Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

Property Values

Assessed property values skyrocket in a revitalized Clearwater

Jan 12, 2023 | 5:17 PM

CLEARWATER, B.C. — A brand new duplex is the newest home built in Clearwater, a community that hasn’t seen many new homes built in the past couple of decades.

“This development was essentially started back in 2008, and it didn’t really go anywhere at the time,” Melissa Hole, realtor and property developer explains. “It may have been economics or the developer, at the time. Now the development is completely sold out, so we’re going to see quite a few new housing starts.”

Over the past several years, demand in the area has increased significantly. Housing affordability and recreation opportunities are at the heart of why many folks have made the move to Clearwater.

“It’s hospital, recreation, ability to access doctors, proximity to a major centre like Kamloops that you can fly out of or do your major shopping,” Merlin Blackwell, District of Clearwater Mayor, explains. “Those are all on people’s checklists for a small town to live in.”

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The disruption to the traditional work environment wrought by the pandemic has also played a role in the influx of new residents to the community.

“We’re seeing an abundance of people being able to work from home,” Hole says. “They’re coming from the Fraser Valley and we’re now seeing people start to come from other provinces, such as Ontario.”

However that high demand for homes, coupled with a stagnant supply, has seen assessed property values skyrocket, to the tune of a 29 per cent average this year.

“This year it went up 26 per cent, last year it went up 25 per cent. I believe the year before it went up about 10 per cent,” one homeowner explains.

CFJC Today spoke with several homeowners from Clearwater. While only one wanted to go on the record, they all shared questions and concerns about why their property assessments had seen such a dramatic increase.

“Nobody knocked on my door to take a look at my house. I don’t know where the information is coming from, other than they’re telling me that they’re comparing me to other properties sold. The only comparison I have is from other neighborhoods.”

Increasing the supply of housing within the community is a high priority for Clearwater’s mayor and council. However, there are challenges that come with creating new neighbourhoods.

“We’re, as a council and a municipality, looking at how we put the infrastructure in place to support completely new land developments, new housing starts in a town our size,” Blackwell explains.

For Melissa Hole, those property value increases are an adjustment that have been long overdue.

“I think now with the adjustments are now just catching up to where they should be,” Hole says. “The unfortunate thing is that it’s Clearwater as whole, so one house might be a direct comparable for the whole town — which isn’t a comparable — so the values are really skewed.”