These Rental Prices Will Make You Want to Give Up and Move to Windsor

I spent my weekend in Windsor, Ontario. Though the place has been dubbed the “earth’s rectum,” I have to say, it charmed me. One of the strangest parts was the fact that most of the young people I met lived alone, or even owned property.

According to a recent report by rentals.ca, Windsor is one of the most affordable places in Canada, with the average one-bedroom costing $810 a month, as of August 2018. Unsurprisingly, Toronto and Vancouver top the list, costing $1,851 and $1,839 for one-bedrooms, respectively. For Toronto, that’s actually a slight decrease from the month prior. Both cities struggle with low vacancy rates, meaning units that are available are often highly sought after.

Seven of the top 10 most expensive rental cities are in Ontario—even when you get out of Toronto, places like Richmond Hill, Etobicoke, and Mississauga all have average one-bedrooms that cost more than $1,400 a month.

The least expensive place on the ranking of 30 is Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where the average one-bedroom costs just $656. I hear it’s nice there and Joel Plaskett has a studio, btw.

In BC, renters are set to face a rent increase of up to 4.5 percent come January, which is the highest increase the province has allowed since 2004.

If you want to feel better (or worse?), as of July, the average cost of a detached home in Metro Vancouver was $1.5 million—down 1.5 percent from the year prior. Meanwhile, in the Greater Toronto Area, homes sold for an average of $782,129—up 4 percent from the previous year.

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Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.