Cost of housing in Canada

[Halifax Tar]

You keep that up and we will all move there.

Don't come any closer please.

 

[lenaitch]

Another big misnomer is that "wealthy people are buying up all the homes!" The price wars and rat races actually happen at the lower levels of home ownership. Between the $300,000-$500,000 mark. That's where the big markups and ridiculous overbids happen. Past a certain point, there aren't many people buying those houses and there isn't a huge demand for those houses. In my current market, a house that has a listing price of $400,000 on it will have 20+ bids with an insane mark up and bidding war. Anything over $600,000 will have 1 or 2 bids.

Just as a casual observer, place like the Annapolis Valley, esp. around Annapolis Royal, and the Baddeck area, don't strike me as all that inexpensive. Not Toronto-expensive, but not bargoons. A buddy lived in AR -lovely town and they loved living there, but it was the property taxes that drove them out.

If it's anything like Ontario, once a place has been 'found' by the city folks, like Blue Mountain/Thornbury, Prince Edward County, prices go nuts and everything gets more expensive for the locals.

 

[mariomike]

Just as a casual observer, place like the Annapolis Valley, esp. around Annapolis Royal, and the Baddeck area, don't strike me as all that inexpensive. Not Toronto-expensive, but not bargoons. A buddy lived in AR -lovely town and they loved living there, but it was the property taxes that drove them out.

Just for comparison, the way it looks to me, unless I figured it wrong,

Residential tax rate in AR is $1.76 per $100 of assessed value (plus a fire area tax rate of 0.10%).

In Toronto, the residential tax rate is $0.67 per $100 of your home's assessed value.

 

[RangerRay]

If anyone wants a bargain, they can move to Winnipeg. You just have to deal with the insane cold of winter, insane heat+humidity of summer, and if you want a real bargain, your gang-banger and meth-head neighbours! Add the mentality that your 750,000 person city is a small town that can’t afford big city services for free!

 

[Altair]

If anyone wants a bargain, they can move to Winnipeg. You just have to deal with the insane cold of winter, insane heat+humidity of summer, and if you want a real bargain, your gang-banger and meth-head neighbours! Add the mentality that your 750,000 person city is a small town that can’t afford big city services for free!

I stopped in Winnipeg once.

I've passed Winnipeg 7 times since.

 

[mariomike]

Readers interested in major cities with the highest and lowest property paxes across Canada

Canada Property Tax Guide 2026 - nesto.ca

Compare property taxes across Canada by province and city. Learn how municipal tax rates affect your mortgage qualification and affordability.

www.nesto.ca

Places such as Winnipeg, Windsor, Saint John, and London rely more heavily on property taxation due to narrower tax bases and fewer alternative revenue streams. Although the rates in these cities are higher, lower average home prices help limit the overall monthly property tax burden. This dynamic explains why a city with one of the highest tax rates does not necessarily produce the highest property tax bill in practice.

 

[lenaitch]

Just for comparison, the way it looks to me, unless I figured it wrong,h

Residential tax rate in AR is $1.76 per $100 of assessed value (plus a fire area tax rate of 0.10%).

In Toronto, the residential tax rate is $0.67 per $100 of your home's assessed value.

Toronto historically has the lowest tax rate in the province. Where we are in the weeds outside of North Bay, we pay about $1.17/$100. No transit and a volunteer fire department that will hose down your smouldering foundation.

 

[CBH99]

If anyone wants a bargain, they can move to Winnipeg. You just have to deal with the insane cold of winter, insane heat+humidity of summer, and if you want a real bargain, your gang-banger and meth-head neighbours! Add the mentality that your 750,000 person city is a small town that can’t afford big city services for free!

I spent this last December in Winnipeg. Unexpectedly.

I had packed for 4 days, but stayed a month...

- We stayed at the Marriagi Hotel in downtown Winnipeg, and I gotta admit that was a pretty damn cool little boutique hotel!!

- It's so cold there aren't a ton of people walking outside, and the downtown core I think must be deemed a historical site because a lot of the buildings look like they are from the 1920's..


So at night, with the thick and heavy snowflakes & bitter cold in the air, with the city lights and VERY little foot traffic...it was REALLY easy to kind of time travel back a century or so while looking out the windows.

The historical preservation is appreciated, and it was pretty cool to be able to just look out the window and 'see' what it looked like 100 odd years ago

(Being from Calgary & now Edmonton, Alberta, it's really easy to be ignorant or just forget that most of the country has a lot more history than we do just by virtue of being out west. I hadn't realized until being there how much older the city actually is!)

...

Met some interesting folks!! Had some interesting experiences!!

It's an interesting collection of personalities that make up that city (from the limited number of people I met) but I liked Winnipeg

Would never live there (holy shit is it ever cold! We don't get cold like that here in Alberta! Geepers frig! Summers sound like hell - and the size of your flies is legendary, so no f**king thank you!)

But visiting was an awesome adventure

 

[markppcli]

I spent this last December in Winnipeg. Unexpectedly.

I had packed for 4 days, but stayed a month...

- We stayed at the Marriagi Hotel in downtown Winnipeg, and I gotta admit that was a pretty damn cool little boutique hotel!!

- It's so cold there aren't a ton of people walking outside, and the downtown core I think must be deemed a historical site because a lot of the buildings look like they are from the 1920's..


So at night, with the thick and heavy snowflakes & bitter cold in the air, with the city lights and VERY little foot traffic...it was REALLY easy to kind of time travel back a century or so while looking out the windows.

The historical preservation is appreciated, and it was pretty cool to be able to just look out the window and 'see' what it looked like 100 odd years ago

(Being from Calgary & now Edmonton, Alberta, it's really easy to be ignorant or just forget that most of the country has a lot more history than we do just by virtue of being out west. I hadn't realized until being there how much older the city actually is!)

...

Met some interesting folks!! Had some interesting experiences!!

It's an interesting collection of personalities that make up that city (from the limited number of people I met) but I liked Winnipeg

Would never live there (holy shit is it ever cold! We don't get cold like that here in Alberta! Geepers frig! Summers sound like hell - and the size of your flies is legendary, so no f**king thank you!)

But visiting was an awesome adventure

You were in "the Exchange" which is the old down town core from when Winnipeg was the economic powerhouse of western Canada - Chicago North it was called.

 

[Halifax Tar]

If anyone wants a bargain, they can move to Winnipeg. You just have to deal with the insane cold of winter, insane heat+humidity of summer, and if you want a real bargain, your gang-banger and meth-head neighbours! Add the mentality that your 750,000 person city is a small town that can’t afford big city services for free!

I have always been interested in the music scene that comes out of Winnipeg.

 

[Furniture]

I have always been interested in the music scene that comes out of Winnipeg.

A product of seven months of winter, and liquor laws that require live bands for many bars.