Yellowknife (Jan 31/05) - City planner Dave Jones says they're tapped on available lots for single-family dwellings in Yellowknife.

There's the odd patch here and there that might be suitable to build a home on, but Yellowknife's seemingly endless flirtation with housing crunches continues for now.

"Right now, if you wanted to buy a lot to build your dream home on, they pretty much aren't available," said Jones. "Not unless they're on the private market."

Dreams cost Yellowknife average purchase price of homes, 2004 (numbers supplied by the Yellowknife Real Estate Association): "Stick-built" houses: $309,000 Double-wide homes: $232,000 Mobile homes: $188,000 Condominiums: $250,000

He said Phase VI of the Niven Lake subdivision will likely be one of the only areas in town a person could build a house this summer.

Most of the 98 lots there will be developed by Homes North, although one-third will be made available to private developers through a lottery sale.

There's also Phase VII, but that can't be developed until water and sewer infrastructure is built into Phase VI first.

"Phase VI needs to be pushed along first before Phase VII can start," said Jones.

"Phase VII is available for sale, but it hasn't sold yet."

Homes North president Les Rocher said he expects to begin putting modular homes at Phase VI on the market by mid-April.

Homes North's development permit for Phase VII was originally approved last May, but work hardly began on the site before it was brought before a development appeal board hearing - and later the courts.

Residents were worried about its close proximity to the Niven Lake Trail and the way the development was approved by the city.

Rocher said he intends to get to work quickly this year.

"There won't be any shortage of housing lots available in Yellowknife this summer," said Rocher. "(Phase VI) is a lot of land for a market this size."

Rocher predicts that once the Phase VI homes start going to market, people living in apartments and trailers will line up quickly, making more room in low cost housing.

"When these new homes come on, a lot of people coming out of these starter homes will be moving up, so of course there will be vacancies throughout the market," said Rocher.

"I don't think we'll be in bad shape."

Ken Pearman, newly-elected president of the Yellowknife Real Estate Association, said the market for single-lot homes is still "pretty tight."

He said there are about 50 houses in Yellowknife for sale right now, plus the odd empty lot scattered about the city that could be developed.

He agrees with Rocher, however, that housing availability should improve by summer.

"I think we're in a crunch right now, but I think that problem will be solved by early summer," said Pearman. He suspects the current vacancy rate in the city is at about two per cent. Many people are giving up on rental units because the costs are just about the same to purchase, Pearman said.

"As rent goes up, more people will enter the marketplace to buy," said Pearman.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem hinted there may be some important developments coming in the next couple of weeks that will open up even more lots for development.

"I've got meetings over the next month with different people who have different plans to do different things," said Van Tighem.

"A lot of it could mean that there would be a large number of lots available, because we have lots of raw land."