A 3 1/2 costs an average $1599 now
QMI says the average price of a 3½ apartment is now $1599, an odd number.
A lot of people in this city are students working part time, or people with modest service jobs and so forth. How can so many people afford to pay $1599 a month rent?
Mark Côté 10:37 on 2024-01-05 Permalink
My guess is that they pay a bit more for a bigger place and get roommates. Super sad situation though.
Ian 12:31 on 2024-01-05 Permalink
I remember in the early 90s, in my 20s, when it was $350 for a 3 1/2. I also remember that hardly any of my friends had decent jobs. Almost everyone had roomies.
That said, I was making 5 bucks an hour back then and the minimum wage now is $15.25 so I guess a reasonable rent would be $1055 or so? Also consider how many more subsciption fees people pay – I just paid heat, hydro, and a phone bill, I didn’t even have a TV.
Blork 12:41 on 2024-01-05 Permalink
A few things to consider. First, that “average price” is the average price of apartments that are advertised as available now. It does not consider what people who already have apartments are actually paying.
Not all apartments for rent are advertised. In fact, the cheaper ones are likely not listed; the cheapo (and typically run down) ones are either not advertised at all or just have an “a louer” sign taped up in a window.
Also consider that this is the AVERAGE price, which means there are plenty that are cheaper (and plenty that are more expensive). So it’s not like every single working student has to pay $1599. If they’ve had their apartment for a few years already they’re likely paying much less. It can also be lower because they simply aren’t shopping in the “average” range. And as Mark Côté says, they likely pile up with roommates in two or three bedroom places.
For some reason, my FB feed is full of apartment buildings and their listings. Sometimes I peek. I do see 3-1/2s in that price range pretty frequently, but they’re almost always newly renovated places with gleaming breakfast bars and new floors, new bathrooms, etc. You never see the listings for the 3-1/2 on the top floor of a creaky triplex in Rosemont or Hochelaga.
None of this is meant to undermine the very real problem of too-expensive housing. Just adding a bit of perspective.
Blork 12:51 on 2024-01-05 Permalink
Ian, I too enjoyed the cheap rents of the late 80s and early 90s, but I was very broke for much of that time so even then it didn’t seem cheap. Generally speaking a $400 apartment from 1990 is about the same as paying $1000 now. Those $1000 places exist now, but proportionally they are rare compared to how available the $400 places were back then.
Biggest rent mistake I ever made was moving out of a (1 bedroom) 5-1/2 in 1999. I had been there for 4 years and was paying $600 a month with no rent increases during those 4 years. Boy, what a job to find another place on the Plateau for anything near that rate. (1999 was peak “no availability” in that area.) The only place I saw that I’d actually want to live in was $1400, and there was no way I was going pay that much back then. Every other place literally had people lined up down the block to view it, many of whom had envelopes full of cash to try to bribe their way into a lease. (True story.)
I ended up moving into a building in lower Westmount for $800 (4-1/2). Ever since I love to tell people about the time I moved to Westmount because I could no longer afford The Plateau.
Ian 16:05 on 2024-01-05 Permalink
It’s cheaper to buy in Outremont than Mile-End these days, too.
Mozai 16:09 on 2024-01-06 Permalink
rentals.ca monthly report says the avg 3½ in Montreal is $1805/month. If we go by the “use one third of your take-home income for paying for renting a home,” then a person living alone in Montreal needs a $102k job. At $1600/month, a person would need a $88.5k job. statistique.quebec.ca says the average person living alone ages 25-45 had a gross annual income of $51k, but their data only goes up to the year 2021.
MarcG 13:07 on 2024-01-07 Permalink
The word “unsustainable” comes to mind. And we wonder why restaurants and boutiques are closing. Not only can people not afford to patronize them, they can’t afford to earn the low wages, either. We need some political leadership that’s capable of addressing the big picture ASAP.
Ian 17:19 on 2024-01-07 Permalink
Not any time soon, in my neighbourhood the political leadership has basically admitted it can’t do anything to control gentrification. They doubled the price of street parking permits, though. Again, less expensive living in Outremont than Mile End. Real food for thought there.