Real estate in Saskatchewan continues to boom during the pandemic, setting yet another sales record in March.

The Saskatchewan Realtors Association (SRA) says home sales in March were up 85 percent from last year, while inventories were down.

Economic Analyst Chris Gbekorbu says having low inventory is actually helping the market.

“We’ve got lower inventory, so there’s less houses available out on the market at the moment,” said Gbekorbu. “Part of the reason why we’re seeing a lot of sales happening is that people realize that there aren’t as many homes out there right now, they’re kind of getting snapped up, so now might be a good time to start buying.”

Gbekorbu says the pandemic has shifted people’s buying habits as many people are now working from home.

“With people being forced to work from home over the past year or so, we’ve really found that some of the homes we’ve had haven’t really been conducive to work from home,” said Gbekorbu. “A lot of people don’t have that dedicated office space, so they are looking for something that does provide that dedicated office space because they know they’re going to be working from home now, or possibly into the future.”

Gbekorbu says while it’s impossible to predict how the market will play out during the rest of the year, he does it expect it stay somewhat strong.

“We’re definitely up above where we were last year,” said Gbekorbu. “I do expect it to continue to be a relatively strong market overall, but things could change, at any moment, with any kind of shock.”