"The cottage’s asking price climbed quickly; I felt like I was having a heart attack."of Maclean’s, and each week here online, recent buyers divulge what they had to do to acquire the cottages of their dreams: pool family money, send relatives for viewings, hop on the first flight to Atlantic Canada post-bubble, or buy sight unseen, sometimes from thousands of kilometres away.
Tom White and Deidre O’Leary booked the first flight to Saint John, New Brunswick since January 2021 to see their dream property.Early on in the pandemic, I read about a young Toronto couple who had bought a beautiful home in New Brunswick for $250,000. It sounded affordable, so we started looking for a cottage for ourselves.I had been out to the East Coast to visit my son, who’s since passed away. I particularly liked Saint Andrews for its laid-back pace, but Deirdre hadn’t seen any of it.
I don’t know that we were particularly surprised by the pace of the market in New Brunswick, having watched it from a distance. But we know we got in at the right time: the couple I read about who bought their place for $250,000 recently listed it for $639,000.No matter how much this place goes up in value, we’re not looking to sell. We’d be more likely to sell our place in Toronto than the cottage.