Housing prices in this Ontario city are absolutely booming
People selling homes in one Ontario city are scoring big as housing prices surge to record levels.
The median price for a home in Brantford, located about 110 kilometres south-west of Toronto, has skyrocketed more than 40 per cent over past year, figures show.
In July 2021, the median price for a Brantford home was $777,026.
The average price of a detached home in Toronto is currently about $1.7 million, meaning that in Brantford, you could save one million dollars.
One real estate expert thinks COVID-19 is playing a bit part in the booming market.
"I think people took a moment to reflect and see what was important to them," Remax Broker Judy Lillico, who has worked in the area for 21 years, told CTV News Toronto.
"Sitting in a 600-square-foot condo was not as appealing as getting a two-storey three-bedroom detached home with a yard at a much better price point."
While the Brantford housing prices may seem like a steal to Toronto buyers, Mayor Kevin Davis said there is a big downside to these escalating prices.
"If you're young family trying to get into the housing market, it becomes difficult for looking families to buy a home in their own city," Davis said.
Lillico believes some out-of-town buyers may have second thoughts down the road.
"My guess is some people are going to choose to go back when COVID is over and some will decide this is the life for them," Lillico said..
For people who are eventually forced back into the office, living in Brantford will make for a long daily commute to Toronto.
With files from CTV News Toronto's John Musselman.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Poilievre unrepentant over calling Trudeau 'wacko' as his MPs say Speaker should resign
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.