Niagara is the new IT region!
Tired of Toronto? Why not move to the St. Catharines-Niagara region
Suzanne Wintrob, Special to National Post | February 20, 2017
It took Russell Phipps just one day to sell his three-bedroom, 1,800-sq.-ft. house in Ajax, Ont., after a fierce bidding war. With an early closing and no place yet to live, the Toronto native moved into a friend’s 550-sq.-ft. Corktown condo in the city to give downtown living a try. It didn’t take long before he realized he wanted out − far out.
“It’s expensive,” Phipps says of living in the core, where the average price of a detached home is $1,336.640, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB). “Parking is expensive. When people come to visit you and you try to find them parking on the street, that’s a hassle. And I was always in the shadow. Wherever we seemed to go downtown, it seemed the buildings were always blocking the sun. I like a little bit more of a view.”
Like many others, Phipps, 48, turned his views to the St. Catharines-Niagara region, which is benefiting from Toronto’s spillover effect as buyers look for more affordable homes.
When Phipps’ request for a job transfer came through, the case manager with the Ontario government, started shopping for a condo. Within a few days he found the perfect pad: a two-bedroom, 1,118-sq.-ft. penthouse in Pinewood Homes’ mid-rise Fairview Condominiums project now under construction in St. Catharines. He’ll move in this fall.
