The B.C. Northern Real Estate Board (BCNREB) reports that in the first nine months of 2008, sales of properties of all types through their Multiple Listing Service (MLS) were down by 26 per cent over the same period last year. To the end of September, a total of 4,018 properties with a value of $836.6 million have changed hands in the area serviced by the BCNREB.

The area, which is the largest of the 12 regional boards in B.C. belonging to the British Columbia Real Estate Association, includes Burns Lake and extends from Fort Nelson in the north to 100 Mile House in the south, and from McBride and Valemount in the east to Prince Rupert in the west.

The downturn is consistent throughout the BCNREB area with the exception of Houston, where less properties were sold but for a slight increase in revenue, and in Burns Lake, which showed an increase in sales over last year.

In the Houston area, 35 properties worth $4.8 million changed hands through the MLS in the first nine months of 2008, compared with 37 properties worth $4.3 million in the same period last year.

For Burns Lake, in the first nine months of 2008, 103 properties worth $11 million changed hands. This is up from last years 98 units worth $10.7 million for the same time last year.

Twenty six single family homes changed hands in Burns Lake this year at a median [middle of the range] price of $88,000. On average the homes took 97 days to sell. At the end of September there were 166 properties of all types available for sale through the MLS in the Burns Lake area, up from 137 properties last year.

Eric Saugstad of Pacific Rim Realty said real estate prices have remained a good value in the area because they have not fluctuated much over the last couple of years.

“Our property values never went up very much, so they’re not coming down very much,” he said, “and they’re still low enough that they are some of the lowest prices for homes in B.C.”

Which appears from the BCNREB report to be the case, with an average selling price per unit sold in Smithers in September of $219,550, in Houston of $163,635, and in Burns Lake of $103,519.

Saugstad said that in the last couple of years, retiring city dwellers have been selling their homes in places like Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton on a high real estate market , and then re-investing in places like Burns Lake where they could get an equivalent house for a fraction of the price, and put the difference in the bank for their retirement.

But after the sub-prime mortgage debacle in the United States, the real estate market is taking a downswing.

“It’s bound to effect us too,” said Saugstad. “If business slows down in the States, we’re not selling them [as much of] our commodities.”

Saugstad said business is

still good, but you never know what’s around the corner.

“I’ve gone through this before in the 80s, where all of a sudden the phones stopped ringing in the real estate offices. And you went for four or five months and nothing happened. And then all of a sudden people started buying again,” he said. “Sometimes you have to pull in your horns.”

Dennis Bock of Royal Lepage points to the international nature of the business as another reason that sales have remained high in the region.

“When we put it [a property] on to the MLS, on the internet, that is listed around the world,” he said. “I’ve sold to people in Japan. It’s more of a global thing, so because globally we’re lower in prices than other places, I see that as increasing the market. It’s just not the Burns Lake customer that is buying here. A fair share of them are local but not all of them. When I look at the Granisle market it’s certainly that way because my customer for Granisle is either retirement or recreational.”

Bock said many people are willing to relocate to places like Granisle for retirement or recreation if the price is right.

And so far this year customer confidence in the real estate market in Burns Lake and area seems to indicate good value for the dollar.