401(K) 2013 - Foter - CC BY-SA 2.0
It's a no-brainer that Oakville's shelter costs have gone through the roof over the last few years! Add to this, Oakville is now the most expensive of all Canadian cities when it comes to renting or buying a home- according to a recent report by a leading real estate search site www.point2homes.com.
The report released last week states that Oakville renters pay an average of $2,146, and owners dish out $2,384 a month to keep a roof over their heads. Whether you own or rent a property in our town, you spend three times as much as residents in Quebec cities like Trois-Rivières (with housing costs lower than $1,000 per month), the report adds.
The report analyzed the 50 largest cities in Canada to "determine how these cumulated housing costs affect the owners and renters living there."
Unsurprisingly, Oakville, Vaughan and Milton were found to be the only three cities in Canada where housing costs for all residents (renters or homeowners) are more than $2000.
According to a pricing report released by the website Rentals.ca last January, Oakville was named the second most expensive municipality for renting in all of Canada, with an average rental cost of $2,473/month. Additionally, another report released last November by Rentals.ca and a real estate research firm, Urbanation, pointed out that Canadian renters were paying more than $2000 on average a month for a house for the first time.
Findings from the new report corroborate all these figures from last year. As per the report, renters pay an average of $1562 for a shelter in Toronto- $584 less than that in Oakville.
Data from Point2Homes website
Interestingly, "despite having to deal with such high monthly costs, homeowners make up the majority in all of these cities, ranging from 78% in Oakville to 86% in Vaughan," it states. Also, 26.40% of households in this town spend more than 30% of their income on housing.
On the other side of the expense spectrum, the report points to Ontario towns- Windsor, St. Catharines and Greater Sudbury among the 15 cheapest cities to rent or own houses in Canada.
