Langley home values jump by more than $300,000 in one year

If you own a home in Langley, it probably made more money than you did last year.

The average assessed value of a single-family home in Langley Township jumped by 34 per cent in a single year, according to data released Tuesday, Jan. 4 by the BC Assessment Authority.

Their price snapshot, based on data conducted in the summer, shows that the median Langley home is worth $1,319,000, compared to $986,000 the year before, an increase in one year of $333,000.

Langley City’s house values started from a lower point, but increased at a faster rate.

The current assessed value of a median Langley City single family home is $1.162 million, up from $838,000, a 39 per cent jump in a single year. That’s a $324,000 increase year over year.

For comparison, the median household income for Vancouver-area families in 2019 was $91,750, according to Statistics Canada. Detached houses in Langley earned more than three times as much as the median family, at least on paper.

Both Langley City and Township saw increases in home values that were well above the provincial average of 22 per cent. But communities farther east, like Hope and Chilliwack, saw even steeper increases for some housing types.

Condo and townhouse prices increased at a slower rate.

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In Langley City, the median strata property went up 20 per cent, from $382,000 to $459,000, a $77,000 jump. In the Township, median condo and townhouse values rose from $543,000 to $676,000, a 24 per cent increase, for a $133,000 rise.

When asked if this type of price growth is sustainable, Andy Yan, director of SFU’s City Program, answered with a flat no.

“It moves above any notions of how incomes are gaining in the region,” he said.

This is creating profound challenges for people trying to find a place to live.

“Langley and the Fraser Valley was seen as an area where working class families could afford a home,” he noted, but without help from the “bank of Mom and Dad,” that’s increasingly difficult. This comes as a demographic bulge of Millennials are in their 30s, peak time for having kids.

But Langley is not adding rapidly to its stock of single-family homes. Most new housing in Langley City and Township has come in the form of townhouses and condos, and single-family homes remain very attractive, Yan noted. A significant number of homes in the region are also being bought as investment properties, Yan said.

“What happens when interest rates increase?” Yan said. “Will prices remain this way, or will they perhaps lower? I don’t think anyone really has any answers.”

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