Montrealers leaving the island for the suburbs as real estate market remains for sellers

For sale signs are seen in front of a Montreal condominium on Tuesday, March 17, 2015. (Paul Chiasson / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

MONTREAL — The majority of Montrealers who have left the city for the suburbs have been living on the outskirts of the city, according to a report released Thursday by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

In general, families living in areas bordering the island of Montreal, such as near the Honore-Mercier Bridge or in the Riviere-des-Prairies neighbourhood, are more likely to move to the surrounding suburbs.

Those who live in the more central neighbourhoods tend to stay in the metropolis.

The report's author, economist Francis Cortellino, explained these trends.

"The results indicate that households living in areas that are a little further from the city and that probably already had to spend some time commuting to work were more inclined to move to the suburbs in order to buy a single-family home. Especially since telecommuting has changed that," says Cortellino.

Among the boroughs where more Montrealers are leaving the island to settle in the suburbs are Ahuntsic, Saint-Laurent, Villeray, Saint-Michel, Parc-Extension, Montreal North and Saint-Leonard.

To the east, residents of Riviere-des-Prairies, Pointe-aux-Trembles, and Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve are also trading their cozy city nests for the suburbs, as well as in Verdun, Lasalle and Lachine, in the southwest.

Despite their proximity to downtown, the South West neighbourhoods are also close to the Mercier and Champlain bridges, notes Cortellino.

This migration is less common in the Plateau-Mont-Royal neighbourhood or downtown, for example.

"With the exception of the Griffintown area, specifically in the postal code beginning with H3C which is the Griffintown postal code, and a small part of Ville-Marie, that's really the only area (of downtown) where you see a lot of people moving out to the suburbs this year," the economist said. "We know that these are slightly younger households and often financially better off."

They are often households that live in condos where the price is probably higher.

Cortellino suggests that some of them, who can afford it, prefer to move to the suburbs where they would have more space without paying much more than they already do.

SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSES REMAIN POPULAR

The percentage of Montrealers buying single-family homes has increased over the past six years.

From 2015 to 2019, between 22 per cent and 24 per cent of them were already leaving the island to buy a bungalow in the suburbs.

This proportion rose to 28.8 per cent in 2020. Interestingly, in July 2020, this percentage jumped to 31 per cent, the quarter after the pandemic began.

The number of single-family home transactions rose in most municipalities off the Island of Montreal in that period.

On the North Shore, the largest increases were observed in Saint-Eustache, Saint-Jerome, Saint-Lin des Laurentides, L'Assomption and Rosemere, and others.

As for the South Shore, the municipalities of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Longueuil (Vieux-Longueuil and St-Hubert sectors), Beloeil and Sainte-Julie welcomed several families who had previously lived in the metropolis.

This wave of new households has probably created additional pressure on prices in a context of very limited supply, the report indicates.

Data from the APCIQ's Centris system also shows that the growth in the median price of single-family homes in the various suburban sectors in 2020 was higher than on the Island of Montreal, a first in several years.

-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2021.