When Home Prices Fall, It’s Not Just Numbers — It’s Lives

🏠 When Home Prices Fall, It’s Not Just Numbers — It’s Lives

Reading the Abbotsford News headline — “Abbotsford home prices continue nosediving into fall” — brought up more than market trends for me. Behind every chart 📉 and percentage, there are families like mine, whose lives and futures are tied to these shifts in ways few headlines capture.

🌿 When my dad passed away, my mom — with the help of my grandmother — moved us to the Valley. We started with a modest mobile home and later managed a double-wide. Back then, prices were so different: $16,000 or $32,000 for a home and a lot.

When the land in Surrey sold, and the debts were paid, my mom walked into the bank with a cheque for $22,000. She always remembered how kind the bank staff were, how they addressed her with respect:
“Come this way, Mrs. Winterlik.”

For her, it was a moment of dignity and stability, something she and my dad had worked so hard to create for us.

💔 But the security didn’t last. Later, under pressure, my mom was convinced to buy a condo. At first, it seemed like the right move, but taxes and strata fees wore her down, especially as she became ill. Without the support she needed, she sold the condo and moved into subsidized housing.

When she passed, all the land and housing my dad and grandmother had tried so hard to provide for us was gone.

😢 And that’s part of why I’m unhoused today.

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📊 So when I read about declining sales in Abbotsford —

• 🏢 Condos: down 16.3%
• 🏘️ Townhouses: down 11.9%
• 🏡 Detached homes: down 2%

…just from August to September, I don’t just see numbers.
I see echoes of my family’s story.

During COVID, many thought moving to the Valley meant security. But now reality has hit:
🚗 Long commutes,
💸 Rising costs,
📈 Interest rate shocks,
📉 Unsold listings.

The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board says homes now take over a month to sell:

• Detached: 37 days
• Townhouses: 38 days
• Apartments: 39 days

But what they don’t report is the emotional toll: the sleepless nights, the broken dreams, the families who thought they had secured a future but instead find themselves starting over — or worse, losing everything.

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🌹 Housing isn’t just about supply and demand.
It’s about dignity.
It’s about families, memories, and the fragile hope that a home can be more than an investment.

And right now, that dignity is slipping away for too many.

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✨ Written with love, memory, and hope — for my mom, my dad, and my grandmother, who always tried to provide us with a home.