Home sales surge in small-town Saskatchewan

April 7, 2022

$68,000: Three-bedroom house on 3rd Avenue, Canora, Saskatchewan.
Current listing as of March 24, 2022.| Realtor.ca

Small-town Saskatchewan real estate agents are reporting a substantial increase in housing sales with transactions hitting record highs for some of the lowest-cost homes in the country.
Jodie Kowalyshyn of Community Insurance in Canora has been a licensed realtor since 2006, and said 2021 was the busiest season she has ever seen.
“Normally, we have close to 40 properties on the market,” Kowalyshyn told SaskToday on March 24. “Currently we’re down to just 15 – and the demand is showing no signs of slowing down. We’re expecting sales to take off even more once the weather changes and the snow melts.”
According to February 2022 data from the Canadian Real Estate Association, the average composite home price in Southeast Saskatchewan, where Canora is located, is $192,600 compared to a national average of $816,700.
Kowalyshyn said the fastest-selling Canora homes are those listed under $100,000.
“Just last week, we listed a smaller house in town. We posted a sign in the front yard, and by the next day – it was sold.”
Another established local realtor, Gladys Secondiak of Re/Max Bridge City Realty, said her properties are selling so fast, she can hardly keep up with the paperwork.
“I’ve been running steady. I work seven days a week. You’d think COVID-19 would have slowed things down, but actually, it has stirred buyers up. In all my years in this industry, 2021 was the busiest year yet.”
Secondiak said that a good portion of her buyers are out-of-province and it’s not uncommon for properties to be purchased sight unseen.
Secondiak noted that some buyers were also influenced by the Ottawa “trucker freedom convoy.”
“Well, when people started talking about the idea of Trudeau freezing bank accounts, they really began scrambling to put their cash and assets into real estate. When they looked across the country, they discovered the best prices were right here in Saskatchewan.”