The British Columbia housing marketing has been experiencing some doldrums over the past year thanks to federal taxes and certain regulations that have proven to be a drag on the market.
In fact, some industry observers (but not all) see a slack market for the next three years, or so. One of the biggest drivers of the downturn is the federal B-20 mortgage “stress-tests.” This is the Canadian government strategy to dampen demand and prevent rising interest rates. That’s according to the Central Credit Union.
The good news is that experts don’t expect home sales to fall further. A look at some sample area shows that while homes sales are not robust, they’re steady. Once city sampled was Price George. Prince George homes for sale activity appears to be doing slightly better than just treading water.
Consider that local professionals in Prince George and others are predicting transactions to rise by 0.6 per cent through 2019, by 3.8 per cent in 2020 and 2.2 per cent in 2021. So that’s not so gloomy.
It must be noted that the B.C. Real Estate Association has a different take. This group is much more bullish on the future market. Indeed, industry insider with the Real Estate Association thinks as many as 89,000 homes may be sold province-wide. This could constitute a 12% rise over the previous years. Granted, 2018 is not hard to beat considering sales of homes dropped 23% from the previous year.
What does it mean for the average British Columbia home buyer? Those seeking Prince George Homes for sale, for example, can expect prices that may pivot around a kind of “central level” based on the average of the past down years vis-à-vis potential growth through 2019 and into 2021.
Thus, the general consensus is that while average home prices are flatlining, experts see no major market crash ahead.
