A new study on housing affordability has found the Hamilton-Burlington area to be the third least affordable region in Canada, and the tenth least affordable in North America.
Several residents in the area say they’re not surprised, and are worried for the future generation if prices keep rising.
“My daughter was going to McMaster University and when we went to go buy a house nearby there, that’s when it hit me! When they’re looking for $800,000, $900,000 for houses near a university, that I wouldn’t pay $500,000 for,” one resident said.
A recent study by online realtor Zoocasa analyzed housing affordability in 28 U.S. cities and 12 Canadian cities.
It estimates that the median home price in our area is just over $750,000, with a median household income of $81,000.
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“Over the last number of years, we’ve seen buyers drive until they qualify, meaning they drive away from Toronto past Oakville and Burlington and then into Hamilton and now onto the Niagara corridor where affordability traditionally has been a little bit more attractive,” Broker for Royal Lepage State Realty, Mike Heddle said.
Residents in the area unable to keep up with the cost of living moved out.
“My first home I bought for $10,000 in a little town called Milverton,” Roland Glitz said.
Since then, Glitz has moved to Hamilton and cannot believe what the prices are today.
“I’ve been here for 14 years now, and it never used to be this expensive in this area, but nowadays it looks like it’s as expensive as the Toronto area,” Glitz said.
Heddle said lack of supply and huge demand is the biggest cause of the price hike in housing.
“When you increase demand and a lack of supply the byproduct is rising interest rates,” Heddle said.
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Heddle said younger people are starting to get creative.
“We’re seeing many of our youths getting creative with home ownership, like buying together or adding a rental component to the property,” Heddle said.
Residents in Burlington say they’re worried for future generations.
“If you’re a first time buyer, you’re now priced out of this area,” Lynda Kooymans said.
Kooymans lived in Burlington for 30 years and recently moved to Waterdown. She says her grandchildren will not be able to afford housing if no one does anything about it.
“The way I see it we have two choices… we can make homeownership not a goal anymore or we can do something about this, and I don’t see anybody doing anything about it.”
The fact that Lynda says she sees no one acting on the housing file should alarm the federal government, which has been making repeated housing announcements for weeks now.