Salt Spring Island is renowned for its strong artistic base.
There are many talented artists here, working in all media, including painters and fabric artists and gem artists and sculptors...these are not dilettante/dabblers, and many of them have decided to locate on the Island.
There are many artists studios, dotted around the Island, open to the public, and there are also many galleries in the "village"...one of the most prominent, and well known for showcasing exquisite local art offerings, will be closing unexpectedly.
I always think of realtors as being the canary in the mine...we get the shift first, and many other livelihoods follow us, within six months to a year, whether the trend is up or down.
In my totally secondary home market area, with no local buyer, and with a buyer profile from the U.S., the U.K., and other provinces of Canada, plus from Europe, we saw a slowdown in sales by 2006. We are more affected by events in the home areas of our buyer profile than other communities in B.C. would experience, as they would have local buyers.
Tourism is down, here, and the buyers aren't in evidence for those second and third and fourth home decisions, and so the restaurants, galleries, kayak and scooter rentals, contractors, etc., are all feeling the same downturn that real estate foretold two years ago.
It will take significant time, too, for these businesses to see a rise in action, in response to any climb in real estate sales volume. It's not an immediate follow-up.
Landlords need their rents, regardless, and when no one is buying a painting or a sculpture, the inevitable follows.....
How may I help you to discover special Salt Spring Island & the Southern Gulf Islands? Call me!
