Sechelt dropped to 32nd in BC Business magazine’s annual survey of Best Cities for Work in B.C., after ranking 12th last year, its first year of eligibility.
The survey of 46 communities was released by BC Business in December, and for the second year in a row Squamish and Whistler were ranked first and second.
The magazine has been publishing the survey for six years, based on data for communities with more than 10,000 residents across 10 categories. It is compiled by the research firm Environics Analytics.
The categories are: average household income; average household income for primary earners under age 35; five-year income growth; average household spending on recreation; average shelter costs; five-year population growth; unemployment rate as of September 2019; average commute time; average value of primary real estate; and housing starts per 10,000 residents.
Each category is given a different weighting, and Sechelt lost ground in two heavily weighted categories.
Average household income for people under 35, which carries a 10 per cent weighting, dropped from $81,176 in 2018 to $74,358 in 2019, according to the survey.
The other category Sechelt suffered in for 2019 was housing starts per 10,000 residents, also weighted at 10 per cent. In 2018 there were 109.4 housing starts per 10,000 residents and BC Business said that dropped to 68.5 in 2019.
The background article accompanying the survey results quotes Tsur Somerville, an associate professor at UBC Sauder School of Business and senior fellow with the university’s Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate, on the importance of the housing starts category.
“There’s a lot of multiplier effects out of construction,” Somerville told the magazine. “It has a pretty high local factor – a lot of labour and a lot of the materials are local.” Somerville also noted that new homes generate local spending on household goods.
Sechelt came out roughly the same or made slight gains in most of the other 10 categories. There was a big change, however, in the average value of primary real estate, which dropped from $828,592 in 2018 to $603,508 in 2019.
According to BC Business, a lower value is actually a positive in their survey, as it’s indicative of housing costs, but the category only carries a five per cent weighting.
When last year’s results were released, Mayor Darnelda Siegers called the recognition “an exciting opportunity to highlight the Sechelt advantage to potential investors.”
The district has not yet responded to Coast Reporter’s request for reaction to the latest survey.
You can find the full Best Cities for Work in B.C. survey online at:
https://www.bcbusiness.ca/The-Best-Cities-for-Work-in-BC-2020
