The
number of homes sold through the MLS® System of the BC
Northern Real Estate Board posted a seventh consecutive
year-over-year increase in December
2011.
According
to the Board’s statistics home sales totaled 210 units in
December. This was up 14 per cent from December 2010, and also
stands above both the five and ten year averages for December
sales.
“Demand
has been climbing steadily since the spring, with the
seasonally adjusted sales trend at the end of the year
standing more than 16 per cent above where it was in April, as
well as marking the highest level in two years,”
said Victor Prystay, President of the BC Northern Real Estate
Board. “That strong second half of the year lifted the annual
sales figure for 2011 to the highest level since 2008, and
also gives the market some really good momentum heading into
the new year.”
Some
3,891 homes traded hands in 2011. This was up by more than six
per cent from levels in 2010, and stands above the 2009 total
as well.
The
average price of
homes sold in December 2011 was $204,911. This was an increase
of six per cent from the same month a year earlier. The annual
average home price for 2011 was $219,061, up four per cent
from 2010.
The
Board cautions that the average residential price is a useful
figure only for establishing trends and comparisons over a
period of time. It does not indicate an actual price for a
home due to the wide selection of housing available over a
vast geographic area (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 December 2011 was $43
million, up 21 per cent on a year-over-year
basis.
There
were 219 new listings on the Board’s MLS® System in December
2011, an increase of 13 per cent from December 2010. Active
residential listings on the Board’s MLS® System numbered 1,893
units at the end of December, down 16 per cent from the
previous December.
There
were 7.1 months of inventory at the end of December on a
seasonally adjusted basis, down from 7.4 months at the end of
November. Months of inventory levels have been generally
trending downward since the summer due largely to the
acceleration in demand. The
number of months of inventory is the number of months it would
take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales
activity.
Sales
of all property types numbered 242 units in December. This was
an increase of three per cent from last December. The total
value of all properties sold was $48 million, also an increase
of three per cent from December 2010.
