Monday, August 27, 2007

It's Official

Lisa and Jason bought a house in Saskatoon (well ... actually, Jason and his brother Chris bought the house ... but since I'm a non-owning spouse I have a stake either way ... yay Homesteads Act)! Over the last week I haven't posted much since we've been finalizing all the details, but all of our conditions were lifted on Friday.

Exciting.

We're going to try and have a basement suite developed and ready to rent by November 1st, so hopefully we'll be able to help with the renting crisis that is plaguing Saskatoon right now.

There was an announcement put out through PAWS pleading for people to put students up as boarders, and the Globe and Mail reported the following last Monday:

Mr. Pepler [president of the Student's Union] fears students may take for granted that they can find accommodations and will be in for a shock when they realize the place they were going to live has been converted into condominiums.

He said he's already heard stories of students being forced to live in tents because they can't find places to live. One member of the students' union staff recently took someone in who was sleeping in a car.

"The big crunch is going to happen in September - in Sept. 1 and the week after - when students come in from out of country and out of province and realize there is nothing for them," Mr. Pepler said. "We're preparing. We're trying to put together contingency plans for a crisis. We know there will be one. We don't know the extent of it."

Another issue is affordability.

Brittany Holderness and her four roommates are locked into a lease at a townhouse and pay $855 a month. But she has been told that will jump to $1,200 a month when it comes time for renewal.

"Right now my colleague in Calgary is paying less rent than I am," said Ms. Holderness, who is president of the students association at the Saskatoon campus of the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology.
Also, we paid under list price, which seems to be somewhat of a rare occurrence in Saskatoon ... although not a unique one, if you follow Norm Fisher's real estate blog:

http://www.teamfisher.com/blogs/norm_fisher/default.aspx

That's about it for what's happening in my world. The house thing is a little all consuming right now.

We got to spend the weekend with Jason's family, in celebration of his Mom's B-Day. There was some Guitar Hero, and some karaoke, all in all it was pretty much a rock-star weekend.

Jason's brother Glen was in Wyoming competing in the Long Drive competition there, winning a ticket to the Re/Max Long Drive World Championship Tournament in Mesquite Nevada this October.

This site lists him as the Open Division Winner. Pretty awesome and amazing. I look forward to his progress through the 14 rounds that it takes to win the Championship in Mesquite.

No comments: