BC Real Estate: Housing Starts To Trend Up This Year

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British Columbia's real estate market could be recovering with a report predicting that housing starts will trend up this year.

The province's housing starts are expected to climb from 27,465 homes in 2012 to 28,800 this year, then to 30,100 in 2014, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) said in a news release on Friday.

The rise isn't expected to have much effect on home prices. Average house prices are expected to hold at $511,200 this year, down from $514,836 in 2012, before rising once more to $524,000 in 2014, according to the CMHC's Market Housing Outlook.

Much of the housing activity is pegged to take place in Vancouver. The city's single-detached home starts are projected to increase 8.5 per cent this year.

Housing starts in Kelowna and the Abbotsford-Mission area are also expected to rise.