The Whistler real estate market has seen an extraordinary surge in property sales over the past 7 months.

Let’s look at the 2020 numbers ever since the economy opened back up in June after the March shutdown. Between June 1^st. and December 31^st, we saw 595 sales compared to 342 sales in the same time frame the previous year.

A whopping 73.9% increase!

The desire to have more family space, the realization that many people can work from home and the yearning to own a recreation property to escape to from the confines of urban living are all contributing factors to the whopping increase.

As of February 02, 2021, Whistler had a total of 227 active listings and 26 of those were fractured ownership (1/4 share & 1/10 share) properties.

To put this in perspective, during Whistler’s more active development years we grew accustomed to an average inventory of 600 to 700 listings. In the 2009/2010 years we saw that inventory climb as high as 1000 active listings.

Townhome sales have been particularly hot over the past 8 months resulting in only 14 active listings as of January 28, 2021.

At first glance our supply of detached homes (62) looks better but only 8 of those homes are listed under the $2M mark, 9 between $2M & $3M and 28 of our detached homes are listed for more than $5M.

Condominium listings are more abundant with a total of 80 properties available with the split between Phase 1 and Phase 2 Covenant properties close to 50/50.

So, where are all the buyers coming from?

The answer is quite simple – the buyers are BC residents. Most are from the Lower Mainland along with Sea to Sky corridor residents buying up or downsizing within their neighbourhoods. Sure, there were a few sales to out of province and out of country (sight unseen) buyers but percentage wise it’s very small.

How long will this trend continue?

What will happen when we put this pandemic behind us and reopen our borders to international visitors?

Good questions and difficult to answer with any degree of certainty.

For the time being we’re seeing much of the same. This January we saw 83 new sales. Comparing that to January 2020 we’re looking at another whopping increase of 118% year over year. There’s always some lag time between actual sales and reported sales, so those numbers may change slightly, but suffice to say, this uptick has yet to run its full course.

If you’ve been toying with the idea of selling, this could be an opportune time to do so.

Low inventory levels and high demand have combined to create ideal conditions for increases in value. This is especially true for certain segments of the market such as townhomes and detached homes under $3M.

However, if you are planning to stay in the market by trading up, trading down or making a lateral move then it gets a bit trickier.

If you’ve been considering your options and want to chat one on one, please don’t hesitate to give me a call, fire me a text or send me an email. I’m always happy to share my knowledge and experience.

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The Right Advice for Your Whistler Property