Average house price fell from late 2011

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.

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.

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.

@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.

@ 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.

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.

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.

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.

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????