Remote work and how it’s shaping where people are now buying homes in Ontario

globalnews.ca:

The prevalence of remote work exploded at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but as the nation continues moving toward a “return to normal,” more and more employers have begun instituting return-to-office policies.From a peak of 41.1 per cent of working Canadians working remotely in April 2020, recent Statistics Canada data shows a combined 25 per cent of working Canadians are working either completely remotely or in a hybrid setup.At the same time, a real estate frenzy that peaked with record sales prices across Ontario in 2022 saw prices fall in 2023 and growth slowing since then, in part due to rate increases from the Bank of Canada.But many real estate agents say workers who moved away from the city during the height of the pandemic are staying put and stomaching a longer commute a few times a week, while others – especially those farther away from urban centres or in remote or difficult-to-access locations – have said the call back to the office has also called clients back to the city, or that the challenges of rural living caught up with some new owners.Data from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board shows the average price of a home in the city of Toronto was $884,385 in January 2020.

The average price increased by 40 per cent to $1,243,070 in April 2022 and has since fallen 22 per cent to $959,915 as of January 2024.While the percentage increase in price may seem large, areas outside of the Greater Toronto Area saw significant increases in the average home sales price – in many cases nearly doubling in two years.Prices increased in the Hamilton area by about 40 per cent to just under $976,000 from 2020 to 2022, before falling around 10 per cent from record highs last year, according to the Realtors Association