Using borrowed funds to buy property in Whistler this August—or most places in Canada, for that matter—will cost mortgage holders more than it would have just a couple of months ago.
That’s due to the Bank of Canada’s decision to raise its benchmark interest rate by 25 points in July, pushing interest rates to five per cent for the first time in more than two decades. It marked the central bank’s 10th hike since it started raising key interest rates in March 2022.
As interest rates continue to rise, real estate prices in Whistler appear to be rebounding after dipping slightly over the last year.
A July 2023 report from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver shows the benchmark sale price for a residential property in Whistler sat at $1.426 million last month. That represents a 7.3-per-cent drop year-over-year, but a 9.2-per-cent increase over the last six months—and a 177-per-cent rise over the last decade, more than double the 84-per-cent 10-year change for properties across the entire Lower Mainland.
“We’ve seen from the height of the market in June 2022, the impact of the interest rates right away in those last six months of the year and the first month of this year,” explained Stefanie Hostetter, CEO of RE/MAX Sea to Sky Real Estate. “It did slow down the market, it did decrease people’s buying power, and then when the Bank of Canada held [its] rates earlier in the year, people either breathed a sigh of relief, or got over it or got used to the idea of interest rates being at this point, and then they stepped back into the market again. This is where we’re seeing our recovery in terms of pricing.”
A benchmark price is calculated using a Housing Price Index to represent the estimated sale price of a typical property within a specific market, excluding outliers like high-end luxury homes and lower-end properties that can skew other metrics.
Whistler’s real estate market isn’t shielded from the impacts of external factors like rising interest rates, but it is difficult to compare to other communities, for a few reasons.
“We’re a second-home market, so people don’t need to make that purchase in Whistler,” Hostetter explained. “They might hold off if the interest rates aren’t in their favour, and that’s where you’ll see a slower market sometimes—and sellers will hold off as well. If they’re not going to get their desired price, they don’t need to sell their second home.”
Still, historically low inventory means multiple-offer scenarios are still a reality when a highly-desirable Whistler property hits the market. As of Tuesday, Aug. 8, there were 234 properties for sale in Whistler.
“When the market is slow, and we have lots of options, you can have up to 400 to 600 listings,” said David Higgins, managing broker at the Whistler Real Estate Company (WREC).
According to WREC’s market report for the second quarter (Q2) of 2023, the resort tallied 151 total sales throughout April, May and June. The market snapshot lists the median price of a single-family detached home at $2.853 million. Townhouses sold for a median price of $1.523 million in Q2, or $867,000 for condos.
Whistler recorded 236 sales in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022, and 136 sales in Q1 this year.
Those statistics offer a high-level glance at market trends in Whistler, but the metrics don’t paint the full picture, Higgins said.
“It gives you a benchmark of what the market is doing, but it doesn’t actually tell you what you can get for that [specific price],” he explained.
For buyers looking to purchase in Whistler, “The first question is, ‘What do you want?’” Higgins added. “Do you want a piece of dirt or do you want to be able to walk to the ski hill? Are you looking for a cabin or are you looking for a modern home?”
Even with numbers suggesting a downward trend in pricing, Hostetter said she still wouldn’t classify Whistler as a buyers’ market.
“I would still say that it depends entirely on the property, and what segment you’re in,” she said. “I hate to be vague, but we’re such a small market that each property is different in its own way.”
For now, with no new market housing developments being built in Whistler, Hostetter said she expects prices to continue increasing, “unless the Bank of Canada really surprises us in September with a big interest rate jump.”
Higgins’ top tip for those looking to buy or sell in the resort ahead of the upcoming ski season? Find a Whistler-based realtor who understands its unique market.
“They’ll tell you, ‘OK, this is what it’s going to cost you to buy, or this is what you can likely get in your neighbourhood, in your product that you’re looking for,’” he said.
In the first half of 2023, the vast majority of Whistler buyers (79 per cent) were already based in the Sea to Sky corridor or Lower Mainland, according to WREC. Nine per cent of buyers came from other provinces or areas of B.C., while about 12 per cent of buyers are based outside of the country, with most of those international buyers coming from the U.S.
As a resort municipality, Whistler is exempt from the federal foreign buyer ban that went into effect earlier this year.
