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I just returned to work after a month off - a month that was undoubtedly the happiest of my life.  On September 14 my wife and I were married on Long Beach and then left for our Costa Rican honeymoon.  Costa Rica has played an important part in my adult life.  Six months after becoming a licensed Realtor in 2003, I literally threw two sets of clothes in a back pack and spent the next two and a half months exploring this natural wonder of our world.  The experience changed my life and I've never looked at anything the same since.  It was fitting that I start my married life in the same country that I started my adult life. 

When I first visited Costa Rica as a very young man it felt worlds apart.  The way people lived and spoke, coupled with the intense biodiversity, frankly had me feeling severe culture shock.  It felt like my plane had touched down on a another planet.  In the years since, I have visited many countries with a wide array of cultures.  And I have changed as a person.  What struck me upon my return to the country was the similarities between my culture and the Costa Rican culture.  Had my perception changed? Had the world changed?  Both.

Why am I writing about this on a real estate blog?  The answer is that the experience speaks directly to one of the tenets of my time at UVic's business school: globalization.  There can be no question that a global culture is immerging in the 21st century, just as the interconnectedness of the global economy can no longer be argued given the events of the past few years.  For better, or for worse, globalization is very real.  Back to Costa Rica.  I was shocked at the scale of real estate development that this Central American gem had undergone in eight short years.  The surf/party town of Jaco that I so enjoyed eight years ago, was now a city complete with high-rise developments.  In fact, I had to travel quite some distance off the beaten track to regain the "authentic" Costa Rican feel that I had felt everywhere in 2003. 

Now to bring my thought process back to the Alberni Valley.  The real estate market has been on a mild downward slope since 2008/2009.  As Realtors we often hear people blame some of the local decisions, or lack of decisions.  We also hear talk about how provincial politics is effecting our local market.  Virtually everyone realizes that this downturn was largely due to the near collapse of the American real estate and financial industries.  As a student of business, I am acutely aware that this market has very little to do with local factors, or even provincial factors, and far more to do with American and Global factors.  However, when I realized that many of the new high-rises I was seeing throughout Costa Rica were actually abandoned real estate developments, this academic knowledge became very real.  When the America fell so far, so fast, people's financial lives all over the world began to fall right along with it. 

What is the take home message here?  Well, there isn't a nice clean message, but there is the beginning of an interesting discussion.  Why has Canada faired so well in comparison to America?  How important are the new Asian markets for BC forest products to our economic future?  What about the highly controversial Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline Project?  Given the new reality of a globalized economy, isn't it a good thing that we diversify our markets?  But, what about the environment?  Does municipal politics play any impactful role in determining the health of our real estate market in the Alberni Valley?  Should we forsake our industrial roots for a tourism based economy, as Costa Rica has done?  There are no simple answers - and I certainly do not have them.  My hope is that the next time you read in the newspaper about new construction in China, or the demand for oil in the USA, you stop to think about how that might affect the value of your home in South Port.  

Chris Fenton