As the article states, the area is a tourism hub so their B&B is probably quite busy. Otherwise, assuming they own the school free and clear and grow a lot of their own food, I imagine they don't have many expenses.
Suppose they made money and have a million in the bank, how long can they ride on that before they have to pack it in and move back to a place where they can get jobs? What about their kid's future expenses, how are those sorted out?
The article mentions a couple things about their B&B:
- 3 rooms
- they get overflow from other B&Bs, not their own business.
- they only operate during the summer
So that puts an upper limit to what they can earn from that.
Going rate for Milford, ON B&B is about $200/night.
That's about $600/day. That's $54k/year before costs assuming full occupancy 7 days per week during the in-season.
https://oldschoolbluegrasscamp.wordpress.com/register/
I couldn't find a time when their AirBNB sites weren't booked, but they probably command a premium given the size and amenities and tolerance for animals/kids.
The math on a lot of this appears to be a lot of "slow and steady"
Be careful, the Canadian real estate industry always publishes average sales prices, not median prices, and not median valuations.
Which is why the numbers are rubbish: Their numbers are biased toward by whatever turns over more, and by a small number of high value sales.
It's the same reason why average income is a farce. The average of 4 unemployed homeless individuals and a $250k/yr lawyer is $50k/year. The median is zero and more representative of reality.
Once the industry starts publishing the average valuation of a 3bd 1.5ba home (detached or not, there's not a lot of detached inventory left!), listen to them. Until then, ignore their self-serving statistical butchery.