'It's not one thing. It's many things': northern Ontario realtors say no end in sight for housing crisis

A few years into a national "housing crisis," real estate brokers in northern Ontario don't see much relief on the horizon for those who can't afford a place to live. 

"There's so many factors that go into this. It's not simple. It's not an easy thing to get out of," said Gary Trembinski, the president of the Sault Ste. Marie Real Estate Board.

He says many older people can't afford to move out of their homes and because that housing stock isn't hitting the market, prices are "skyrocketing" and young families and single-income households don't make enough money to "make payments every month" on houses selling at an average of $350,000.

"So as these houses continue to rise in value, less and less people are able to afford them, based on the wages you're able to achieve in Sault Ste. Marie," said Trembinski, a realtor at Century 21.

"The higher you get into a price point, the smaller the buyer pool."

He says home builders are more focused on higher-end homes because they are more profitable, while the three-bedroom bungalow that are the "bread-and-butter of our city" keep getting older and more expensive to fix up. 

In Temiskaming, broker Jada Miller says the "aging senior population" is facing long wait lists for long-term care and apartment buildings. 

"They have limited options for downsizing. And they're staying in their big homes," said the agent with Miller Realty Group.

"It just sort of stops the cycle. We need the cycle to continue so we're offering buyers choice."

Miller says there is little new housing being built in her area and while she's been hopeful of the remedies being proposed by federal and provincial politicians, she's "not seeing results."

In Sudbury, real estate board chair Amanda Denis says the average sale price in the city hit $441,000 last month, up $10,000 from the year before.

"And that's the price first-time home buyers are trying to get into," said the broker with EXP Realty. 

"We don't see enough mid-range housing being built. We don't see enough of the housing we have being kept up-to-date."

Denis says she's hearing of more families moving in together in multi-generational homes and more friends moving in together to keep costs down, but she expects some kind of further government intervention is going to be needed before this housing crisis eases. 

"It's not one thing. It's many things that haven't been addressed for a long time," she said.