May 27, 2019

Canadian homebuyers escaping high housing costs by relocating to secondary cities

As reported on CTV News, Danielle Bacci’s favourite part of her move to near Windsor, Ont., is the lack of traffic along her 15-minute commute to work in nearby Leamington.

The 26-year-old bank employee and her partner left Toronto and bypassed the suburbs of the GTA for the affordability of Kingsville, Ont.

“We decided if we’re going to go somewhere far we wanted to kind of go somewhere dramatically far where we would change our jobs and everything because we didn’t want to keep with our jobs and have a longer commute just for lower housing costs,” she said.

Bacci is among the growing number of first-time homebuyers relocating long distances to escape the high cost of big-city housing.

Kingsville’s 360-kilometre distance from Toronto allowed Bacci and boyfriend Andre Portovedo to put their savings towards a house instead of a one-bedroom condo.

“Here we got a 1,500 square-foot semi-detached house for less than what the condo cost,” she said in an interview.

While some friends have relocated to Hamilton or Barrie, others are renting in Toronto to save for the required large down payment.

Being the first in their circle to move to Windsor area has sparked some interest among friends and family.

“I think us moving put Kingsville on the map for some of our friends and I know Andre’s parents are thinking of maybe moving out here, especially because their house would get them probably three houses out here,” she said.

The move to towns near secondary municipalities — called exurbs — that are beyond reasonable commuting distances from large urban centres, has been gaining in popularity, says Phil Soper, CEO of Royal LePage.

“If they choose community and lifestyle over ‘urban excitement’ and access to certain jobs, many of them are skipping the suburbs right now and going farther afield,” he said in an interview.

Eight of the 10 fastest appreciating Canadian exurbs are in Ontario, led by areas surrounding Windsor, London, Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge, Kingston, Niagara/St. Catharines, Hamilton, Belleville/Trenton and Guelph, he said.

Keep reading on CTV News

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