Single-family house prices in the region have grown by 159 per cent in the last decade

The region has one of the highest recorded price increases in single-family homes across the country. In 2013, Kitchener-Waterloo’s average price for a single-family home was about $301,900. In 2023, that number rose to $798,100, which is an increase of 159 per cent during that time.

Zoocasa, a brokerage that investigates real estate market trends and data, recently researched how single-family homes in Canada have changed over the past 10 years. They released an article on Jan. 29 that pointed out that Kitchener-Waterloo saw the third highest growth in single-family house prices in the last decade, in comparison to 18 other major Canadian cities.

London and St. Thomas held the top spot for price growth with a 178 per cent increase over those 10 years. The Niagara Region followed with a 174 per cent increase.

A real estate agent in Waterloo Region, Sharon Forbes, said there is 186 single-family homes listed on the market currently, which has remained steady over the years but the number of people purchasing one has been declining.  

“We had Google starting to expand since 2011 and that started to attract more people in the tech industry. Then we had the LRT that went up in 2019, so I started to see more builders wanting to build here, more international students coming here, then of course here comes the pandemic,” said Forbes.

Forbes added that the pandemic drove remote workers out of Toronto and into places like Waterloo Region, where the prices weren’t as high.

Compared with the region, Toronto saw single-family home prices increase during that decade from $587,800 to $1,273,300.

“Once the pandemic hit and everyone switched towards remote work, the demand surged, prices surged,” said Forbes.

“In the last few years, definitely majority of my buyers were from the GTA or they were investors who were just buying property here in the region to just use as rental properties.”

The country altogether saw 86.8 per cent growth over those years in single-family home prices.

Guelph and District had similar standings as the region. They rose from $376,100 to $892,800 in the last decade.

In London and St. Thomas, those numbers rose from $221,900 to $616,700.

Prices were sourced from the Canadian Real Estate Association in December of each year analyzed.

Forbes said it’s mainly young families with kids who buy single-family homes still.

“If we didn’t have the pandemic that made all these remote workers move out here and everything like that, it wouldn’t be uncommon to see that number below the 100 per cent jump that we see now.”

During the pandemic, low interest rates caused a surge in the real estate market, which pushed single-family house prices up further in the GTA.

Higher house prices resulted in larger monthly mortgage payments for most homeowners as well.

An average monthly mortgage payment for a single-family home in Kitchener-Waterloo rose from $1,387 to $4,409 during the last decade.