Housing prices climbed faster in Squamish than any other in the Lower Mainland in 2007, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. Apartments and attached homes like townhouses and duplexes are demanding more cash than last year with increases of 17 and 26 per cent respectively.
Royal LePage Black Tusk Realty manager Lisa Bjornson said apartment sales stood out with a record year - the number of sales increasing 70 per cent from 132 in 2006 to 224 in 2007.
"It's the fact that more and more are being built," she said. "It's the most affordable segment of the market, in that Squamish still deals with a significant number of first-time buyers."
As for detached homes, the median price increased 22 per cent from $386,500 in 2006 to $470,500 in 2007. The price increases can be explained partly by inventory being hit by increasing demand, said Bjornson. While the number of detached sales didn't increase considerably in 2007, the number of listings dropped by 12 per cent.
Squamish is pulling more and more people from the Lower Mainland, said Bjornson, a trend accelerated by the Highway 99 improvement project. Many people move to Squamish for the recreational lifestyle but still want to remain connected to the city for work or other reasons, said ReMax Sea to Sky Real Estate manager Pat Place. As a result, the town is seeing an influx of young families enter the market. Since the initial blow-up five years ago when the undervalued market started playing catch-up, prices are still on the rise but expected to level off and stay on pace with the rest of the province, she said.
"I don't feel the increases are going to be in that range in the next year. I think we'll see increases, but they'll be subtle increases more of 10 to 12 per cent, which are more reasonable than what we've been seeing."
With a number of new developments in the works, Place doesn't see a shortage of inventory in the coming years. Keen interest from investors and buyers will keep fueling an expanding Squamish.
"I think we're going to see Squamish grow out to the Britannia Beach area and towards even Furry Creek. We're going to see it become almost one large community."
