Whistler is Vancouver’s premier ‘cottage country’. You’d be excused for guessing that, as Vancouver boomed, Whistler would have moved in lock-step. This has not been the case, with the luxury market there moving down for years. This has affected a subgroup of Vancouver RE investors. These two posts at RE Talks on 25 Nov 2009 -
kevind (5:43 am) – “I have several friends and associates that got hammered and are still stuck in Whistler and can’t get their properties sold. One guy has had his place for sale for 5 years and has had only one offer in all that time for 1 million under his build cost and he just keeps dropping the price. He’s also lost most of his hair from the stress. I know of another place that went on the market new in 2005 for just under 3 million and last time I looked it had dropped to the 1.8 range and still for sale. The build and land cost him more than 1.8. A round of drinks one evening last season at the Longhorn and I hear this guy over at the next table make the comment something like “Christ, I feel like I could put my place up for 1 buck and no one would call”. Another friend I know just wishes his place would magically burn to the ground because the insurance replacement build value is 1.5 million more than he can hope to get for it today if he’s lucky and he would still own the land. I could go on and on.”
Greenhorn (8:50 am) – “Whistler bankrupted a very good friend of mine. He got in 4 years ago on the Olympics hype but it was all a mirage. Once his property was underwater, he gave it back to the bank and got sued for the deficit. Just going through bankruptcy now. Luckily other assets like his home were in his wifes name and she has credit still or he would be on the street. They both have jobs and income right now, but the deficit to the bank was too huge to recover from. Bankruptcy was the only choice. I went to many parties in his house in Whistler. It was beautiful. Towards the end, he had a tenant who operated the property as a type of hostel/hotel. The tenant was always late on rent payments though he was making money and getting paid every month. There are a lot of scammers up there.”
