Kassandra Johnson says she used to be proud to call St. Catharines, Ontario home, but as rents rise, she can no longer afford to live there. she says.
"Most of the week we have to decide whether to feed the kids, fill the car for school or pay the rent," Johnson said Thursday. I emailed her to CTVNews.ca.
CTVNews.ca spoke with many Canadians struggling to afford a home. Rising rents in recent months have forced many to cut their rents, and some have had to move or live with their parents.
Two Johnson, a single mother of young children, said she now rents a small three-bedroom apartment for $1,650 a month. Her savings, which she had been saving in hopes of one day buying her home, have now dwindled, she said.
"Before the housing boom, she was successfully saving up to buy her first home," Johnson wrote. "Now that I'm nearly 30, I've used up all my savings and I'm afraid I'll never own a house.
"In this [rental] market, I've never had a chance in my life. It put us in the worst possible financial situation.”
St. Catharines, Ontario is one of the cities where average rents have soared in recent months. According to the latest National Rent Reportpublished by Rentals.ca and Bullpen Research and Consulting, the average rent for all Canadian property types listed on the website She was $1,934. A 2.6% increase compared to June, the report said prices were rising due to high demand in the rental market.
Toni King, another Canadian who responded to CTVNews.ca, is one of those who have had to move cities as a result of rising prices.
For the past two years, King rented her two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in Lake Sylvan, Alberta for about $1,250 a month, she said. She received an offer to renew her lease in September, but expected to pay about $1,480 a month instead, she said.
"Being a single income family, I could barely afford $1,248, let alone an increase," King said in an email to her CTVNews.ca on Tuesday. I have written.
As a result, King was forced to relocate and she now lives on her main floor in her home in Lacombe, Alta. King said she had to pay nearly $1,000 in transportation costs alone, even though she was only a 30-minute drive from where she used to live. said. She currently pays $1,350 a month in rent including utilities.
"It was a very stressful three months for her, during which it cost a lot of money," King wrote.
Another renter, Ms. Crystal Gibson, said she was also evicted from her home because of soaring prices. For about four years, she rented her three-bedroom semi-detached house in Kingston, Ontario for about $1,400 a month. However, her landlord recently sold the house, so Gibson was unable to find a similar property for the same price. A three-bedroom [unit] is $2,500 and up, which is on the low end," Gibson emailed CTVNews.ca Wednesday.
Gibson and her family, including her five-year-old son, have moved in with her parents for the time being. She continues to search for suitable rental housing, but she said it is difficult to find one within her budget, especially with competition from a large number of applicants. has never had such a hard time with rentals or pricing in the last two years," she wrote. "I can't live with my parents, but I can't find a place to rent either, and I feel doomed."
"That dream is over."
Insurer Canada Life According to a recent survey conducted bynearly half of rent-paying Canadians say they plan to keep paying rentsome of the main reasons behind this are: Cash shortages and uncertainty about the future,and high inflationcontinue to impact Canadians' disposable income.
Jeff Sinasak said he and his wife lived in a downtown Toronto apartment for 25 years until the complex was sold in 2020, and they were forced to move out. At the time, they were both saving money for a down payment on a house.
Since then, they have been able to find new homes, but the rent has nearly doubled, he said, Sinasac.
"We are no longer saving for a home. That dream is gone," he wrote in an email to CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "Survival is our only concern."
This is also true for Corinne Niddrie, who is based in downtown Vancouver. Niddrie currently lives in her one-room apartment of less than 37.16 square meters, which she pays $1,725 per month.
"I have a professional position as an analyst at a reputable company [and] still find it difficult to manage those kinds of rent, bills and grocery payments. … not to mention trying to save money,” she wrote Wednesday in an email to CTVNews.ca.
According to the latest data compiled by Rentals.ca, her average rental price for her one-bedroom unit in Vancouver in July was $2,500. In the same month, the average price she rented a two-bedroom unit in the city was $3,630. Based on data, both Vancouver and Toronto have the highest rents for one- and two-bedroom apartments in the nation.
"It's hard living in the city," said Nidry.
Those living further north also struggle to make ends meet. Riley Koppikas lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, and residents have not been indifferent to rising rental prices in recent months. According to a rent survey, the average price of a rental unit in all types of buildings in the city was $1,233 per month. Another report released the same year by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) calculated the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Whitehorse at $1,296.
Currently, Koppikas says most of his two-bedroom units in the city cost about $2,000, excluding utilities. These prices make it hard to save money, he said.
"Every minor emergency, such as a car window cracking in the cold and requiring replacement, immediately eats up what little savings we have and goes back to square one. '' he wrote Wednesday in an email to his CTVNews.ca.
At this rate, Koppikas said he and his family would have to wait years before they could save enough money for a down payment on a home. Housing affordability remains a problem in Whitehorse, according to the report, with "market options out of reach for some families without financial support."
Amid concerns about affordability across the country, experts say Canadians are unlikely to see a significant drop in rent in the coming months. I'm here. Moshe Lander, an economics professor at Concordia University, said with inflation remaining high in Canada, landlords are likely to continue to rely on tenants to cover additional costs.
"We all experience inflation. Landlords are not immune to it either," Lander told CTVNews.ca in a June 15 telephone interview. rice field. [Inflation] needs to give me a bigger price increase to keep up with, the landlord…goes to the tenant and says, ‘I will increase your rent. Ideally, Canadians would see a turnaround in the rental market in 2023, he said.
The Canadian Press and Using Michael Lee's files: