Chilliwack sees 40 per cent rise in housing prices in 2021

2021 was a record year for price increases in Canadian real estate, and a city in the Fraser Valley saw the biggest jump.

Last year Chilliwack saw prices go up nearly 40 per cent, beating out major urban centres and real estate hot spots like Vancouver and Toronto.

Shaun Cathcart, senior economist with the Canadian Real Estate Association, says Chilliwack’s rising home prices shows more people are moving away from expensive, and densely-populated urban areas.

“There is a bit of a gap between the rate of increase in Vancouver being lower than out in the Fraser Valley where we’re really seeing greater price acceleration, part of that is being in dense cities early on in the pandemic was not a cool place to be,” Cathcart explained.

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Cathcart says more rural, suburban areas like Chilliwack are growing in popularity.

“If you look on a year over year basis you can see a percentage increase in places where people are getting out of dodge, which is why Chilliwack and, along the Fraser Valley and into the interior have done much better.”

Cathcart says the pandemic has played a major role in growing housing prices, making the future harder to predict.

“We don’t know if COVID is going to keep shaking things up, and what if people have to start going back to the office?”

As 2022 progresses, some experts expect prices will keep rising — both for people looking to buy property and those looking to rent. Cathcart says unless there’s a big increase in available housing stock, the market likely won’t cool any time soon.

“Unless we start to build houses like crazy, which is what we’ve been advocating for, it’s looking like another year of big price growth, unfortunately.”