Photo: Contributed

If you are thinking about buying a single-family home or condominium at one of the Interior’s ski regions, it might be best to wait a while.

Royal LePage released its 2022 Winter Recreational Property Report on Tuesday, and it determined median prices skyrocketed over the first 10 months of 2022 and are likely to keep heading towards the stars.

Big White led the way in the single-family detached category with a whopping 45.5% median price increase between last year and this year. The median mark was $1.1 million in 2021 but ballooned to $1.6 million this year.

The jump wasn’t nearly as stark at Sun Peaks, but the median price there for a single-family dwelling jumped 13%. The median price was $1.36 million last year and is now $1.54 million.

Revelstoke’s winter recreation property is the most affordable of the three Interior ski regions, but its median price still jumped 13.3%, moving from $750,000 in 2021 to $850,000 this year.

"While the rapid rise in interest rates, which began in March of this year, has caused many would-be buyers in the residential market to move to the sidelines, some recreational property purchasers—most notably in higher-end markets—have demonstrated a greater tolerance to increasing monthly mortgage costs," Royal LePage Advantage Real Estate broker Pauline Aunger said in a press release.

"Additionally, many buyers of secondary properties are able to leverage equity from their primary residence or may not require financing at all."

Prices climbed over the last 10 months, but the number of sales fell after last year's record purchasing pace.

The same price hikes happened in the condo category of the three regions. Revelstoke went from $570,000 to $778,500 (36.6%), while Sun Peaks jumped from $398,500 to $504,500 (26.6%).

The median price hike of a condo in the Big White region increased a comparatively modest 11%, from $450,000 to $500,000.

Royal LePage believes single-family detached prices are going to continue to climb in 2023 for two of the three regions. Sun Peaks is expected to have an 8% increase in 2023, while Big White is projected to have a 7% jump.

The median price in Revelstoke, meanwhile, is expected to fall 10% in 2023 to $765,000.