So why are its home prices still so high?
While home sales activity on Prince Edward Island dropped by 13% in November compared to the same month in 2021, most stakeholders agreed that the decrease was to be expected, as markets across the country observed the same trend of home-sale slow-down.
Prince Edward Island Real Estate Association president James Marjerrison said that given the interest rate increases observed over the last few months, the stats were not ‘super surprising.’ Home sales on Prince Edward Island also decreased by 22.6% on a yearly basis last October.
“There’s a little apprehension from buyers,” Majerrison said. “They want to see if rates are going to go up or perhaps come down…. [There’s] a little bit of hesitation too where people are talking about recession and the state of the economy right now.”
Real estate broker Joel Ives told CBC News he had noticed the drop in sales in the province as well. While a slow-down in home sales activity was typical in the autumn, he pointed out that another big reason sales could be down this year was tropical storm Fiona. The lack of power and trail of wreckage Fiona had left behind forced people to focus ‘on other things’ rather than shopping for new houses at the time, Ives said.
Unlike other residential property markets across Canada however, Prince Edward Island’s home sale prices remained high, with the average home price rising by 9%, to $355,000, compared to a year ago.
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The buoyant benchmark price was being driven by what only a house on the Prince Edward Island housing market could offer compared to other provinces, real estate appraiser Tian Wigmore told CBC News.
“Prince Edward Island has a bit less of a curve then than other places,” he said. “We seem to be able to ride out the storm. We’re quite a resilient province in that way and that’s no different this time around.”
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Wigmore agreed that while the average price was up compared to last year, it was lower than it’s been all summer, a trend the Prince Edward Island Real Estate Association expected would continue all the way to the new year.
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The average price of homes sold in October 2022 was $357,521, a small reduction of 3.2% from October 2021, the Canadian Real Estate Association said.
What do you think of Prince Edward Island’s home sales trend? Let us know in the comments below.
