The BC Northern Real Estate Board released its second quarterly report for 2013 which revealed that so far this year it's a buyers market.
The BC Northern Real Estate Board reports 2,363 properties sold in the first six months of 2013 down from 2,483 the year before.
"The North and in particular the Northwest regions of our Board area continue to experience a strong housing market," said Gisela Janzen, board president in a news release. "While the market in the Central and Southern regions of the Board remain stable and fairly unchanged due to the overall slow economic recovery throughout the rest of the province. With interest rates remaining relatively low coupled with a large supply of homes for sale, it is a good time for buyers to enter the market."
Vanderhoof is included in the Central region of the board, the region which remained "fairly unchanged." Realtors in the Vanderhoof area sold 42 properties worth $9.7 million in the first six months of 2013. In 2012 there were 54 sales for $10.6 million. This makes a decrease of 23 per cent in units but only a 9 per cent drop in capital.
The downward trend shouldn't alarm any residents according to Stan Irvine, owner of RE/MAX Vanderhoof.
"We're a little behind last year as far as dollar volume and sales but what often happens is when April, May and June, sometimes our busiest months of the year, when they're not busy we tend to have busier months later on. Everything levels out by the end of the year, we find that happens quite a bit. As long as interest rates stay down which I think they're going to for the next couple years, I don't see the market slowing down too much."
Irvine added that he believed Vanderhoof was going to have a pretty good housing market for the summer and fall. He said that as long as Vanderhoof's mills and mines stay strong then the town has a very good future.
The numbers were down in Fort St. James as well. The Fort had 10 properties worth $2.2 million in 2013. In the year before they sold 17 properties worth $3.6 million. That's a decrease of about 40 per cent in both units and sales.
Gisela Janzen and the board forecast an improvement in overall sales activity due to an improving economy during the second half of the year.
The board released the information using properties sold through sold through the Multiple Listing Service.