Continuing in my series of
From their side of the Table.
I had a conversation with Mark Ruttan of Remax about our housing situation in Wasaga. He relayed a story to me, that he recently had a young couple, good jobs and a womping $50k as a down payment.
Yet he had a hard time finding them something suitable and getting them qualified.
A few days latter I met one of our Town's auditors from the firm Collins Barrow. I was surprised to learn that they too have had problems attracting new young talent, due to the lack of "starter" homes.
One of the regions longest established printers, Michael Donovan of The Print Shop (Collingwood) and in business for 38 years, had an interesting perspective on our near future.
He thinks we could be facing a big exodus soon. As our population grows in the 65+ category, we are having just as many leaving us to go "up stairs" so to say.
He feels that many of the children of our seniors will be in the middle of their family life/career and will have no interest in keeping the inherited properties. We will soon be face with a massive glut of $500K plus homes.
I had asked Mr Ruttan if he could pen a few notes for me. He said he'd try but his desk was buried under a mountain of Probates.
So the conversations came full circle.
I think it's about time we start thinking about changing our building bylaws to allow construction of smaller homes and secondary tiny houses in the back yards of homes with larger lots.
We need entry level housing if this town is to stay sustainable!
Agreed we need better building codes/bylaws to allow for smaller homes - many cottages in the past were quite tiny so nothing new there. Apartment buildings are also more cost effective and should be encouraged away from the water to minimize the effect on the already congested areas near the river and lake.
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