Back To Blog December 7, 2020

Winter is in full swing here in Whistler, where we’ve enjoyed opening day success. Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains are now officially open for the 2020/21 season! Opening day brought smiling faces and snow aplenty with conditions better than in past years: an 86-centimeter base and another 5 to 10 centimeters overnight. We are blessed with excellent early season conditions, having enjoyed much sunshine and new safety protocols in place to make the mountain safe and accessible for all. While B.C.’s provincial health officials are currently recommending against all non-essential travel at this time, the resort is looking forward to a prosperous winter season. The three key things you need to know about skiing at Whistler Blackcomb this season are:

  • You will need a reservation to ski or board
  • Face coverings are mandatory in lines, lifts, and any building
  • You’ll need to make a table booking for lunch

Whistler has a successful opening day

A handy resource is the ‘doors open directory‘ detailing each and every business operating hours and procedures as we still navigate the ever-changing COVID protocols. We continue to have scheduled appointments for FaceTime property tours available while the travel advisory is in place throughout B.C.  As Whistler does fall within the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, we can conduct in-person property tours for residents of Richmond, Vancouver, North Shore – Coast Garibaldi region, respecting all COVID protocols.

Whistler continued to experience a very active real estate market in November, with 80 sales of single family homes, condos, duplexes, townhouses and triplexes. Nightly rental townhomes saw the highest activity, with 24 active listings and 22 sales in November. Median monthly sale price was up 12% compared to October 2020, from $1,252,500 to $1,404,500. This sector was followed by residential townhomes which saw 7 sales result from 15 active listings in November.

Single family homes continued to show demand, posting a 28% Sales to Active ratio with 18 sales from 63 active listings.  Unrestricted Phase I nightly rental apartments posted a 56% Sales to Active ratio with 21 sales resulting from the 37 active listings for the month.  Residential condos only saw a 16% S/A ratio but I feel this stems from sheer lack of inventory; 1 sale from only 6 active listings.  Phase II restricted owner use hotel-condominiums saw 9 sales from 40 listings or a 22% sales to active ratio.  News of a vaccine and loosen of travel restrictions has seen an uptick in this ownership model as confidence in having nightly rental guests return to the resort in 2021  increases.

In November we only had 190 active listings of single family homes, condos, duplexes, townhouses and triplexes which is quite low for Whistler.  We would need to go back 2 years to see a similar levels of inventory.  When compared to this July’s active listing count of 338, we can see why the currently Whistler market has moved to being a seller’s market.  With 190 listings and 80 sales, November posted a 42% sales to active ratio with 2 months of inventory available for purchase in Whistler. Check out my new listings here, and the rest of my November stats here.

Wishing you happy Holidays ahead, and the very best for the New Year to you and your family!

Nick