If our site statistics prove correct, 2008 could be a busy year in the BC waterfront market. Typically, unique visitors to our site increase every month from January until August and then slightly decline until the end of December. Our current forecast for this month is for approximately 10, 000 unique visitors, which is similar to our numbers at the height of the season for last July so this warrants well for 2008 waterfront sales.
In addition, inquiries going through the site have increased and some of our member Realtors are reporting a busy start to the year.
Although we haven't received the final stats for 2007 yet, we anticipate the results will show that 2007 waterfront sales were down slightly over the record-breaking 2006 sales, but that prices were up in most areas. Judging by the number of inquiries going through the site , two "sleeper" areas to note (although already gaining in popularity) were the lake country north of Kamloops (where prices are lower than other resort areas in BC) and the Cowichan Lake area on Vancouver Island.
In speaking with many Realtors throughout the year, we noticed a trend toward a quieter waterfront market in areas previously bolstered by US buyers- in particular southern regions of Vancouver Island outside of Victoria (Sooke) and the Southern Gulf Islands. Watch these areas in Spring for a possibly emerging buyers market.