High River housing market strong 2 years after flood
'They say we're cooked,' say a Lacombe couple moving to a riverfront property in High River
It's not quite the mass exodus some were expecting after the 2013 flood devastated the town of High River.
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Realtor Jim Ross says the housing market has bounced back considerably. Sales are still 20 per cent below pre-flood levels, but housing prices have actually jumped a little higher.
"The market here has been great. In fact, listings are selling quickly, prices have been stable. The inventory is a little bit higher than it was this time last year, but that's the same case with the whole area," said Ross.
Jim and Brenda Hargreaves are among those who are choosing to ignore the critics and go with their hearts. The couple from Lacombe say they always get the same reaction when they tell someone they are moving to High River.
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"They think we're cooked," said Brenda. "They raise their eyebrows, they look at us like, 'Oh, OK."
Jim won't even tell people anymore that the home sits right on the Highwood River.
But it hasn't been a quick and easy decision for the couple. They started their search back in 2012 as they were nearing retirement. They wanted to move closer to their four grandchildren in Calgary, and High River fits the bill.
'It's a great little town'
"It has a lot of charm, and small community, it has a hospital, its close enough to Calgary without being in Calgary.... The trees and the river, the people — it's a great little town," said Brenda.
"And it has a golf course, which is important to both of us," said Jim.
The two first made an offer on a home in High River in the fall of 2012. It fell though, which Jim says was fortuitous.
"It was in an area where, when we talked about flooding, they said, 'Oh, no. It never floods there. Guess what? They got six or seven feet of water. It was in an area south of the Hamptons," said Jim.
Househunting was then put on hold for a while while the couple spent the winter down south. They picked up their search again in the spring of 2013, and another offer soon followed. This time it went through. It was less than two weeks before the flood.
"And then, oh my. We were sick. We were sick for the people, sick for ourselves because we were into a deal to buy a house in a flooded area, and we just couldn't imagine enduring that," said Brenda.
But they say they got lucky once again. The sellers couldn't return the home to the condition in which it was viewed, so the deal collapsed.
In the meantime, Jim went to volunteer with the cleanup in High River. It was then he realized the tenacity of the people who lived there.
"I felt like, incredible the grit. The one couple that I had helped, it was their second go at the flood and they still didn't seem phased by it," said Jim.
Flood zone check
After the flood they decided to expand their search outside of High River, but nothing seemed suitable.
Finally, this past spring, their realtor sent them photos of another High River home. It backed onto the Highwood River.
"I said, 'Jim, we can not sit on the river. We have got to be out of our minds to go and have a house on the river,'" said Brenda.
But they decided to take a look at the home in the community of Vista Mirage and they discovered it had only received a little flood-related damage. The sewer backed up into the basement, and a little water entered the garage. Still, before they signed the deal they made sure it wasn't in the flood zone and they could get insurance for it.
"We've decided we're going to give it a whirl and what's the worst thing that can happen? We will have to move again, but that's unlikely," said Brenda.
Jim says all of the flood protection measures that have been put into place are giving him a lot of confidence in their decision to buy.
"Is it enough? We think so. We are pretty confident, " said Jim. "We're very, very bullish on the town, and its reconstruction, and its got a fresh feel,"