Home is where the debt is.

Owning a house is a serious undertaking for the majority of people. The need for housing to be available is another growing problem for Alberta and is coming into Saskatchewan. Rents are rising. The recent rent cap in Alberta has helped out residents somewhat, but it's still hard to make head way in a province that is already known for a drastic increase in living costs over the last 7 years. However, the people of Saskatchewan need to wake up, rent increases are coming and are going to continue to rise. The top ten places to be selling homes are;

The top 10 areas in Canada with the largest year-over-year price increases in August

Battlefords, Sask., 73.9% (Your home is worth 73.9% more than last year)
Saskatoon, 56.4%
Estevan, Sask., 52%
Northeastern Alberta, 46.6%
Prince Albert, Sask., 39.6%
Lethbridge, Alta., 37.5%
Fort McMurray, Alta., 36.2%
Regina, 34.1%
South Georgian Bay, Ont., 33.1%
Brandon, Man., 31.4%

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070929.RHOMESALES29/TPStory/?query=Saskatchewan

Half of the list are Saskatchewan cites, the lowest gain in SK, is Regina but a 34% return on a one year investment is a great return. What this means is that they are going to people buying and selling homes more than usual. Each person is going to want more net profit than the last and the real exasperating point here is that they are going to get more. The influx of former Alberta residents that have sold their homes and migrating into SK will mean the market contains the money to pay "little extra" for their new home.

To give you an idea on what the housing market is like this is what people are paying in Calgary, and this also points out how inflated the market is/was.

"The average price of a single-family Calgary metro home in September was $470,888. In August, it was $485,914. It has fallen more than $35,000 from the record high of $505,920 recorded in July. Last year in September, the average sale price was $426,622 -- a 10.38 per cent year-over-year increase." - Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/calgarybusiness/story.html?id=66903d5c-9650-4281-b212-a398d90badb0&k=84400