Bruce County Council received an update on housing and the work the Community Development Office is doing to ensure affordable housing is being built in the region.
The report provides an update to Council on the supply and affordability of housing in Bruce
County.
Director of Planning and Development Claire Dodds says that they’ve been working with KPMG on a demographic study, and seeing how the county stacks up against the rest of Ontario and Canada.
Dodds says that some of the definitions of affordability changed with legislation such as Bill 23, The More Homes Built Faster Act, and Bill 134, the Affordable Homes and Good Jobs Act.
She says that the generally accepted definition is when no more than 30% of household income is spent on housing costs.
“We’ve also seen as recently as mid-December through Bill 23 there was an introduction and definition of ‘attainable housing’, which was tied to average market price.”
Since then, the province has issued a media release saying that attainable housing is restricted to modular home demonstration sites, on specific municipal or provincial surplus lands.
Overall, the prices that are considered affordable for Bruce County would be a purchase price of less than $399,100.
The average purchase price of a home in Bruce County in December 2023 was $685,126, whereas the average dwelling value for homes in Bruce County according to the 2021 Census was $543,150, which falls into the high-income category.
For rental properties, the affordable price is under $1,324 per month or less.
In 2023, the average rent price in Bruce County was $2,253.
She says that it means that housing isn’t as accessible to people who are low-to-moderate income earners.
“To achieve affordable rentals, really it’s our highest income earning groups who are really able to meet that definition of affordable for rental housing in Bruce County.”
Housing in Bruce County is priced slightly higher than the average purchase price in Canada, which was $646,134 in 2023.
In Ontario, prices were higher still with an average of $833,525.
