THUNDER BAY – Housing prices in the City of Thunder Bay are on the rise.
Thunder Bay real-estate has seen a 17 per cent rise so far this year with another 10 per cent raise expected by the end of the year. The only downturn in Real-estate prices has been in condo sales, with a 4 per cent drop, which has been attributed to home buyers wanting more acreage when buying property.
“With the interest rates as low as they are, we do anticipate this to go on for another year or two, before we can see anything changing,” said Thunder Bay Real Estate Board vice-president Karen Hill.
“The interest rates definitely have the most impact on the housing right now, also there is a bit of COVID-moving, people really looking at their environment and deciding if they want to upsize and downsize.”
Even though the city has seen such a large increase in prices, it does still remain an exceptionally affordable city to live in.
“We are very strong here, we’re finding that a lot of northern Ontario has gone up significantly with a lot of migration here,” Hill said.
“But, we’re not as crazy as some of the bigger markets, like Toronto or Vancouver, I know Chilliwack went up 64 per cent, so, we’re on track, but we’re still one of the most affordable places to live.”
Beyond the low interest rates, Thunder Bay is also facing a shortage of houses being put up for sale, which contributes to the rise in prices as well.
“More new builds would be great, we could definitely sell them if given the opportunity, and also, the re-purposing of other buildings,” Hill said,
“A lot of the solutions is to re-purpose buildings into apartments so that if there is a, say, an older couple that don’t want to have a home anymore with the maintenance and everything, they could move into an apartment affordably.”
