As prices continue to surge in Metro Vancouver there is a steady stream of people escaping the city for the calm – and lower prices – of the BC countryside. But these are not necessarily those on low incomes that are making the move; a report in The Province says that it is the middle income earners who are choosing to use the equity increases in their homes to fund a life in the country.
With the benchmark price of a single-family detached home reaching $1.27 million in January this year according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver; a rise of 25.9 per cent from a year earlier and more than 50 per cent over the past 5 years; there’s a rising number of property millionaires opting out of city life for hobby farms.
Realtor Ian Hornby, of Home & Life in Chilliwack, told The Province that his business has seen steady growth with farms spending just weeks on the market when previously it could take two or three years to sell; other realtors have similar experiences. With the opportunity for buyers to pick up hundreds of acres of BC countryside for less than a million, they expect the trend to continue.
With the benchmark price of a single-family detached home reaching $1.27 million in January this year according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver; a rise of 25.9 per cent from a year earlier and more than 50 per cent over the past 5 years; there’s a rising number of property millionaires opting out of city life for hobby farms.
Realtor Ian Hornby, of Home & Life in Chilliwack, told The Province that his business has seen steady growth with farms spending just weeks on the market when previously it could take two or three years to sell; other realtors have similar experiences. With the opportunity for buyers to pick up hundreds of acres of BC countryside for less than a million, they expect the trend to continue.
