Thought of the Day - December 28 - Small Town Housing

When I talked about the COVID-19-driven housing boom back in September I focused on the Canadian cities ( Thought of the Day - September 22 - The Canadian Housing Boom ) however the housing boom or crunch, depending on what side of the "ownership line" you are on, has also come to many small towns. None more than the BC interior: Fernie, Revelstoke, Nelson and the Okanagan, all are feeling the pressure. People from the cities are moving in droves to the interior; either buying or occupying properties that would be available for rent.

There are a number of reasons for this:

• Most urban workplaces encourage work-from-home, thus more people can choose non-urban home locations. Some see this is a long-term option and are buying, while others are renting short-term (with the launch of Starlink, Elon has managed to fix the "Digital Divide" that our Telecom companies didn't, so you can even work online from places traditionally thought of as "off-the-grid");

• Some are saving money. Either selling, taking profits and avoiding massive city property taxes, or lowering their rent by moving to the interior;

• Many of the service, recreation, travel and retail job losses have come in the city so people are looking for work elsewhere;

• The BC economic recovery is being led by large construction projects and resource industries such as forestry and mining ( Thought of the Day - September 10 - BC's Economy ). The majority of these new jobs are not located in urban centres;

• The chance of catching COVID is much greater in highly populated locales - thus city folk are seeking refuge in the interior;

• BC Snowbirds, that are reluctant to head back to the US this winter, are holed in the interior;

• Canmore and Banff are overflowing with the Calgary exodus, thus there is also pressure from western Alberta;

• People re-evaluated their lives in 2020, and a number, seeing their favorite yoga classes cancelled or trendy restaurant closed, have decided they will trade a condo in the city for land in the interior.

This trend is likely to accelerate when the housing markets pickup again in the spring. Will this be a short-term or long-term trend, only time will tell?

Cheers

Cliff