Barriere:

The Barriere area is well known for its fishing opportunities. Located along the North Thompson River, there are at least 75 lakes within 40 km of Barriere. Rainbow trout, Dolly Varden, as well as some Chinook Salmon can be found in season in these waters.  

BC Assessment’s 2006 report shows an overall growth in assessment for single family homes from $116,499 to $128,500, a growth of about 10%. When we look at MyLandcor’s figures for waterfront property in this area, we see that waterfront properties have indeed risen from $112, 200 to $113,750, an increase of about 1%. Assessed values for vacant land under two acres have fallen by about 35% in the past six years. However, we note that the 2006 assessment values showed a significant increase over the 2005 values. The 2006 assessment showed a  30% increase in value as compared to the previous year.
 

While the assessment values may have increased, the availability of waterfront property along the lakes and rivers in this area are extremely limited. According to MyLandcor, there have been no sales of single family waterfront or vacant lots under 2 acres waterfront since 2001. The one main reason for this is there are not many private waterfront properties. Most of these types of properties are Crown land, and comes up for sale or lease rarely.

Owners of property in this area tend to be local, with a large cluster of owners located around Kamloops. Other concentration of owners can be found in the Lower Mainland, Prince George, Edmonton, and Calgary.

Clearwater & Blue River

This area includes Wells Gray Provincial Park, which is a fisherman’s paradise. Those in the know visit this area for access to both the North Thompson and the Clearwater Rivers as well as the multitude of backcountry lakes for rainbow and bull trout. BC Assessment’s 2006 report show an increase in assessment for single family homes in Clearwater from $98,700 to $112, 400, an increase of about 13%.  Homes in Blue River have increased from $128,100 to $132,000, an increase of about  3%. MyLandcor shows assessment values for waterfront houses have risen by about 9% since 2001, while vacant land under two acres have risen by about  13%.
 

MyLandcor shows that the inventory of land along the major rivers and lakes is extremely low. Since 2001, there have only been about 11 sales of waterfront single homes in this area, with the average sale price remaining  under $120,000 over the last 5 years. Keep in mind that most of the land in this area, especially around the major lakes in the area, are taken up by the several provincial parks located in this area. When we looked closer at a map of the area, we found only several properties were private- most property along the major waterways are Crown land.

The map of  property owners in this area shows that the section of the North Thompson River Valley will not be quiet for long. While most owners of property come from around Kamloops, the Lower Mainland, and Calgary, there are  also owners from the UK, Germany and Austria.

Mahood Lake

We took a closer look at Mahood Lake, found at the south-west corner of Wells Gray Provincial Park.  Mahood Lake is known to be one of the best fishing lakes in the area, with one of the most diverse fish populations, with Rainbow and Bull trout, burbot and kokanee. Not all of this lake is located within the park, and the western end is accessible by road.

Mylandcor shows that there are no waterfront vacant lots less than 2 acres in this area. Assessment values have risen steadily for single homes since 2001 from $109,745 to $158,048, or by about 44%.