People paddle across a lake in Whistler on a sunny day.

| Balanced | Perplexing | Precarious | Exciting | Unique | Discretionary |

| Constant | Quandary | Compelling | Powerful | Desirable | Meager |

 

The pace of sales over the past 31 days has been sluggish to say the least. With a total of 17 sales and an average sale price of $1,132,671 we are well off the frenzied pace of January 2022 where we saw 65 sales with an average sale price of $1,986,338.

Throughout the second half of 2022, the volume of sales each month was considerably lower than it was for the previous two years which comes as no surprise. However, the average sale price each month in 2022 was significantly higher than what we experienced in the previous two years.

The one constant throughout the past three-four years has been our meager inventory of active property listings. Gone are the days of 600-700 active listings. At the height of the pandemic Whistler’s inventory dropped to an all time low of 125 listings and is currently hovering around the 200 number. Why are we so short on inventory? Certainly, there were a large number of sellers who took advantage of the high demand during the pandemic to move on. Perhaps those who didn’t have either decided they want to hold onto their Whistler homes or now feel like they missed the opportunity to take advantage of an unprecedented sellers market.

If history is any indication of where we go from here, my best guess is that we end up with a stand off between buyers and sellers. Sellers who don’t really need to sell will continue to hold out until they get the price they’re after, and bargain hunters will continue to wait for the sellers to capitulate. Sound familiar?

Certainly, in any market there will be owners who have to sell their properties. However, in the Whistler market the number of those sellers will most likely be modest. On the buy side, the majority of our buyers don’t have an immediate need to purchase a Whistler home. They may want a Whistler home for a multitude of reasons but they rarely need to own a home here.

It’s a discretionary decision for both sides and that’s not a bad analogy for our small yet unique real estate market here in Whistler.

If you have any questions, I am available via a phone call, text and/or in person. I am happy to discuss the market in more depth one on one.