Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, housing purchases have taken a downturn in the city of Estevan. Josh LeBlanc, a real estate agent with Coldwell Bankers Choice the current climate of the housing market in the city has definitely changed over the course of the virus.

"The number of sales that we've seen has certainly decreased compared to last year," he said. "Our first quarter was much stronger than what we had seen the year previous, but around March 20 (around when COVID-19 hit) it definitely took a halt."

For people that are looking for homes, LeBlanc said there are reasonable options available at this time.

"It's an amazing time to buy right now, interest rates are low, there's lots of selection on the market for people to choose from and prices are dropping as well so that's helping out.

It's definitely a buyers market, one thing that I want to stress is that we're all still out showing people houses, and we're all still able to go show people houses as well just as long as the homeowners allow us into the property."

He thinks that because people are starting to realize real estate agencies are still showing homes and that homes can still be seen in person, that it's causing the market to rise once again.

"In terms of what we're seeing in May, we have quite a few conditional sales on the board right now, we're just waiting for conditions to be lifted on them and hopefully we'll see a more positive May than we did April.

We're not in a completely dead market. We still have people looking, there's still sellers listing their properties and those prices are becoming more realistic and competitive for the market now."

Many people are also looking to downsize at this time as well.

"We are seeing people who are at that point in their life where it's time for a condo or time for a smaller home, we're lots of that kind of stuff happen. Families are growing up or moving off, or people just aren't wanting the yard work and the extra care and attention that that requires."

LeBlanc assured that your property will sell, it just needs to be priced appropriately and adequately for the current market. He added there are lots of buyers right now, but they're only willing to deal with sellers who are realistic.