Northern B.C. home sales are making a comeback despite the economic slow-down related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Home sales and new listings have recovered more than half of their April losses in May, according to the BC Northern Real Estate Board (BCNREB).
The number of homes sold through the MLS System totaled 273 units in May 2020, which was a 36.5 per cent decline from May 2019, much smaller than the 57 per cent year-over-year drop recorded in April.
On a year-to-date basis, home sales totalled 1,075 units over the first five months of the year, down 29.9 per cent from the same period in 2019.
“Home sales and new listings both bounced back significantly in May after falling sharply in April,” said Shawna Kinsley, BCNREB President, in a news release.
“Obviously things are not back to normal yet, but both demand and supply appear to have recovered more than half of their losses in the space of one month, and the underlying trend continues to show improvement.”
The average price of homes sold in May 2020 was $326,578, rising 4.1 per cent from May 2019.
The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $308,025, edging up 1.6 per cent from the first five months of 2019.
Average residential price, however, is a useful figure only for establishing trends and comparisons over a period of time.
The BCNREB says it does not indicate an actual price for a home due to the wide selection of housing available over a vast geographic area as the board serves an area covering over 600,000 square kilometers or 72 per cent of the province.
The dollar value of all home sales in May 2020 was $89.2 million, falling 33.9 per cent from the same month in 2019.
There were 576 new residential listings in May 2020. This was a large 33.6 per cent decline on a year-over-year basis, but again, much smaller than the April decline.
Active residential listings numbered 1,977 units at the end of May. This was a decrease of 16.5 per cent from the end of May 2019 and was one of just two times in the last 25 years that there have been fewer than 2,000 listings on the market at this time of the year.
Sales of all property types numbered 323 units in May 2020, a 36.8 per cent decline from May last year.
The total value of all properties sold was $99.6 million, falling 34.3 per cent from May 2019.
