Mortgage Market in Cambridge
The historic city of Cambridge is shaped by its diversity of people, and Manufacturing and professional employment opportunities that continues to outpace the province. This article looks at the current Cambridge housing market and how Mortgage Brokers in Cambridge are reflecting on the challenges and opportunities that face customers in this market.
Economic Development
Family residences have dominated the Cambridge market throughout its history, but those homeowners increasingly want to work close to home. As the city’s publicity says, “It’s All Right Here.” The hour commute to downtown Toronto gets tougher as the capital’s sprawl continues, so the residents want to see work moving their way.
Whatever drives economic development, it is giving Cambridge a new profile. It may not be the Silicon Valley of Ontario, but it has initiated plans to diversify its job market. These initiatives have resulted in over 500 manufacturing opportunities for the 2015 population of 134,900. Some 4,500 work at Toyota and many more in the related supporting industries, including Honeywell, Septodont, Héroux-Devtek, and Loblaw Companies.
As businesses multiply and expand so does the income of its management and employees. It creates and strengthens a new middle class that makes a market for suitable housing.
It’s a seller’s market
Growing economies attract job seekers. Students and families need homes. And, these influence the mortgage market in Cambridge. Aware of its core population of families, Cambridge treasures its hundred parks with 70 kilometers of hiking trails. And, it promotes seven ice surfaces, indoor/outdoor pools, and indoor/outdoor soccer fields.
So, established residents are not moving away. They are hanging on to their housing stock boosting the seller’s market. The average price of a single detached home in Cambridge is currently at $355,334 significantly lower than Ontario’s overall $451,234, and that’s an attraction in itself.
The growth attributed to the Greater Toronto area largely explains Ontario’s stability in terms of interprovincial relocation. Canadians are emigrating from less prosperous areas and higher costs of living to the Cambridge lifestyle.
In addition, some 25,295 residents are immigrants mostly from Europe and Asia. While some are refugees from hostilities, as many are mid to executive-level managers attached to the influx of international businesses. That distributes international immigrants across all income levels.
Cambridge reports 48,820 households in 2015 will grow to 51,000 in 2016. However, housing starts, while good, are not stepping up to the demand.
The CMHC housing outlook records 419 new construction permits: 135 single houses, 2 semi-detached, 87 row houses, and 205 apartments. Such numbers maintain a housing inventory but do little to expand it. So, prices of single detached houses will rise in such a seller’s market.
And, with the anticipation of increasing interest rates 4.4 to 5.0 per cent, buyers will want to move soon.
Cambridge mortgage brokers
Several factors are coming together to boost the price of housing in Cambridge. Housing prices are lower than Toronto, and lucrative jobs are increasing. As those forces converge, the mortgage market in Cambridge presents opportunities for buyers and sellers alike. It’s the role of mortgage brokers to solve the problems that stand in the way of securing a mortgage, refinancing, or seeking an equity line.
