Low interest rate key reason for skyrocketing assessment values
Property values in Osoyoos are hurtling upward for a variety of reasons.
The most recent numbers from B.C. Assessment listed Osoyoos as one of the communities in B.C. with the highest rise in property values for 2005.
But Okanagan Region Assessor Jim Inverarity said the increases in property value are typical of market activity in the entire Okanagan.
Osoyoos isn't the top community; Kelowna was higher. But there were record increases all over the province, he said.
Inverarity said residential values across the province had leapt 25 to 30 percent, while land had in some cases doubled in value.
It's a sign of strength in the B.C. economy and in people's desire to move to the area, he said.
He said many factors contribute to the increase in property purchases, but the most important in his view was low interest rates.
Low interest rates help in a big way, whether it's people getting their first home or buying a high-end property. There are a lot of different market segments taking advantage of the lower rates, he said.
Inverarity also said the Okanagan is a very desirable location for retirees, and Osoyoos is one of the communities to benefit from that phenomenon.
But he added the jump in property values was a very recent phenomenon.
From the end of the 1990's up until 2002, the market was much more stable, he said.
He said since 2002 the market value of homes has shot up, with double digit increases in value, with increases from 18 to 30 percent over the course of a year. But he added the increase in value also depended on the type of property being sold.
Waterfront homes have an initial value that won't go down, but they've been increasing at huge percentages, sometimes doubling in value, he said.
Inverarity said B.C. Assessment is not a forecasting firm, so he could not predict the future of the B.C. housing market.
Our job is to follow the market, not forecast it. But we are seeing record construction, which we don't see slowing down, he said.
