West Vancouver is often touted as the wealthiest district in all of Canada. One look around at some of the luxury homes which stand here and you'll not be surprised to see why. But could it be those stunning views which also attract the rich, famous and wealthy? 

 

Great views don't come much better than huge lakes. There are snow-covered mountain peaks, forests and lighthouses which can be enjoyed by residents as soon as they wake until such time as the sun goes down and the air around the district is clean, fresh and wonderful to breathe in.

 

A staggering 95 per cent of all luxury homes in West Vancouver are priced at over $1m but this doesn't begin to tell half the story. There are more than 16,000 properties that are in excess of $1m but the average price is actually well in excess of $2m. Indeed, some properties are on the market for $30m.

 

Typically, a home in West Vancouver would have the opulence and luxury of around seven or eight bedrooms (all with en-suite bathrooms of course), a sizeable swimming pool and gated security but it is the way the homes sell against the trends across the rest of Canada and North America in general that raise eyebrows.

 

Realtors have long since commented on the ever-changing pattern of sales and boom and bust events in Canada and how they don't seem to have any influence on West Vancouver. It really is a different kettle of fish; just because the North American housing market collapsed in 2007 going into 2008, home sales in West Vancouver didn't seem to have the same effect.

 

Yes there was a downturn in the market here in West Vancouver in 2007 and 2008 but it quickly recovered to sell record amounts of properties by the following three years when the rest of the housing market was still limping slowly out of recession.

 

Luxury homes buck trends in bust times – that's a fact. It's a bit like gold during the recession, the more hard times prevail, and the higher the price of gold goes. It is where investors like to place their wealth and luxury homes in West Vancouver end up feeling the same sort of benefit. Take for example the years of 2012 and 2013 when there was a lull in luxury home sales in West Vancouver – just at the very time when the United States and Canada was emerging out of recession and into economic prosperity once again – dropped off slightly. But investors may be interested to know that as of 2014, house prices and home sales across West Vancouver are on the up again!