A big day on Thursday at the Royal Lepage Canada office on Chippewa Street as the national president of the company was on hand to take part in the official opening of the new location.

Phil Soper reported positive news about home sales in North Bay this year.

He says market volume, which reflects the number of homes sold, is way up.

Home prices are up 6 % while market volume is 23 % higher.

Soper says the market is balanced too, meaning there ‘s potential for deals for both buyers and sellers.

Another positive is that while some communities are pricing themselves out of attracting professionals, North Bay is not.

He says the average home price here is $230,000 but it’s close to $600,000 in Barrie and $800,000 in Toronto.

Soper says the market is a little tighter than they’d like with 4.5 months of inventory, meaning if no new homes were to be listed all the remaining homes would be sold in 4.5 months.

But, he says developers will be emboldened by the growth and more homes will be sold next year.

Also on Thursday, staff at the local Royal Lepage office donated over $11,000 from a recent garage sale to Nipissing Transition House and over $3,000 to the Horizon Women’s Centre.