If the latter part of 2021 is any indication, the Fort St. John and North Peace real estate market moving into this year should remain stable.
Figures released by the B.C. Northern Real Estate Board in January showed that 802 properties were sold in Fort St. John last year at a value of $310.3 million, up from 529 properties worth $187.8 million in 2020.
Fort St. John realtor Arlen Brekkas says the value of properties jumped year-over-year with more high-end properties being bought and sold in 2021.
“Confidence in the market, removal of Covid restrictions has a lot to do (with it),” says Brekkas. “General oilfield work in the area helped. Oil prices are starting to climb again, bringing confidence to those companies (and their employees).”
“Most people buying high-end properties own a pretty nice home already,” Brekkas points out. “So, it’s not like they’re suffering terribly to sit and wait for a year to feel good about making an expenditure like that.”
In a slower economy, Brekkas admits, for obvious reasons, higher-priced homes will usually sit on the market longer than a middle or lower-end property might – a far better situation in 2021.
While the year-over-year numbers do include both urban and rural property sales, purchasing a home outside a larger centre such as Fort St. John might be a little harder than it sounds.
“There’s not a lot of newer construction or newer (rural) property available… there are some but not, generally, like there is in town,” said Brekkas.
“A lot of spec-built construction (built to builder’s specifications) in the city in the last six to eight years,” Brekkas said, “whereas, out of town it’s more acreage sales with (previously-owned) higher-end homes.”
One area of the market where there was more supply than demand in 2021 was half-duplexes, where the price, on average, dropped 9%.
“I believe there was 48 listings that hit the market (in January 2021) where normally that would be about 15,” said Brekkas, reflecting on market conditions at this time last year.
That excess inventory, he said, carried over through the year – sales of half duplexes ending the year at near 220.
“So, when you have an extra 40 (listings) hit the market, that’s 20% of your total sales for the year. I think that’s what drove prices down.”
Single-family homes, on the other hand, continue to be in high demand.
“It’s becoming more difficult to find good ones,” said Brekkas. “Those ones are starting to turn over at a faster rate and far less days on the market.”
While there is a need for single-family dwellings, developers are hesitant in starting new projects, or so it seems.
“Land isn’t a problem right now,” according to Brekkas, but inventory is. “Price for materials, labour is really high right now. Supply chain issues, maybe… permitting issues.”
Brekkas points out large construction like Site C and the new RCMP detachment in Fort St. John are also playing a role in the apparent delay, with the existing pool of skilled labour diverted to those projects.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2022, Brekkas is predicting stability in the area’s real estate market.
“The last six months of last year compared to 2020, we had, on average, one more sale of a property each week, so it is a small increase,” said Brekkas. “But any increase is a good increase for us, lately.”
The next few months, Brekkas concedes, are traditionally busier for realtors – during break-up, many will look for a home; others, he says, will wait until late May or early June when they return back to work.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
MONTREAL – The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says Montreal-area home sales rose 9.3 per cent in August compared with the same month last year, with levels slightly higher than the historical average for this time of year.
The association says home sales in the region totalled 2,991 for the month, up from 2,737 in August 2023.
The median price for all housing types was up year-over-year, led by a six per cent increase for the price of a plex at $763,000 last month.
The median price for a single-family home rose 5.2 per cent to $590,000 and the median price for a condominium rose 4.4 per cent to $407,100.
QPAREB market analysis director Charles Brant says the strength of the Montreal resale market contrasts with declines in many other Canadian cities struggling with higher levels of household debt, lower savings and diminishing purchasing power.
Active listings for August jumped 18 per cent compared with a year earlier to 17,200, while new listings rose 1.7 per cent to 4,840.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
