The City of Oshawa has made recent headlines as one of Canada’s fastest growing areas and as a top city to move to outside of Toronto.
According to a HuffPost article, Oshawa is one of the best cities to move to for those moving out of Toronto to surrounding communities. The article ranked a number of cities within a 250 km radius of Toronto in the categories of housing pricing and employment rates and published a list of the five “best cities”. Oshawa ranked fifth and was the only Durham Region municipality to make the list, said a city media release.
The article cites Oshawa’s top ranking in the Regional Labour Market Report Card produced by BMO Economics that examines labour market trends in Canada. The report card compares 33 cities across the country, with Oshawa ranking 6th in Canada and 2nd in Ontario. Oshawa’s low unemployment rate of 7.8% was also a factor in Oshawa’s “best cities” ranking, with the article citing that the number of jobs in Oshawa is up by 3.2% compared to 2020.
Additionally, the Oshawa Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) is leading the country in population growth. According to Statistics Canada, the Oshawa CMA achieved a population growth rate last year at 2.1 per cent, followed by Halifax and Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge, both at 2 per cent. The only other Ontario CMAs to make the top 10 were Barrie (1.8 per cent) and Belleville (1.6 per cent).
A CMA is defined as an area consisting of one or more neighbouring municipalities with a 100,000 population, situated around a core of at least 50,000. The Oshawa CMA includes Oshawa, Whitby and Clarington.
Construction booming
In 2020, the city issued $480.4 million dollars in construction permits including $363.9 million in residential construction, along with achieving eight building records for residential construction.
“Oshawa is one the best cities to live, work and learn. We offer excellent choice and value for homebuyers, connected transit, convenient access to services, excellent parks and trails, including Lakeview Park, and so much more,” said Mayor Dan Carter. “Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, we are pleased to report that the city issued over $480 million in construction values last year and recorded eight residential construction records.”
“The City of Oshawa is now by far and away seen as Toronto’s most attractive neighbour, and is impressively delivering national results as being much more than a hidden gem within the GTA. As a community, we offer numerous modern amenities and dynamic services that make Oshawa the choice in housing stock, investment opportunities and development prospects, which is substantively boosted by some of the most desirable neighbourhood locations anywhere in Canada,” said Councillor Tito-Dante Marimpietri, Chair, Development Services Committee. “Over $360 million in residential construction –including 1,500 new residential units ranging from luxury custom homes, fabulous infill projects and affordable starter units last year alone – has positioned Oshawa at the top of Canada’s class to continue leading the way as the community of choice for homebuyers.”
Once the vaccines come in the pandemics over Oshawa will be the worst place to live then
The more people that move here the better because that makes things harder for the current Council and mayor
They will all have to act like reasonable adults and start getting problems resolved because these people are going to expect something they’re not going to pay high taxes and get nothing in return so all of them get ready to put on your big adult out pants.