Moose Jaw’s real estate market is very active at the moment, with plenty of buyers looking to move in from outside of the province.
The problem, according to Vicki Pantelopoulos with Global Direct Realty, is a lack of houses on the market.
“The provincial budget just came out, and of course, we’re in a surplus and what we’ve been finding even over COVID years, is several buyers have been moving from outside of this province, east to west into the province of Saskatchewan,” explained Pantelopoulos.
“We have buyers, and that’s every part of this province. We just don’t have enough houses for sale. If anybody’s thinking of selling a house, maybe it’s the right time to put it up, but certainly, a lot of buyers moving in from out of town which is really a very positive thing for our province.”
She says normally what happens in the spring is homeowners putting their houses up on the market because there are several other choices for them to purchase as a move up or down. The lack of options this year is going to impact that decision for potential sellers.
“This year, what we’re going to find are those people that really just do need to move, because of whatever their life road is taking them to. I think we’ll continue to have this lack of supply of homes for sale for a couple of years now.”
Pantelopoulos says house prices in Saskatchewan remain relatively steady compared to other parts of the country.
“Certainly over the COVID years, where everything was restricted, price values went up in Saskatchewan. I believe that Saskatchewan has never been the same as say Ontario and B.C. You get these big peaks of value increase and down lows of value drops. Saskatchewan stays pretty steady, so that’s a bonus for us. Now I believe, with this provincial budget that came out, our values have increased certainly. I don’t know if they’re going to go up but Saskatchewan has become an ‘it’ province.”
She doesn’t believe rising interest rates over the last year have had an impact on the market here in Moose Jaw.
“I think supply and demand really comes into effect here. If you don’t have the supply and you have more buyers in the marketplace, those values aren’t going to change. Those stay pretty steady. They’ve actually increased in Saskatchewan, compared to the rest of the provinces of Canada. I feel very positive about the real estate market.”
