Prince Rupert realty market remains strong six months into 2017

The British Columbia Northern Real Estate Board has released its findings for the fist six months of 2017 and while the North Coast continues to see some increases in listings and sales, other areas of the region are starting to experience a slow down as some of the economic struggles across the Northwest start to show some strains.

The Real Estate board based out of Prince George conducts regular reviews of the realty sector across the northern region on a quarterly basis, with the July report offering a glimpse into the market halfway through the year.

Board President John Evans made note of how the Northwest region has fared over the first six months, with some positive trends for Prince Rupert.

"In the West, Prince Rupert sales and sales-dollar volume have increased slightly. The continued growth of the Port of Prince Rupert coupled with the AltaGas propane terminal construction have been a contributing factor. The AltaGas terminal is expected to provide more employment in the area and this is good news for Prince Rupert"

And indeed, the findings for Prince Rupert finds the North Coast real estate market still percolating, while both Terrace and Kitimat reverse field a bit over the course of the first six months.


For Prince Rupert 120 properties wort $31.6 million have been reported sold through MLS in Prince Rupert so far this year, compared to 101 properties worth $28.5 million in the first half of 2016.

The median price of the 89 single family homes that sold was $277,000. On average it took the homes 96 days to sell.

As of June 30th there were 191 properties of all types available for purchase through the MLS option in the area.

The Terrace region saw a bit of a dip in this quarter, with 118 properties worth $31.4 million sold in the first six months of 2017, compared to 134 properties worth $39 million in the same period last year.

Half of the 72 single family homes that sold, sold for less than $307,500. On average it took  69 days for those homes to sell. In addition to the single family residences, 9 parcels of vacant land, 3 half duplexes, and 11 homes on acreage changed hands in the first six months of the year.

At the end of June, there 242 properties of all types available for purchase through MLS in the Terrace area.

Kitimat saw reduced listing for the first six months of the year, 29 properties worth $6.7 million has sold through MLS to the end of June, compared to  47 properties worth $14 million at this time last year.

Half of the 24 single family homes sold so far this year, have sold for less than $227,600 and on average it has taken 129 days for a home to sell.

At the end of June, there were 104 properties of all types available for purchase in the Kitimat area.

Heading east, Smithers saw an increased pace from 2016, with 149 sales reported in the first six months of 2017 to a total value of $38 million dollars. That compares to the results from this time last year when there were 126 sales made worth $27 million.

Half of the 68 single family homes sold so far this year have been for less than $272,500 and took an average of 51 days to sell. 17 parcels of vacant land and 34 homes on acreage have also change hands since January 1st.

As of the end of June, there were 205 properties of all types available in the the Smithers are through MLS.

The full review of the entire Northern region, including an expansive overview of the largest city in the north in Prince George can be found here.

For items related to the real estate sector on the North Coast see our archive page here.

As well, a look at our weekly real estate listings is delivered to the blog every Monday morning, when we offer up our Real Estate Tracker reviewing the ten listings asking the highest amounts from the city's three main realtors.