Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 11/02) - Despite a summer that has seen the Yellowknife skyline dominated by a building crane, city realtors say the housing market is still tight.

"You just whisper you're thinking of selling and you've got half the neighbourhood knocking on your door," said Kay Da Corte, president of the Yellowknife Real Estate Board.

"It's going to be a while before the single-family dwelling area is going to really feel a little more relaxed."

James Clark, a realtor with Homelife Sunrise, said homes have been whipping on and off the market.

"If it's on the market and if the ink dries on the listing contract, you've overpriced it," he said.

With one home Clark worked on, he toured nine people through the property the day after it was listed. The home sold at 4:30 that afternoon to a person willing to pay cash over the listed price.

"It's a very good market for everybody," Clark said.

It's been an overwhelming summer for building permits at the city of Yellowknife. In year-to-date numbers accurate to the end of August, the city has issued 23 permits for stick-built houses, five for multi-family and 34 for factory built.

The total value of those permits is over $25 million.

In all of 2001, the city only gave out seven permits for stick-built and 16 for factory-built housing, for a total value of just over $2 million.

But even though more people are building, the market is still tight. Realtors say the multiple-listing service is showing more houses than it was before, but the pickings are still slim.

And prices are still surging upwards.

"We need a lot more single-family construction," said Da Corte, adding that the Yellowknife market can probably sustain 50 new homes a year for the next few years.

Realtors are saying the bull market for housing should be around for the foreseeable future.

But, said Da Corte, "it will come around. This is not new to Yellowknife -- we've had these leaps and bounds or bumps and curves before."

And Clark is encouraging people to buy up property if they can.

"For all intents and purposes, buy now and sell later and you'll probably make some money," he said.