Prince Edward Island's housing market appears to have withstood the pressures of the recession in the first six months of 2009, according to recently released sales figures from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp.

The CMHC's latest sales figures also show that prices of new homes in Stratford, just outside Charlottetown, have gone through the roof.

Stratford is Prince Edward Island's fastest growing community and many of the new houses being built in the community are fetching top dollar.

CMHC figures show that a newly constructed home in the bedroom community is selling for an average price of slightly less than $300,000.

Meanwhile, a new home in Charlottetown costs on average $224,000.

Steve Yoston, a local real estate agent, said it's what people are putting in these homes that's driving up the price in Stratford.

"The reason you're seeing that is the homes in Stratford are larger and have more amenities. A lot of the new home buyers now are expecting quite a bit," Yoston said.

"They're expecting en suite baths, hardwood floors throughout. It just simply costs more money to build those types of homes."

Prices escalate for older homes

While the cost of buying a new house continues to grow, it isn't getting any cheaper for people to buy an older home on Prince Edward Island either.

The average price of an older home in Charlottetown is $182,000 compared to $175,000 for the same period last year.

Yoston said the Island housing market has been relatively recession-proof compared to many other larger urban Canadian centres.

"We don't see great increases like they do in other centres here. We're just kind of steady increases over the board," Yoston said.

"The fact most centres in the country have had significant declines while we have remained steady speaks to the strength of our housing market."

The housing corporation also found that in the first six months of 2009, the number of new apartment units built on Prince Edward Island also jumped.

The CMHC indicated that 105 apartments were built in the first part of this year compared to just 34 for the same period last year.