The hyperactive St. John’s housing market will be slipping back toward demographic requirements in the second half of 2010, according to the Conference Board of Canada.
“We had that little bubble in the first few months of this year, which means that moving forward, we’re going to move back more toward the demographic requirements,”
according to the board’s senior economist Jane McIntyre.
Meanwhile, Deer Lake is experiencing a mini boom of its own, according to the Western Star. The town council issued 30 building permits in May. On top of that there’s a new 31 unit apartment building going up.
But it gets interesting if you look at the source of the growth in town:
With new homes come new residents, and local real estate agent Carol Anstey of Remax Realty Professionals Ltd., said the clients she deals with cover a broad spectrum.
“There’s a certain percentage of people whose husbands are flying back and forth to Fort McMurray who live on the Northern Peninsula. We’ve had a few of those families relocate here because the airport is here and they don’t have to do the drive up the coast,” she said.
Anstey said some customers are moving from other parts of the country to Deer Lake to retire, while other younger families are growing out of their starter homes and looking for newer and bigger.
People from the Great Northern Peninsula are relocating to Deer Lake because someone in the family is actually a migrant labourer working in Alberta. It’s easier to live In Deer Lake because that’s where the airport is. Meanwhile another bunch of people are actually retired from working somewhere else – not in the province either – who have decided, quite rightly, that Deer Lake is a beautiful place to retire.
Nowhere in there did anyone mention that the town is growing because the local economy is booming with new manufacturing or service businesses.
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