I CONVERSATIONS I
Fraught Property BY GENE KOSOWAN
PROSPECTIVE HOMEOWNERS MIGHT have plenty
to dream about once builders complete the crowning touches to a palatial bungalow at 21 Easton Close in Erin Ridge, one of St. Albert’s fastest-growing neighbourhoods. Boasting more than 3,500 square feet of space, the three-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom pad comes fully furnished and offers such amenities as a double-car attached garage, exercise room, a huge partly-covered rear deck and even solar power. The home is valued at $1.29 million, but getting access to it won’t cost you anything less than a $30 lottery ticket. Those who don’t have Lady Luck on their side might be consoled with the realization that their money will fund the efforts of The Boys and Girls Club Big Brothers Big Sisters organization that facilitates the Home Lottery campaign. As for the winner? Let’s just say whoever receives title to the spot will have to consider a slew of lifestyle decisions. The odds are that few dream home winners will pull up stakes and move into their residential prize. Several of them might sell the property as soon as possible. Others might relocate to that set of digs and discover that the upkeep costs are too high to warrant staying there permanently.
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T8Nmagazine.com
“They generally don’t know what it would be like, and they try to make it work,” said St. Albert-based REMAX realtor Ryan Sellers about the challenges faced by families whose names are drawn in a home lottery. “It’s such a big life change for most people who win them. Maybe that’s why they want to sell at the end of the day. It could be due to affordability, or maybe it’s not the type of life change they’re looking for.” The allure of an upward lifestyle change, however, is what draws participants to snap up ducats for a chance to snag an opulent residence. Besides Home Lottery, other campaigns like Mighty Millions, an annual drive by the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, features a $2.8-million Edmonton home as a big-ticket item. Full House, a major campaign for the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation and University Hospital, offers two Edmonton homes as a grand prize. STARS Lottery, which funds the provincial air ambulance system, offers three homes, including one in Edmonton worth $938,000. The breakdown over how many winners stay versus how many sell their lottery homes in the Edmonton region is fuzzy at best. Charities offering dream home grand prizes that were contacted for this story either declined to be interviewed or replied that they didn’t have that information available. But social media website Reddit contained a few local anecdotes hinting that the sale of lottery homes isn’t all that rare.
