Yukon housing prices climb amid mining boom

Yukon's hot mining industry has made real estate there a rare and precious commodity, with the average Whitehorse house price going up by $40,000 this year alone.

The Yukon Bureau of Statistics' latest quarterly numbers show record-setting real estate figures, including a 25.1 per cent jump in the value of transactions between the third quarter this year and the same period last year.

There were $16.7 million more in transactions in the third quarter this year compared to the third quarter of 2009, said Gary Brown, an information officer with the territorial statistics bureau.

"We're sitting at $83 million worth of transactions, and that's the highest of any quarter on record for the Yukon here. The previous record was $69 million," Brown told CBC News on Monday.

The average price of a single-family house in Whitehorse is $378,900 in the third quarter of this year, up by 14.7 per cent from the third quarter of last year.

That current average price is up over 100 per cent from 2004, when the average price of a home in the Yukon capital was $187,900. Inflation over that six-year period was 11.4 per cent, so the "real increase" is closer to 90 per cent, according to the bureau.

Demand across territory

Brown said with two new mines opening soon, and with lots of mining exploration projects underway, there has been a greater demand for housing not just in Whitehorse, but across the whole territory.

"The mining sector is really doing well here in the last couple of years," he said. "There just seems to be a lot of activity going on, and it's really being reflected in the average house price. We're up to $379,000 in Whitehorse now."

The bureau is reporting $13 million in real estate transactions outside Whitehorse in the third quarter, up about 27 per cent from the same time last year, Brown added.

As Yukon's mining industry and population continue to grow, Brown said he does not expect the demand for housing to ease anytime soon.

"It's hard to say, but chances are it's going to continue," he said.

The two Yukon mines that are set to open soon are Alexco Resources' Bellekeno silver mine near Keno City and Yukon Zinc Corp.'s Wolverine mine south of Ross River.