Last year saw a bit of a comeback for real estate sales on the Sunshine Coast.
While the median price for detached homes went up almost eight per cent (from about $390,000 to $420,000), the big news was that the number of units sold went through the roof.
For detached homes, the number of units sold rose almost 30 per cent from 552 in 2014 to 717 last year. For attached dwellings, such as condos and townhouses, sales jumped by more than 52 per cent to 174 units, with the median price up by almost 10 per cent to $269,000. Land sales jumped the most – up by 120.5 per cent from 2014 for a total of 161 sales, with median price up 5.4 per cent.
“In general, sales were way up and prices were up,” says Gary Little of Royal LePage, who annually prepares the year-end statistics for the region. Realtor Kenan MacKenzie was even more enthusiastic, calling 2015 “a stellar year for sales.”
The gains – especially on the price side – were incredibly modest compared to the runaway Metro Vancouver real estate market, where values jumped more than 24 per cent last year to a benchmark price of $1.248 million.
Regional assessor Jason Grant says the Vancouver market really took off last February and the momentum spread throughout the Lower Mainland – but it hasn’t crossed Howe Sound to the Coast, at least not yet.
“The performance of residential properties on the Sunshine Coast is very similar to what’s happening in the rest of the province outside Greater Vancouver,” Grant said. “It’s certainly a far less dramatic increase than what we’re seeing in Greater Vancouver.”
This year’s assessment rolls for the Coast show increases for non-waterfront homes ranging from three per cent in Roberts Creek to 13 per cent in the District of Sechelt. Sitting in the middle are Halfmoon Bay (at six per cent), Gibsons (seven per cent) and Pender Harbour (10 per cent). Waterfront homes are seeing slight drops in assessed value in Gibsons and Pender Harbour, but Grant said those reductions offset some hefty increases in recent years.
“Waterfront is stable,” he said.
Stable is the word to describe the Sunshine Coast housing market. Unlike the Lower Mainland, where many would-be homeowners feel completely priced out of the market, the Coast remains relatively affordable for working families. It’s also a strong enough market that property is still the best investment money can buy.
We like to think of it as the perfect balance.
