Photo by Vince Fedoroff
Top: NEW CONDOS – The top floor is on and windows are being installed at Mah's Point as construction continues on the largest condo development in Whitehorse. Bottom: NEW STARTS – With a variety of housing starts and new residential lots coming onto the real estate market, potential home buyers are seeing a greater variety of options as prices begin to moderate.
The most recent real estate figures released last week show the market in Whitehorse was at a record pace for the first three months of this year.
The most recent real estate figures released last week show the market in Whitehorse was at a record pace for the first three months of this year.
Total sales in the city for January, February and March eclipsed sales in the first quarter of 2011 by $13.8 million, or 43 per cent, with $46 million in transactions compared to $32.2 million in the same period last year.
The figures come from the Yukon Bureau of Statistics.
The data show the average price for a single-family home in Whitehorse in the first three months was $417,617, up 4.9 per cent from $398,142 in the first quarter of last year – but down 3.4 per cent from the average house price of $432,609 in the last three months of 2011.
The average price for a condo in the first quarter was $276,976, up $7,600 for the same period last year but down $10,000 from the average price in the last quarter of 2011.
Sales in January, February and March hit an all-time record for first quarter transactions.
Most recently on the national front, however, there was a downturn in real estate sales, with housing sales falling 5.8 per cent from July to August, according to the report published Monday by the Canadian Real Estate Association.
Val Smith, president of the Yukon Real Estate Association, said today that while she doesn't have recent statistics for the Yukon, her gut feeling suggests sales here are remaining brisk.
Personally, she said, she's extremely busy, as are others in her office.
Smith said she suspects when the second quarter statistics become available, they will show a further moderation in prices, but she believes the number of transactions will still very much healthy.
"It's active right across the board, but the greatest amount of activity is in the under-$400,000,” she said.
With the number of new housing starts becoming available, including the higher-density developments in the Ingram and Whistle Bend subdivisions, she said, the Whitehorse market is becoming more vibrant with different opportunities.
"You have more to choose from, more supply, more diversity in the market and moderating price levels, so it's healthy all the way around,” said Smith.
She said she recently handled a $360,000 home in Riverdale. There were all kinds of buyers who would have been shut out of the market until not so long ago when the same property would have been up in the $400,000-plus category.
First quarter statistics from the Yukon bureau show the total value of all real estate transactions across the Yukon for January through March was $50.7 million, up 39.4 per cent from $36.4 million in 2011.
In Whitehorse, single-family homes led the way, with 45 sales totalling $18.8 million, up from the 35 sales with a total value of $13.9 million in the first quarter last year.
There were 54 condo transactions in the first three months of this year for a total value of $15 million, up almost $5 million from the first quarter of 2011, when 39 condos changed hands for $10.2 million.
Activity in the duplex market dipped slightly in the first quarter, with 15 transactions totalling $5 million, down from 18 transactions with a total value of $5.7 million in 2011.
The average price for duplexes in the first three months this year was $333,333, up by almost $17,000 over the first quarter of 2011, and up by $14,000 for the average price in the fourth quarter of last year.
The six mobile homes that sold in the first three months this year went for an average of $244,083.
The comparison for sales in the first quarter of 2011 was not available but the average price for the 13 mobile homes that sold in the last three months of 2011 was $265,761, according to the statistics.
More than 30 per cent of the sales of single-detached houses occurred in Copper Ridge, where the average price was $437,150.
The average price for the five country residential properties sold in the first three months this year was $513,680, while the average for the 11 Riverdale homes sold in the first quarter was $351,181.
The seven Porter Creek homes sold for an average of $428,428.
Statistics for downtown were not published in order to preserve confidentiality, because the number of homes sold was fewer than three.
Information officer Gary Brown of the statistics bureau explained that when fewer than three units are sold in a neighbourhood, the bureau does not produce the statistics because it would be too easy to figure out what a property sold for.
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Comments (9)
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Just Say'in on Sep 26, 2012 at 1:53 pm
You are correct Jackie. Those of us that are old enough or have enough whiskers to remember the 21.75% mortgages of 1982 and the fact that about 50% of us were laid off the same week when Whse. Copper, WhitePass Rail, WhitePass Transportation, Elsa, Faro,Can Tung, etc. etc. all went down. Sure maybe that won't happen again but you can count on a 9% Mortgage for sure. So get your calculator out and figure out how you will make those payments????
