Kingston, Ont. has the fastest rising home prices in all of Canada, new numbers show
Kingston's housing market is red hot.
According to a report by Royal LePage's house price survey, the city's housing prices have jumped higher than any other city in the country.
The aggregate price of a home in Kingston increased 38.1 per cent year-over-year, reaching $722,100 in the fourth quarter of 2021. While the median price of a single-family detached home increased 44.3 per cent to $780,600.
Nikki McAlpine has been trying to buy a three-bedroom home in the city for more than two years. She wants a bedroom for herself and her husband, one for their young son, and one for her mother, who is now living with them.
“It just makes it really discouraging for people like us,” she says of the market. “We’ve managed to get a lot of debts paid off, and we’ve got an approval now of $400,000 and there’s nothing.”
For a city this size, she's considering what was once an unthinkable commute.
“We’ve looked within a one-hour radius of Kingston, if we can at least get a home, we’re willing to drive to work and there’s nothing. There’s absolutely nothing,” she says.
The report shows about half of the buyers are coming from outside the region, the majority of them from Toronto, where housing prices are listed as the highest in the country now.
David Gordon, a Queen's University professor for the School of Urban Planning, says one big factor has been the pandemic. It has workers looking elsewhere for more affordable homes with more space.
“Kingston was always just a little too far, at two-and-a-half hours away, but remote work has made distance a little bit more achievable,” he says.
In Toronto, $400,000 listings include one-bedroom condos in North York. In Ottawa, a four-bed, two-bath attached home is listed in Orléans.
But in Kingston, a house listed at that price includes a three-bed, two-bath detached house in the city's desirable west end.
The report shows with a small number of houses on the market, there are bidding wars for the ones that are available, driving prices up.
Gordon says Kingston itself has proven to be an attractive draw.
“Kingston has a lot to like; it has one of the best downtowns of any medium city in North America, has a lovely historic core and a terrific waterfront.”
But all of those soaring values leave people like McAlpine out.
“Honestly feels like for someone like myself, first-time homebuyer, decent income, great credit, the good down payment? It shouldn’t be this hard. It really shouldn’t,” she says.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction overturned by N.Y. appeals court
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
CTE: Researchers believe widespread brain injury may contribute to veteran suicide rate
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
New deep-water channel allows first ship to pass Key bridge wreckage in Baltimore
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.