Soaring real estate prices over the last three years have cost New Brunswick its status as the cheapest province in Canada to buy a house.
That title now belongs to Saskatchewan.
According to data compiled by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and released last month, the calculated benchmark price of a home sold in New Brunswick in April, including houses, townhouses and condominiums, reached $313,700.
That is 34.2 per cent higher than one year earlier and nearly double prices in the province from three years ago.
This multi family home on Saint John’s west side sold for $115,000 in November, 2020. After renovations, it is back on the market with a $404,000 asking price. (Robert Jones/CBC News)
New Brunswick home sales in 2022 have not been as frenzied as in 2021 with deals running about 17 per cent below last year’s record levels but most everything that is listed is selling and prices have remained strong, according to Saint John real estate agent Marcus Power.
“The number of buyers have slowed down, but there’s still multiple offers on every listing,” said Power.
“I’m writing offers that are getting turned down every day.”
Record prices have also hit building lots. This piece of land on Anchorage Avenue in Saint John sold for $169,000 in May 2021. It was relisted and resold in May this year for $202,000. (Robert Jones/CBC News)
New Brunswick’s housing market became energized during the COVID-19 pandemic with thousands of Canadians moving east in search of cheaper housing, more space or a different lifestyle.
Thousands of immigrants also arrived from abroad generating the most significant population growth in the province in more than 40 years.
Statistics Canada now estimates 804,000 people are living in New Brunswick, up 31,000 in the last three years.
The influx created an intense demand for housing that has driven up both the cost of owning a house and renting an apartment.
This duplex on Colonial Drive in Moncton sold in January 2021 for $260,000. It went back on the market and resold in March 2022 for $437,000. (Google Street View)
Prices are up in all corners of the province, but most sharply in the Moncton area where the benchmark price of a detached single-family home in Dieppe in April hit a record $480,000. That’s up $128,000 over last year.
“Upward price pressure remains steady,” said Mike Power, the president of the Greater Moncton Realtors in a news release about record prices in southeastern New Brunswick.
“Market conditions are still a long way from achieving balance in our region.”
There are still bargains in the province.
Prices in Northern New Brunswick are running 35 per cent below provincial averages, although those too have jumped significantly in the last three years.
A protest outside a Fredericton apartment building on Main Street in February. The rising cost of real estate has triggered protests in New Brunswick over the last year as record sale prices affected both buyers and renters of housing. (Ed Hunter/CBC News)
According to CREA data, the overall benchmark selling price of a home in New Brunswick three years ago in April 2019 was $172,200. It was the cheapest among provinces by a significant margin at the time and well below Saskatchewan, which had a benchmark sales price for homes of $258,900.
However, this April saw prices in New Brunswick jump $141,500 from three years ago and at $313,700 have now caught and passed prices in Saskatchewan, which now has the cheapest house prices among provinces at $295,000.
Home prices in New Brunswick are still the cheapest in Atlantic Canada however, and remain less than half the national average.
In Canada the benchmark selling price of a home in April was $746,146.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
