Homeowners buying increasingly outside urban centres
One of the revelations in the 2016 census released earlier this week was that there was a five per cent increase in occupied private dwellings in Canada. Take a closer look at that data, and you'll see that much of that growth has been fueled by homeowners who have escaped urban centres to settle in their more reasonably-priced surrounding areas—which themselves are starting to see some increases as well.
The Canadian Press investigated some of the trends that have emerged in this difficult period for urban housing affordability, and looked at some of the areas that have emerged as strong alternatives.
In The Greater Toronto Area (GTA), sale prices have jumped considerably. They are up 13.1 per cent from where they were just a year ago. As a result, cities that fall just outside the limits of the GTA, such as Guelph, Barrie, the Niagara-St. Catharines region, and Hamilton, have gotten large amounts of spillover. Young people, especially those trying to secure space to start a family, often make up the bulk of the new residents. That influx of millennials has, in the case of Hamilton (where they now comprise 28 per cent of the population), added to a thriving and growing arts & culture scene.
On the other side of the country, inordinate home prices have pushed young Vancouver families out from even the suburbs, and into different municipalities altogether. According to The Canadian Press, a Vancouver couple with a baby on the way sold their Burnaby condo and relocated to Kamloops, where they purchased a house that would have set them back $2 million in Vancouver, but bought it for the same price as they had previously paid for their condo.
As urban homebuying continues to present difficulties for young families, the areas that surround those urban centres—whether close by or even a few hours away—will play an increasingly critical role in the population distribution of Canada.