The real estate market in Portage la Prairie has settled in recent months, and local broker and realtor Warren Neufeld says it's essentially back to where it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Reports had surfaced about the market and prices rising dramatically, however, Neufeld shares, there isn't any reason to suspect that pricing has spiked or fallen.

"A lot of people like to speculate on what's happening in the market, what's happening with pricing; is it going up, is it going down? Is it faster or slower? But we happen to be in a market that's pretty stable. Within small degrees, it goes up a little bit, it goes down a little bit, and we've seen that over the last four or five years."

Peter Bracken, another local realtor, added that with warmer weather on the horizon, the market usually warms up as well.

"It's definitely starting to pick up, and we're building up toward a busy spring market. Of course, everything depends on what the weather is going to do, but it usually cooperates pretty well."

Neufeld adds that, while there are examples across the country of places that home ownership is out of reach for most young people, prices in central Manitoba remain more affordable.

"We do hear on the a national news and different outlets we're following, the affordability of homes in many parts of Canada can be unaffordable or unattainable for the average person. Around our region, the average sale price for a house in Portage is around $232,000 to $235,000, so we're still in a really good spot in that way."

He added that home prices have been on the rise for over a decade, nonetheless, it still remains an affordable community compared to many others.

"Home prices have about doubled since 2010 in the last 10, 12, 14 years. But they have still maintained their affordability for the average person."

Neufeld and Bracken both encouraged anyone looking into buying a home that, despite the market being slightly down in terms of what's available, the community of Portage la Prairie is open for business.