Cottage country home prices in Canada are exploding as buyers escape cities

https://www.livabl.com/2021/05/cottage-country-prices-exploding-buyers-escape-cities.html

Fierce competition and prohibitive prices across many Canadian cities and suburbs have prompted some buyers to move their home search to comparatively affordable recreational markets well outside of their home regions.

This in turn has led to soaring prices in many of these previously sleepy cottage country markets. In 2021, the average sale prices in some recreational home markets are expected to see annual increases in the 20% to 40% range, according to new research released this week in the 2021 RE/MAX Recreational Property Report.

Growing demand for recreational properties, spurred by remote work policies and changing lifestyle preferences, has pushed prices up and impacted recreational market affordability. RE/MAX brokers expect this to be a long-term trend, with “sellers’ market-like conditions” projected to continue for the rest of 2021 in 97 percent of regions analyzed in the report.

Twenty-one percent of Canadian buyers surveyed in the report stated that they were looking to recreational markets after having been priced out of an urban centre. Of the total number of buyers who plan to purchase a recreational property this year, 59 percent were first-time recreational buyers.