By Craig Gibson
Lianne Mitchell glances out her front door to watch the young couple next door string Christmas lights on a tree. She’s happy her newlywed neighbours have chosen the same clear-coloured lights she has to decorate for the holidays because it blends well with all the other lights in her townhouse complex.
Mitchell and her husband are in their early fifties and live in a group of two-year-old townhouses at the corner of Somerset and Kent streets in the heart of Centretown. They moved in immediately after the complex was finished, following a three-year search for a home in the area.
Mitchell and her husband are what housing analysts call “empty-nesters” —people who are close to retirement and whose children have left home, creating an opportunity to downsize.
The Mitchell’s light-stringing neighbours are 26-year-old Kristen Simmons and her husband Steve, 27. They’ve lived in the townhouse complex for two years. A generation younger, both have jobs and no children. Housing analysts have coined a phrase for these types of couples too: “DINKs” — double income, no kids.
Empty-nesters like the Mitchells and DINKs like the Simmons share a common trait — participation in a backlash against the suburbs. They say downtown living is right for them — with shopping, groceries, restaurants, pubs, parks and the canal just steps away from their homes.
“In the suburbs it’s all older people with kids who stay home and watch TV and there’s too many minivans,” says Steve Simmons. “Here it’s a real twenty-something place to be.”
“We’ve always been downtown types,” says Lianne Mitchell. “I don’t like having to drive too far.”
Housing analysts are noticing a swing toward both these segments of the population making a move into Centretown. And these two demographic groups aren’t interested in renting — they want to buy — purchasing a starter home in the case of the DINKs or downsizing and moving closer to the downtown core as in the case of the empty-nesters.
There have been 800 new housing units constructed in Centretown since 1994, most in buildings with three floors or less, like condominiums and townhouses. Another striking feature is that these homes are for sale and not for rent, says Stanley Wilder, senior housing policy planner with the City of Ottawa.
Empty-nesters usually buy these homes with money from the sale of their previous house when they downsize. DINKs are usually young, educated professionals with enough income and job security to invest in a first house , says Wilder.
Wilder admits it’s difficult to back up his impressions of this trend with accurate numbers because the last national census was done in 1996 and the next one isn’t until 2001. Much of the big movement in Centretown home construction and sales started happening once the economy started coming out of its recession in the mid ’90s.
“The residential base as it stood in 1996 is dominated by young singles, modest income seniors and professional couples who wish to live near downtown amenities,” says Wilder.
Over 40 per cent of Centretown’s 26,500 residents are between the ages of 20 and 34 and 66 per cent of the population is between the ages of 20 and 49. Only eight per cent of the population is under 19 years old, says Wilder.
Demand for homes in Centretown may continue to grow in the next few years, says Alain Miguelez, an analyst with the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
“The implications are you need more housing in Centretown,” he says. “The demand is there. You will see pressure on prices and vacancy.”
Currently, the overall vacancy rate in the area is 0.4 per cent, while the one-bedroom vacancy rate is 0.1 per cent.
The market for re-sale homes, just like new house sales, is also attracting a lot of twenty-somethings looking for a starter home close to downtown.
“I’m expecting younger professional couples to visit this open house,” says Larry Malouin, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker First Realty Ottawa, who was showing a home on Arlington Street. “I’m expecting people who want to walk and bike to work and who like the night life in the downtown.”
Demand for re-sale homes is being driven by couples like Erin and Daniele Mehmet. The 28 year olds have been married for a year and have decided it’s time to buy a home.
Daniele says she wants to live in Centretown for practical reasons, like darting to the food store down the street.
“I can walk to work if we live in Centretown,” she says. “You don’t have to take the car out and contend with traffic.”
She likes Centretown for aesthetic reasons, as well. “I just like the older neighbourhoods with older houses with character to them. Brand new subdivisions you won’t get oak panelling and high baseboards,” says Daniele. I don’t like walking into a house with square rooms.”