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northone on Sep 26, 2012 at 9:15 am
That last time Whitehorse suffered a serious housing crash was in the early 80s when the Faro mine tanked for the first time. This was also a period of record high interest rates. Housing prices recovered fairly quickly, it was not a sustained decline. Our economy is not as reliant on a single employer, government spending is fairly steady keeping things relatively stable.
The chances of a wholesale housing crash are extremely remote. There will be market adjustments and prices will go down a bit and interest rates will fluctuate but the days of $150k three bedroom houses are long over in Whitehorse.
Anyone can dream of picking up a house for next to nothing and criticize those who bought in at the high end of the market cycle, but the latter are building equity, the former just pay rent and build no equity and dream of a day that will not likely come.
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Jackie Ward on Sep 25, 2012 at 9:25 am
The only people that say house prices will always go up are either a) someone with a mortgage. b) house flippers c) banks. As long as interest rates are kept at ridiculous levels, of course values continue to go up. What is the Bank of Canada scared of? Because they know as soon as interest rates rise, a lot, not all, will be under water. These prices cannot continue without some sort of correction. All an intelligent person needs to do is ask, "has my wage gone up 3X/4X the last ten years?" There's your answer. Seems a lot of folks are betting the farm on the Yukon. What happens when commodity's crash again? Hellllo Faro, lmao. Keeping your head in the sand doesn't change reality.
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Wayne on Sep 24, 2012 at 10:16 am
Banks make the mortgage loans. The CMHC guarantees the mortgage. That means us, the tax payers. No risk for
the banks allows 5% down payments. As a result, home prices are always inflated.
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Anonymous on Sep 24, 2012 at 3:20 am
@ Jack Malone, well said :)
@ Jackie Ward, as Jack stated, people have predicted that the housing market will completely crash in the Yukon and time and time again we see our standard market fluctuations. Every winter we see prices go down and every summer we see a slight increase; however, the slight increases continue on a gradual scale and the standard prices increase substantially over years. For example, in 1994 you could get a house in Mary Lake on a 2 acre lot for $150,000 and today you can get that exact same house for $500,000. Look at the trends and you will see that over longer periods of time costs will increase rather than decrease. Luckily we have "bust" moments in between where prices will drop down to realistic averages.
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Jack Malone on Sep 23, 2012 at 2:34 am
@Jackie Ward. Really - you're going to buy a home in Whitehorse for "pennies on the dollar in a few years"?! Nice analysis. For years, chicken littles have been running around predicting that the sky is falling for real estate in the Yukon and Canada. No - this is not the US. Our banks are not providing mortgages to people with no assets or salaries. Interest rates are not going to increase significantly. Housing prices may decrease 5-10 percent and plateau for a bit - but they won't crash. I suggest that you need to get with reality.
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Joseph Nicolas on Sep 21, 2012 at 5:54 am
Prices will continue to rise in the home real estate market, there is nothing to stop it. The housing market is a buyers market in Whitehorse, now, with exploration and very limited lots available I predict homes will be increasing at 5% a year as a minimum over the next few years. The old military duplex in Takhini sold for $59,000 and now they're are selling up to $350,000, for old buildings built in 1940s, it's insanity. Buy a new home, don't waste your money on a condo at today's prices, its not a good real estate investment. Just an idea, I would never buy a condo at these prices, the value just isn't there for resale value to make a profit.
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frank vullings on Sep 20, 2012 at 1:30 pm
I think its a good sign to see house prices slip back as they have, the rate of growth in the market price was not sustainable. Saying that however house prices will still be influenced by construction costs, land value and cost to provide services to the lots. Its always a good time to purchase a home, andI don't think interest rates will increase too much in the short term. The Yukon economy is booming and is supported by the large government employment base. I recall it was only 6 years ago you could get a trailer in Arkel for $80,000 and the vendor would provide financing, now they are 3 times the amount. since then, there has been great inflation in the construction labor and materials add a exploding resource sector and we now have what we had.
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Jackie Ward on Sep 19, 2012 at 9:11 am
I'm glad I rent. A lot of people will be screwed once interest rates rise. The last 50 years in Canada, a home was approx. 4 years of wages. Now its almost 7 to 8 times. Wages have not gone up but actually down. This ponzi scam is starting to crumble. Enjoy your overpriced home, because I'll be owning it in a few years for pennies on the dollar. Being ignorant to reality won't save your butt. Keep listening to King Harper of how great the economy is doing, lol. Meanwhile, China gets the red carpet to our resources and Canada sits there confused. Too bad "dogs" weren't connected to house prices, as it seems that's peoples biggest priority. Just go look at the most commented articles. They all involve dogs. Sad.