It’s no secret that the impacts of COVID-19 have been seen in many economic sectors. Real estate is no exception. We don’t want to dwell on this topic for too long. I am sure you are as tired of hearing about it constantly throughout your day as we are.
We don’t want to downplay the negative impacts COVID has had on thousands of people.
But we like to look at the positive wherever we can.
This article briefly covers what we’ve been seeing over the last few months with more and more people looking to make the move to the countryside. COVID might not be the reason but it seems that everything it has caused has become a catalyst for people to buy the house they WANT rather than what they feel they need… more on this below.
A recent article by the Global News (which you can read in full here), covered various stories about this topic. City dwellers looking to move to the country, and some who had already done so. It also had comments from realtors who had seen an increase in interested buyers across various rural areas in Ontario.
Here are some of the driving factors that seem to be causing this change:
Working From Home
The less you have to go into the office, the more options you have with where you live.
If the commute is no longer an issue, you can look at a home further away from the office. Suddenly you have more options. There isn’t as much need, at least for some people, to live right by the highway to cut the commute time as much as possible.
House and Rental Prices
This point follows through from point #1. Let’s be honest, the rental prices are quite high right now. Especially in major cities. Looking for a home outside of the city seems like a reasonable options when you compare it to what you’d be spending on rent every month in a city like Toronto.
Housing prices aren’t much better in the bigger cities either. If you have the option to look at auxiliary towns and cities outside of these areas you immediately get more bang for your buck.
Access to Information
With more access to information online than ever before, moving to the country doesn’t have to be a daunting task. City dwellers who are used to city and suburban houses can get a ton of answers online about what to expect about living in and buying a country home.
For example, the article from Global News cited above interviewed a couple who credited YouTube as an excellent source of information for learning about setting up and running a permaculture farm.
Stay At Home Order Frustration
The stay at home order shed a light on the quality of life for many of those living in the city. It was even tougher for those confined to a condo apartment or small townhome with limited access to the outdoors.
Country Life Doesn’t Equal Seclusion
Here at the Land & Title team say this quite a lot, but country living does not have to mean complete seclusion and there are many country living options to suit your lifestyle.
If you don’t want to go to rural where you’d have a good 15 to 20 minutes drive to the grocery store, you don’t have to. There are a number of locations on the outskirts of town that qualify as country homes which might be better suited to you.
Not only that, but country communities are also very welcoming. They are often closer-knit and can be more friendly than people in the city. Well, that’s our biased opinion anyway. 🙂
Mental Health
It is pretty well known that living in the country is better for your mental health than living in the city. Here is an article that deep dives into that a little more if you are interested. With the added stress of the pandemic and everything else going on currently, more people are looking for a place where they can come home at the end of the day and feel at peace.
If you’re also thinking about making the jump to a country home, now is the time to do it. This trend of more buyers looking to move to the countryside is only going to put more pressure on the market and keep driving prices upwards. This is something many of us are seeing across the board with residential real estate.
