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Whistler homeowners saw the average value of
their homes drop last year -- making it one of
the few places in the province to see property
values decline in 2005, according to figures
released by BC Assessment Tuesday.
An analysis of assessment figures by Landcor
Data Corp. indicates the average
single-family home in B.C. increased in value by
18.8 per cent over the past year, while
condominiums jumped in value by 14.8 per cent.
But in Whistler, the assessed value of an
average single-family home has dropped 2.4 per
cent, from just under $1.02 million to $995,517.
And Whistler condo owners have fared even worse
-- with the average value dropping 4.7 per cent
from $542,649 to $516,915.
Nearby Pemberton also saw a drop in land values
last year.
Pat Kelly, president of the Whistler Real Estate
Company, said there's been a noticeable cooling
of the housing market in the resort area.
"I've been selling real estate for 25 years and
one thing I know is markets don't go up
forever," he said. "It's just part of a cycle --
markets go up and markets go down."
Tsur Somerville, a housing expert with the
University of B.C.'s Sauder School of Business,
has done some analysis of house prices in
Whistler.
Somerville
said it's not surprising that Whistler's market
has cooled since it outpaced the rest of the
province for most of the late 1990s.
"When everyone else was going through a downturn
from 1994 to 2000, Whistler was rising," he
said.
Somerville
also cautioned against concluding that
Whistler's downturn is a sign of things to come
for the rest of the province.
"Most of the people who buy in Whistler are from
B.C. But there's a lot of money that flows into
Whistler that's not B.C. money," he said.
"Whistler is a resort community with
international capital flows. It's moving on a
different schedule than the rest of us."
While Whistler lagged behind, other regions did
better than the provincial average.
Single-family homes were up 20 per cent in
Penticton, 21.6 per cent in Nanaimo, 21.8 per
cent in Kamloops and 25 per cent in Courtenay.
The hottest region of the province was Prince
Rupert. There, the average single-family home
jumped 25.8 per cent from $97,485 to $122,602.
And Prince Rupert condos skyrocketed 55.7 per
cent, from $65,360 to $101,764.
Gordon Kobza, a realtor with Realty Executives
Prince Rupert, says the planned expansion of the
city's port is driving the real estate gains.
And Kobza said he expects prices to continue
rising in 2006 as construction begins on the
port.
"Over the last year, it was mainly speculation.
But I believe this year, it will actually be
people who are motivated to move here for work,"
he said. "Over the next 18 months, it should be
very exciting."
The most expensive single-family homes in the
province, according to the assessment figures,
are in West Vancouver, where average values
broke through the million-dollar mark for the
first time -- to $1.1 million, from $980,864 the
year before. |
