Saskatoon real estate agent Warren Ens says the current conditions in the Saskatchewan housing market are not for the faint of heart.
“Really good houses, you have to go on the exact same day (they’re) listed, and even then you’re probably going to be involved in a bidding war,” he said Friday.
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He adds that Saskatoon’s bidding wars for houses are happening at a rate he has never seen in his 11 years working in Saskatchewan.
“Last Friday I got into two bidding wars with two different clients,” he laughed. “That is not something that looks too much.”
A new report RE / MAX shows that this is the case across the country, making it difficult for first-time home buyers to enter the market.
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RE / MAX Canada Regional Executive Vice President Elton Ash says this competition could continue.
“In March, we are anticipating that the Bank of Canada will start raising the interest rate overnight due to concerns about inflation and that sort of thing,” he said Thursday. “That will push buyers all of a sudden, because they have been looking and they will want to insure at a lower rate.”
He said buyers across Canada are now seeing the value of a new affordable home in Prairies.
“People look at that and say, ‘Hey yeah, I could be working in Toronto today, but I can work remotely and I can go home to Saskatchewan where the prices are much more affordable; Family life will be better and I will be able to work remotely, ‘”Ash explained.
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Ens says he has seen this play out in his day job, with many newcomers in the last year.
“We’ve seen people from Toronto, Chilliwack, BC, places like that come here,” he said.
From his perspective, the report is accurate in its prediction that homes are likely to continue to slowly rise in price, but it says a seller’s market won’t always make things easier.
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“When you have bidding wars and you have multiple bids, it sounds great to a salesperson,” he explained. “But it is also very complicated because you could actually lose all the offers because you do something wrong.”
The bottom line, he says, is that Canada is a seller’s market, and Saskatchewan is selling fast.
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