The Canadian market has seen an increase in used boat prices for sure. There are a number of reasons for this IMHO.
The biggest impact was the value of the Canadian dollar in comparison to our neighbours to the south. A surge of US buyers have come to Canada to purchase our fresh water boats, with a strong dollar, which has depleted the Canadian used boat inventory. As a result, there are just not a lot of good clean boats for sale here in Canada, especially the big stuff. All you have to do is ask someone who is in the market to purchase a used boat here, or the people in the boat sales industry. Have you noticed that a lot of brokers in Canada advertise in US dollars on their web sites.
Another issue that had an impact, was when Justin Truedumb put the 10% tariff on any boats coming to Canada from the US. That has since been lifted, however, the impact was that a Canadian purchaser was deterred to go stateside to purchase a boat. This is also due to the higher dollar in the US as a Canadian will have to pay 35 cents on the dollar, plus HST of 13%.
The fact that a number of boat manufacturers have gone under or have stopped making larger boats, like Sea Ray which no longer manufactures boats over 40 feet for example, has forced buyers to look in the used boat market. This is also due to the fact that there is great value in a used boat over new. This has had an impact on boat pricing in Canada and the US.
I am sure there are many other factors, but the end result is a depleted used boat availability in Canada which has intern raised used boat prices here, for sure. Nice time to sell a boat and if you are buying, not so much. I have been advised that the used boat prices have increased by as much as 20-25% depending on the condition of the boat.
Now let's see what Justin Truedumb's luxury tax on boats and vehicles over $100,000 does to the market.
Those are my thoughts. Happy shopping, I know we all are shopping all the time, thats just what we do. The great North American past time.
Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends.
Greg