Statistics Canada Reports II

[niwell]

Agreed with above posts - a lot of rural places aren't actually *that* cheap once you factor everything in. If you have a stable career and want to put down roots home ownership is certainly a lot easier. However if you're young, positions tend not to compensate nearly as much as urban areas, and the rent/ownership cost curve is far more stacked against the former. This is certainly dependent on area but in the part of Eastern Ontario I know well rentals aren't exponentially cheaper than what you can find in larger centres, and they can be quite difficult to come by. If you find something you'll get more space but that's not really as big of a sell for younger people starting out.

For example a quick search of available rentals in Napanee, ON (where I'm typing this from at the moment and will be for a couple weeks while our dog recovers from surgery) shows a a couple dozen 1 bedrooms from $1,500 to $2,800. For context our mortgage is near the lower-end of that for a much bigger place. We happen to have a cleaning/property management service for our place here so I have a decent idea what someone in the above example would get paid, and it's not much. Once you factor in a car and food prices that are honestly a bit more than Toronto that's VERY difficult to make ends meet. A couple could do it but a single person will struggle. Similarly those grandfathered in to cheap rent would be fine, but