Housing starts spike in valley

Housing starts in the Comox Valley are on the rise in a big way.

The latest Business Counts report shows a 48 percent spike in new builds over the first six months of 2019 compared to the same period last year.

Housing starts have company.

Business Counts also shows that the price of a single-family home is seven percent higher year of year, at an average of $593,932.

Apartment prices jumped 11 percent to, on average, $286,428.

More people are coming over from the mainland, too. 

Ferry traffic is up 7.6 percent year to date while monthly passenger totals at the Comox Valley Airport bumped up two percent in May and June.

The report also sees more people putting down stakes in the valley over the next decade and a half.

A 1.1 percent rise in population is predicted from now to 2036. Seventeen years from now, the projected population in the valley will be 79,411. 

The report was released by the Comox Valley Economic Development Society.