Mortgage broker places Cornwall fourth on its affordability list

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A Montreal-based mortgage broker has listed Cornwall as the fourth-best Canadian city for housing affordability and job growth.

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And the Seaway City is the highest-ranked Ontario community on the Nesto Mortage Experts top-10 list.

Cornwall is preceded on the list only by Sept-Iles and Becancour in Quebec, and Quesnel in British Columbia. Whomever authored the piece for Nesto doesn’t include any information on where the information to compile the rankings was gathered.

“It’s always nice to see Cornwall included on these types of lists, which helps generate interest in the city from people looking to relocate,” said Bob Peters, manager, Cornwall Economic Development.

“Affordability is a key factor that makes Cornwall such an attractive place to live and work, and although house prices have risen significantly over the past couple of years, the Cornwall market can still be described as affordable when compared with other Ontario and Canadian urban centres.”

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Peters pointed to the Canadian Real Estate Association, which compiles monthly statistics on activity over MLS Systems of Canadian Real Estate Boards and Associations. The latest data for average house prices, for January has Cornwall at $371,756, well below the Canadian average of $612,000.

Cornwall is also well below the Ontario average of $800,000, and major markets in the country including Vancouver ($1.1 million), Toronto ($1 million) and Ottawa ($604,000), as well as smaller markets including Peterborough ($639,000) and Kingston ($538,000).

Peters said a key focus of the city’s marketing efforts is on resident/workforce attraction, as local employers look to fill hundreds of vacant jobs.

“We’re attending a number of career and job fairs this year and maintain a job board on ChooseCornwall.ca,” Peters said.

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The Nesto paragraph description of Cornwall reads as follows: “It’s on the smaller side with fewer than 50,000 residents but is an up-and-coming community for many young families thanks to generally a low average price for real estate and cost of living. Overall, Cornwall is one of the cheapest places to live in Canada and tends to remain affordable compared to larger cities in Ontario.”

Nesto says the average home price in Cornwall is $211,715, and that its property tax rate of 1.71 per cent is lower than the national average.

Timmins is ranked fifth on a list that also includes Sault Ste. Marie in the top 10.

Under a 20 Cheapest Cities to Live in Canada (2023) umbrella, there’s a second list of 10 best cities for rental market affordability and fewer expenses. Trois-Rivieres, Que., leads the way, with Lloydminster, Sask., and Saint John, N.B., rounding out the top three.

In its Final Thoughts portion of the posting, Nesto says “many of the cheapest places to live in Canada are located in smaller towns away from huge cities, but that’s not always a bad thing. You can find plenty of work and economic opportunities in even the smallest Canadian cities if you look hard enough!”

It says its overall list of the 20 cheapest cities to live in Canada based on housing affordability, job growth, rental market affordability, and low cost of living.

thambleton@postmedia.com

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