More young people moving to rural areas after seeing friends do it: Ottawa Real Estate Board

According to the Ottawa Real Estate Board (OREB), more young people are relocating to rural areas such as North Gower and Carleton Place, as they put more emphasis on space and cost of living during the COVID-19 pandemic.

And President Deborah Burgoyne says it seems, after watching friends successfully transition to life outside the big city, even more are jumping on board.

“They're creating these little communities for themselves, where they would never have considered that because of the commute and they didn't want to live rurally,” she explains. “All of sudden, that's looking really attractive to them.”

Burgoyne says rural areas provide more affordable housing, compared to the city, while also providing more room both inside the homes and outside.

She feels that many younger people used to be content with smaller sized dwellings, similar to choosing a hotel just for a place to rest and not its accommodations, but once the pandemic broke out many found themselves feeling “caged in.”

The OREB president says the pandemic has forced a shift on the things such as working from home to accelerate, and the shift could partially change what was “normal” indefinitely.