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
For the first time in report's history, Canada's air quality worse than U.S.
Thanks to wildfires, air quality in Canada is now worse than in the U.S., according to the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report.
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
DEVELOPING Canada's annual inflation rate ticked down to 2.8 per cent in February, defying expectations
Statistics Canada says the annual inflation rate edged down to 2.8 per cent in February.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.
Toronto family doctor who called patient's body 'perfect' suspended for 3 months: tribunal
A family doctor in Toronto has been suspended for three months after a disciplinary tribunal found that he failed to follow proper protocols while examining a patient's breasts and made inappropriate comments about her body.