Prince George:
- In the west, 204 single-family homes had sold for a median price of $228,500.
- East of the bypass, 131 single-family homes sold for a median price of $179,500.
- In the Hart,141 single family homes sold at a median price of $262,500.
- In the southwest, 194 single family homes sold at a median price of $312,000.
At the end of September, there were 840 properties of all types up for sale through the Multiple Listings Service in Prince George.
