It’s a sure sign of spring when black bears re-appear and start chowing down on grass and Skunk Cabbage. But recently this 300 lb grizzly made an rare appearance in Rainbow neighbourhood then over a period of days, made her way through Rainbow Park and eventually to the Chateau Fairmont golf course, where she was captured and re-located. Needless to say, it caused quite a stir in town and even resulted in re-routing the Whistler Half Marathon to avoid her path.
The mountain is now closed and the bike park is in full swing. The Fitzsimmons chair has been dismantled and will be replaced with our first 8-pack chair lift – the increased capacity is mainly to support the summer biking, but I’m sure will be welcome in the winter as well.
WHISTLER MARKET REPORT MAY 2023
Apologies that my last newsletter went out without the market report. Following is the report as of May 31.
The median sale price in May was $1,385,413 which is 13% lower than the same time last year, and total sales are down 32% year over year.
Looking at Month over Month, the inventory of properties for sale in Whistler continues to be low compared to long term averages. In May there were 181 active listings – down 6% from the previous month. There were 52 property sales in May, down slightly from April, but properties took less time to sell with an average 57 ‘Days on Market’ (DOM), compared to 87 DOM in April.
Sales by Property Type
Leading the way as usual were the Phase 1 nightly rental properties, with 23 sales. In second place are the Residential condo/townhouse properties with 10 sales, half of which are Resident Restricted ie. anyone can own the property, but only a “Whistler local/employee” can live in it. Hotel Phase 2 units had 9 sales, and there were 4 Shared Ownership properties, all “At Nature’s Door” units which are large mountainside chalets with 1/10th ownership. There were only 6 chalet sales in May, priced from $1,760,000 – $4,100,000. All were Canadian Buyers except for 3 from the US.
The Spring market often brings more Buyer and Seller activity so we usually see a higher volume of transactions taking place in the coming months. The Bank of Canada, however, recently raised interest rates another .25%, bringing the key interest rate to 4.75%. This is the highest since 2001, and may have a negative impact on sales.
Disclosure: Data from the Whistler Listing System (WLS) is believed reliable but should not be relied upon without verification. While the Information is considered to be true and correct at the date of publication, changes in circumstances after the time of publication may impact on the accuracy of the Information. The Information may change without notice and Engel & Volkers Whistler is not in any way liable for the accuracy of any information printed and stored or in any way interpreted or relied upon by a user. The WLS and Engel & Volkers Whistler assume no responsibility for its accuracy.