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Editorial: Gap growing between buyers and sellers

What will it be like another year from now?
2338_real_estate

“What goes up must eventually come down” typically applies to all scenarios, even COVID-19. Numbers fluctuate with waves and variants, but everyone expects increases, which have been continuous of late thanks to omicron, to eventually flatten out and decrease (fingers crossed).

Real estate bucks the trend. Does anyone expect prices to come down? When was the last time that happened in the qathet region, the 1990s?

The entire province of BC has been a hot market for years, and our little slice of the world is riding the same wave, creating housing affordability issues with an ever-widening gap between sellers and first-time buyers, who are being priced out of markets everywhere.

Bring on smaller dwellings and tiny homes (and locations for the latter), whatever it takes. The more the merrier, literally, as having more options will put a smile on the faces of prospective buyers and/or renters.

In November of 2021, 62.1 per cent of the buyers were from out of the area. We need an influx of residents, too, so that’s a positive.

But local buyers, for an average home here, need an additional $100,000 to make a purchase than one year ago. What will it be like another year from now?