People are buying more homes.

That’s according to statistics released by the Yukon Bureau of Statistics.

The first-quarter figures for 2017 show 13 more properties were sold in Whitehorse compared to a year earlier.

The largest increase in property sales was for single-detached houses.

Forty-one were sold in the first quarter of this year compared to 31 in the first quarter of 2016.

The average price for such a home saw a significant rise, from $407,300 to $423,300.

Doubling in sales over the one-year period were residential lots, with 10 selling in the first quarter of 2017 compared to five in the same period of 2016. The average price rose from $108,200 to $144,600.

Porter Creek proved to be the most popular neighbourhood in which to buy a single-detached home, with 11 sales happening there.

That was followed by Riverdale with seven, Copper Ridge and Whistle Bend each with six, four in country residential neighbourhoods and the remaining in other urban neighbourhoods.

The other housing type to see an increase in both sales and price was in duplexes.

A total of 11 duplexes sold in the first quarter of this year at an average price of $345,900. That compares to seven at an average price of $318,600 in the first quarter of 2016.

Mobile homes and condos were the only housing types to see a drop in sales, though the price of each rose over the one-year period.

Only three mobile homes sold in the first quarter of 2017 at an average price of $247,700.

That compares to seven such homes selling in the same period of 2016, when the average price was at $204,600.

Meanwhile, at 30, just three fewer condos sold in the first quarter of this year over the last year, with the average price rising from $298,100 in 2016 to $328,900 this year.

On the commercial side, there were just three sales in the first quarters of 2016 and 2017. However, the average price rose by close to half a million dollars, from $270,300 to $743,600.

And there was just one more industrial property that sold in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016, when four sold. The average price climbed from $321,300 to $558,500.

The president of the Yukon Real Estate Association could not be reached this week to comment on the industry trends.

The statistics bureau also recently released the rent survey it does twice a year, in April and October, with this marking the April survey.

It showed a total of 2,215 rental units in the city. They include single-detached homes, row-housing, duplexes (which include single-detached homes that have a rental suite), tri- and fourplexes, condos, apartments, store-top units, mobile homes, cabins and garden suites.

Single-detached houses, condos and row-houses drew the largest average rent prices at $1,731, $1,519 and $1,428 respectively.

Meanwhile, apartments, store-top units and garden suites brought in the lowest average rent at $949, $1,095 and $1,109 respectively.

The vacancy rate in all categories remains extremely low, with condos having the highest vacancy rate, at 3.5 per cent.

Tri- and fourplexes were next at 2.2 per cent, followed by row-housing at 2.1 per cent, apartments at two per cent, and duplexes at 1.2 per cent. All other categories were listed as having no vacancies.

Looking at it by rooms, the vacancy rate came out higher for certain units: “In Whitehorse, the highest vacancy rate was at 5.5 per cent for bachelor units and the lowest was for units with five or more bedrooms at zero per cent.”