Home buyers, tenants from Lower Mainland moving to outlying areas to live
POWELL RIVER, B.C. — David Repa recalls the shock he felt sitting down at a bank after selling his Vancouver business in 2013 and realizing for the first time how much of “a joke” his prospects were of owning a home in the city.
“Oh, my God. I’m not even close,” Repa remembers thinking at the time.
Three years later, the man who co-founded a non-profit electronics-recycling centre and a computer-repair business is living in a spacious home he owns in Powell River. The ocean is a block away and the sound of a creek running through his backyard can be heard from the front steps.
As soaring real estate prices expand up B.C.’s south coast, Powell River has become a refuge for residents of Greater Vancouver who want to make home ownership a reality. The community of about 13,000, located two ferry rides from the Lower Mainland, is also attracting people interested in living somewhere that will allow them to afford the lifestyle they want to lead.