Housing crisis in Essex County continues

Housing is pictured being constructed in Essex County. Essex County council debated housing at its meeting last Wednesday night in Essex.

In 2015, the average cost to  build a new house in Amherstburg was $296,129. Nine years later, 2024, that ballooned to $936,709 which is a staggering 216.3 percent hike.

For those who are building in town, that $936,709 is a little below the Essex County average of $1,096,047.

Those figures, along with a lot of other data, was presented by SHS Consulting Inc to county council last Wednesday night as part of a Housing Needs Assessment.

Nearly three years ago the county partnered with the City of Windsor to begin the process of looking into the housing crisis.

“It’s important for the county and its local municipalities to have a housing needs assessment in place because certain federal funding opportunities require for that to be available,” said county director of legislative services David Sundin.

Another statistic that caught the attention of Amherstburg Mayor Michael Prue was the fact that the recent census indicates the town to have a 25.3 increase in the 65-and-over population.

“Looking forward, would we be better off to concentrate on building seniors housing or single-persons housing rather than multi-persons units?” asked Prue.

As indicated by the consultants, Amherstburg is building a lot of apartment buildings. However, throughout the county, 85 percent of all units are single-family.

“It (consultant’s report) gives us a great outline of the problem we have in Essex County and it’s only going to get worse,” said Amherstburg Deputy Mayor Chris Gibb.

For those selling their homes in town, there is a bit of good news as the average price in 2024 was $652,835 which is slightly higher than the county average of $645,800.

Matt Pipe, the manager of housing policy and research for SHS Consulting, said that only some of the Top 10 household incomes in Essex County can afford to build a new home.

“Purchasing a home in the County of Essex is considered unaffordable for all households outside of those considered high income,” said Pipe.

Pipe said that there are several emerging trends as to why there is a housing crisis including population growth, aging population, household sizes and the continual migration to the region. It was even speculated by one of the consultants that the reason the prices of houses is high is because owners from the GTA sell their homes for a high price and then move here which ultimately increase housing costs.

“The lack of community housing and affordable housing has left many low-income households with few options in the county,” said Pipe.

Tecumseh Deputy Mayor Joe Bachetti said that the federal government was partially to blame for the local housing crisis and said that since Covid, two million immigrants had come to Canada which put pressure on accommodation availability.

“What has caused the housing crisis? It’s a loaded question but it’s been for the last three or four years,” said Bachetti.

The consultants responded by saying there are several factors including supply chain disrupted during Covid, population growth, immigration and demand which drives prices up.

Housing crisis in Essex County continues

By Fred Groves