Purchasing a home has the dubious distinction of appearing on a couple of “significant” lists. It’s right up there at the top of the “most stressful experiences list”. And for most adults, home buying will be the single most expensive item that they’ll ever purchase. And home buying doesn’t tend to lose its status on these lists, no matter how many are purchased over the course of a lifetime. So if purchasing a home is an expensive, stressful experienced even for veterans at it, what does this mean for first time home buyers? And how welcoming is the Canadian homes for sale climate these days anyway?
In many ways, the Canadian home sale market recently is mirroring the one in the United States. As the global Great Recession ends and the economy improves in both countries, the real estate market is as well. As people regain their economic footing, their thoughts are once again turning to home owning. To the point where demand is exceeding supply. While things are improving in the construction industry in both countries, between playing catch-up and dealing with labour shortages, fewer new single family homes are being built. This housing shortage means it’s a seller’s market these days. Many realtors are reporting that buyers can’t find homes in desired communities, or are paying well above asking prices to fend off rival buyers.
But don’t panic just yet. This is what realtors are reporting, remember. And our arrival into the digital realm has afforded us with other home seeking options. For example, there are a number of home buying apps now on the market to help you quickly search listings in various neighbourhoods, plus provide tutorials in mortgage seeking, and other real estate essentials to arm you in your search. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinerest can be great places not only to pick up house hunting tips, but actual home listings, plus photographs of the homes in question. Sharp eyed readers can sometimes glean information about homes almost but not quite on the market, by paying attention to the activities of social site posters. If your virtual “friends” know that you’re searching, you can enlist hundreds of additional eyes and ears to pass along real estate leads.
And if you do want to go the realtor route, many companies are now aggressively establishing social media accounts. In the time it takes to make an appointment to look at a house with a realtor, he or she could already be searching for you, if contacted online.