Carlyle is a booming community, one that sees many having difficulties finding places to rent or purchase for a reasonable price. Blue Oak Homes, based out of Regina, have been constructing two units, a fourplex and duplex, on the south side of town along Main Street which intends to help alleviate some of this need.
Having stopped in Carlyle for the weekend of June 20-21, Angie Salas, the Project Coordinator in Carlyle, and Cecilia Fan, the Project Manager in Carlyle, spoke with The Observer about why Blue Oak Homes chose Carlyle to build.
"We want to build in smaller communities in need of housing, that's growing like Carlyle," Salas said. "There's a lot of people building in Regina and we wanted to go somewhere they needed help."
The opportunity in Carlyle developed as they began speaking with the previous landowner. After visiting the area they decided it was a good place to build and that a need for something new, yet affordable was important to introduce to the community.
With three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large open concept kitchen, a family room, and basement, Salas says it provides an opportunity for people to either rent or buy. One group they have been dealing with to rent includes a group of three friends who will share the costs.
Though originally planning on selling the units and only renting two, this has been altered to have all but two units available to rent because of the number of calls inquiring about rental agreements.
"Renting, we've had a lot of calls," Salas said. "It comes down to people coming to work in the area and deciding to rent, so we've decided to rent more units and sell two."
Important to Blue Oak Homes was the affordability of them in the area though.
"We wanted to keep the prices affordable while creating a building of quality," Salas stated. "We've been working hard on keeping our prices down while making something nice to add to this beautiful town."
Fan then reminded Salas of an idea that developed amongst Blue Oak Homes to help people in their efforts.
"I know when I bought my first home it was difficult to save for the down payment, so we've decided to help out and finance the down payment of the home," Salas said. "That way you can own something while paying approximately how much rent is."
Overall Salas and Fan are excited about bringing Blue Oak Homes to Carlyle. While the two were visiting Carlyle they also took in Boogie Fest and helped the balloon artist during the CFY Carnival, which Salas explained was amazing to speak with Rianna French with the pool board about not only the event, but about the efforts included in running the pool by the community.
Blue Oak Homes still has a couple of units available in their current buildings, but are also looking to produce another eight units of town houses as well as a 12 unit apartment complex as a way to help alleviate the pressures of housing in Carlyle and the surrounding area, as another move for them is to begin building in Oxbow as well.
Their current structures are mostly complete, with them wanting to add decks onto the back as well as finishing landscaping. Both finishing phases have been set back this spring with weather having affected the timeline.
