W hen my partner and I first walked through the door of our prospective home, last October, the air was thick with a musty scent that I preferred not

Small-Town Homes, Big-City Prices: Welcome to the Everywhere Boom

submited by

Style Pass

2021-06-05 00:00:17

W hen my partner and I first walked through the door of our prospective home, last October, the air was thick with a musty scent that I preferred not to place. It was clear that the carpet upstairs, which appeared to be the culprit, would have to go. Our feet creaked on the laminate as we descended into the unfinished basement. Previous residents had graffitied the exposed drywall with markers, pen, and chalk: “YOU MAKE A MESS, YOU CLEAN IT.” The faded letters looked like someone had once tried, hopelessly, to erase them.

But, still, there was something charming about the place. It was the type of house I always imagined would be my first: a small semi on a crescent of modest homes, tucked beneath old trees. It was a small-town Ontario home where a young couple could build the kind of life that, for my generation, always seemed tantalizingly out of reach—one with a house, a back yard, space for kids if we someday decide to have them.

We bought it a few weeks later, for $36,000 over the asking price. And we got very, very lucky. Despite paying more than double what it had sold for in 2015, we managed to avoid a lengthy bidding war—a trend that has recently moved from big-city markets to small-town properties—by putting in an offer before it was listed.