Happy almost-ski-season! I had planned on hitting the gym, but haven’t. I’ll blame it on the simple fact that I didn’t make it a priority…whoops!
Whistler had 45 sales in October, which is below the 5-year average of 71 October sales. Of these sales, 37 went for under the asking price, 5 went for asking, and 3 went for over asking.
In Squamish, there was 26 sales, which is below the 5-year average of 57 sales in October. 4 went for the asking price, 1 went over the asking price and 21 went for under the asking price.
Despite how these numbers sound, there’s signs in both markets that tighter conditions may be ahead, at least for certain segments. Inventories reversed the trend of steady increases and actually started to decline lately (see graphs below). This is partly due to properties selling, and partly due to a substantial number of sellers having their listings expire in Sept/Oct and deciding to take a breather. Patient sellers have been a notable feature of this downcycle.
It’s looking likely that the Bank of Canada will drop interest rates again in December. Pending the October inflation data (to be released on the 19th), it’s just a question of whether it will be a .25% or .50% drop.
The Canadian dollar is at multi-year lows and while that’s great for US buyers, who traditionally have accounted for about 10% of the buyers in Whistler, it’s typically a bad sign of a country’s economic strength. But if our economy is in the dumps, doesn’t that mean the Bank of Canada will drop rates faster? Well, maybe. It really depends on the trajectory of inflation. Now that Trump has been voted in, he intends to bring some particularly inflationary policies (think tariffs) and central bankers are watching this closely. Geopolitical risk also remains elevated and this is inflationary. Bottom line: central bankers are terrified of inflation and will be wary of dropping interest rates too aggressively.
Similar to my assessment last month, there’s no clear trajectory for either market at this time. They are both in boring old “healthy” territory – really not such a bad thing. Buyers can buy with choice, and sellers can sell so long as they’re responsive to market cues.
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Lindsay
604-612-1484
lindsay@lindsaymcivorrealestate.com
Follow me on Instagram @squamish_whistler_real_estate