Three northern Ont. cities among top 10 best places to buy a home in Canada

Northern Ontario made headlines during the height of the pandemic for attracting people from expensive and crowded southern cities with the region's lower housing prices and cost of living.

Now, a new national ranking from online finance magazine MoneySense placed Sault Ste. Marie and North Bay among the top three places to buy a home in Canada.

The website weighed the prices and overall growth of 45 regional markets across the country

"In a lot of real estate markets, the prices were going down or they didn't grow, necessarily, as much as the year before,” said senior editor Justin Dallaire.

“But places like Sault Ste Marie and North Bay, in particular, sort of resisted those trends to a certain degree."

Dallaire said those two cities ended the year with higher prices, which had close to doubled in the last five years to the $300,000 to $400,000 range.

Sudbury placed ninth on the list.

Part of desirability for homes can be credited to people from larger cities looking for a change, Dallaire said.

"One of the big reasons was also just real estate investors kind of looking at places that are a little bit more affordable, that have seen high price growth,” he said.

“And it’s also a good place, say, if you've been priced out of a city like Toronto."

The reflection on 2022 comes amid mixed feelings about the current housing market in Ontario.

A recent poll from RBC showed people are encouraged yet uncertain about cooling housing prices, with higher interest rates and inflation to contend with.

But Nick Palucci, the senior director of acquisition in RBC’s home equity finance department, highlighted polling numbers showing people looking to buy their first home are most optimistic.

"In that pre-first-time homebuyer (respondent pool), almost 80 per cent of them feel like it’s a good time for them to get in and maybe one of the best times that they've had in many, many years,” said Palucci.

Northern Ontario made headlines during the height of the pandemic for attracting people from expensive and crowded southern cities with the region's lower housing prices and cost of living. (Photo from video)

And northern Ontario’s good region to buy into, said Timmins realtor Gord Cowie.

Timmins wasn't looked at in MoneySense’s ranking, but officials said there's been some growth and demand in the last few years.

However, inventory is at a surprising low for this time of year, he said. His brokerage currently has a third of the listings it normally would.

"People are reluctant to put their house on the market because there's not much for them to consider purchasing, whether they're upsizing or downsizing,” said Cowie.

“The same thing goes for buyers. If a nice property comes on the market, it's gone quite quickly."

As of now, average home prices are up slightly in Timmins but have dropped in the other three major northern cities since last year.

Year-to-date sales are down by up to 45 per cent across the board and new listings are at 35-year lows.

Unclear whether 2023 will continue last year’s momentum — Cowie expects sales to pick up over the summer — experts maintain that investing in northern Ontario offers greater potential for appreciation in value, as well as better cost of living, as opposed to attempting to buy into a Toronto home.

"It isn't, necessarily, where your money will go the furthest,” Dallaire said.