Cost of B.C. Interior home 50% higher than 5 years ago despite falling prices
Housing prices in B.C. have fallen 6.8% in the past six months but are still higher than this time last year.
The MLS benchmark (typical) selling price for the Interior of B.C. was $675,900 for all housing types in November, a 1.1% increase from November 2021 and a 50.6% increase from five years ago, according to data released, Dec. 15, by the Canadian Real Estate Association.
That was the largest percentage increase over the past five years of any part of B.C. other than Vancouver Island, where prices went up 71.8%.
The biggest increase in the country over that five-year period was in the Bancroft area of Ontario where prices jumped 148.4%. Bancroft is 245 kilometres northeast of Toronto and has a population of about 4,000. The average home costs $510,300 there.
Edmonton had the lowest price increase in the country at 6.1% where an average home sells for $374,700.
The real estate association said the average price of homes in Canada was just over $200,000 in 2005.
READ MORE: Canadian Real Estate Association reports home sales down in November
Prices peaked nationwide at around $850,000 earlier this year, then fell to an average price in November of $632,802 for the country as a whole. That’s triple what it was in 2005.
Overall, for the month of November, housing sales were down across the country and prices have moderated.
“It will be interesting to see what buyers do when listings start to come out in big numbers in the spring, and even more interesting to see what happens a little later when the Bank of Canada, now widely thought to be at or very near the top of its tightening cycle, starts to eventually cut rates,” Shaun Cathcart, the association’s senior economist, said in a news release.
“All the other fundamental factors needed for the market to take off again are still out there.”
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