EMILY HSUEH
PONTIAC March 3, 2021
The pandemic threw most of the world into working remotely, and it seems many people wanted to spend it in the Pontiac.
According to a report published by JLR — a firm that “compiles and analyzes more than 784,522 real estate transactions in Quebec” — the Pontiac saw the second highest increase of single-family home sales in the province in 2020. This is up by . . .
56 per cent since the year before. The highest increase in the province occurred in Pays-d’en-Haut, which saw an increase of 58 per cent.
“People are moving out from the city because they’re working from home cause of COVID and instead of being stuck in a condo, they’d rather buy a house with land since they’re spending so much time at home now,” said Jarod Croghan, a Royal LePage real estate agent in the Outaouais.
Croghan noted that the pandemic was “100 per cent the reason” for the increase in sales. The increase in the Pontiac specifically can also be attributed to its proximity to Ottawa, the JLR report read.
“Waterfront cottages are selling like crazy because people aren’t vacationing and because their homes went up so much in the city that they’re using the equity from their homes to buy cottages and waterfront land, leisure properties.”
Along with the increase in transactions, the median price of homes in the region also went up. JLR reports that from January to December of 2020 the median price for homes increased from by between $150,000 to $200,00, or by 10 to 15 per cent.
“From what I’ve read, the prices are going to plateau. They’re not going [to go] up, but they’re going to stay where they are,” Croghan said of the future of the market. “The other thing is that the interest rates are so low in the next year, but apparently in 2022 they’re going to go up again and that’ll kind of slow everything down.”
Croghan also explained that he expects to see an increase in first-time homebuyers in the future, due to the soaring costs of homes in bigger cities being a turnoff for people looking for their first house.
Not only that, but he believes the Pontiac is beginning to show up on people’s radars as an ideal locale to settle down.
“I think what’s happening [in the region] is that people are actually coming out here now and realizing that we’re here. Like they didn’t even realize we were here and it’s like a hidden pocket,” he said. “But knowing that we’re so close to the city and having new people coming out, we’ll have people coming out regardless of whether there’s COVID.”
