As LNG promise fades, property assessments decline in B.C.'s north

While much of B.C.continuesto see growth in assessed property values, communities in the province's northeast and northwest saw residential real estate numbers fall in a trend realtors haveconnected to the failure of a promised LNG boom to materialize in the region.

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B.C. Assessmentreleased its new valuations for every property in the province on Jan. 2, based on property information and market values as of July 1, 2017.

Of the 19municipalities that sawa decline in residential property values, seven were in the northwest region andseven were in the northeast Peace River region.

The biggest decline in the province was in Kitimat, in northwest B.C., where the average assessed value of residential properties declined by 17.9 per cent.

Market correction

Northern B.C. Real Estate Board president John Evans said the decrease in northwest B.C. was likely a market correction after promises of an LNGboom drove prices up in 2014, when Kitimat led the province in assessed value growth.

"A couple of years ago, the difficulty inKitimatwas even finding something to rent, regardless of price," Evanssaid.

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Since then, Evans said, many new residential properties have been built in northwest B.C. communities, allowing prices to come down. He also said that should a major LNG project materialize he expectsprices to take off again.

Until then, he predicted stability in the region.

"Whenever you have a large project that's announced that takes its time to come to fruition, the market is going to stall," he explained.

'Praying for a miracle' inFort Nelson

A similar message was delivered byWynnette Lowes, a Northern B.C. Real Estate Board director and realtor in Fort St. John.

"For the first time in many years, it's a good time for the buyer," Lowessaid, attributing the overall decline in real estate values to the decline in the oil and gas industry.

"It's definitely switched over to a buyer's markets. Over the years we've had a number of people leave the area to find work... so of course, our [housing] inventory has gone up substantially."

Lowes saidshe wasn't unduly concerned about these developments becausehome values in Fort St. John are still higher than other parts of northern B.C. and she's seen an uptick in interest in recent months.

Further north, though, realtor Cathleen Soucie said she had major worries about housing prices in Fort Nelson, in the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality.

Real estate values in that community have continued to drop following a steep decline in 2016-17, when the assessedvalue of the average single family dwelling dropped by almost 50 per cent.

• Gas industry downturn devastating Fort Nelson B.C.

"It's not looking very good for Fort Nelson right now, definitely not," she said, noting that many sales in the community were bank foreclosures and some families were choosing to leave their homes empty without putting them on the market.

"We're praying for a miracle here," she said.