Tiny Town in Ontario, Canada Selling Properties for $10 a Pop

Posted by Geekette 10/25/2024

Tiny Town in Ontario, Canada Selling Properties for $10 a Pop(macleans.ca)

22 points | 20 comments

nightowl_games 10/25/2024|

Looks beautiful there! Sounds like a waiting list has developed. I wonder if the minor exodus away from major centers will continue. Personally, as a millenial entering my 'family' years, I feel pretty attracted to smaller centers. Safety, peacefulness and quiet trumps the excitement and chaos of a large city for me.

akudha 10/26/2024|

If one had a group of friends or relatives willing to move, it would make it much easier to move as a group. Imagine 5 or 10 families, who trust each other, buying a property each and moving in together.

nightowl_games 10/28/2024||

2 or 3 families I can imagine. 5 is a lot. 10 seems like a very rare, and somewhat odd, exception.

travisb 10/25/2024||

It sounds like a good deal, hopefully they have mortgage support arranged with their local banks.

For many young people, the ticket to getting ahead these days is moving away from the big cities. Unfortunately it takes effort on the part of small towns to receive those young people in productive ways.

brailsafe 10/25/2024||

This is kind of interesting, but that's incredibly isolated. Living out there full-time isn't just a bit of a departure from a big city, by Canadian terms it's about the width of British Columbia, just to get back to the city where your friends might be if you're coming from Toronto. In their Maclean's interview, they remark that they're on the same latitude as Winnipeg, but Winnipeg is already incredibly isolated as it is from anywhere else. To get from Winnipeg to Toronto it would take 28 hrs of driving if you're silly enough to not fly, or 14 in the other direction to get to Calgary, assuming you're not stopping for long in the smaller "cities" along the way.

For that reason, anyone making that kind of a leap has some level of respect from me, it's not a move I'd make. Although I do drive that far sometimes to see some friends and family, it's like a bi-yearly thing at best.

wenc 10/26/2024||

I couldn't see myself living in Northern Ontario either, but for some people, small town life is idyllic. There was even a popular Canadian sitcom portraying such a life ("Corner Gas", set in rural Saskatchewan). As a "city-slicker" I really enjoyed watching Corner Gas. It's like the Canadian version of Parks and Recreation except more rural.

brailsafe 10/26/2024||

I watched a lot of Corner Gas growing up, and once spotted Brent Butt with his wife in Vancouver where presumably they live. I think it's a wildly different perspective to have if you've either been born in a small town like that or have a legitimate reason to be there, such as being a farmer, than it is just pick an arbitrary place as a remote office location. For some, working remotely is a relief, and they do feel like they can finally get away from the city, but I feel like those people often don't do anything in the city anyway that cities are great for; they've not bothered to try and form much of an intimate connection with their community, or feel like their whole life can just be picked up and dropped off somewhere else without much sacrifice.

hadlock 10/25/2024||

Allegedly they're getting passenger rail service (reinstated) soon so I would imagine that will help. With service to nearby mining city Timmins. Timmins is about 40k people and cochrane would be about 20k people if every lot is built out.

https://www.ontarionorthland.ca/en/travel/northlander-passen...

mdaniel 10/25/2024||

I believe there are several towns in several countries that are taking this "buy economic development" approach, differing mainly on the amount of subsidy they have to offer to entice someone to move to those town/country combinations. That real estate adage of "location, location, location" exists for a reason

I have secretly wondered if I'd be able to make living bringing WISP services to those places to help ease the modernity withdrawal of normal people wanting to move there. My grave fear is that my risks would be 90% bureaucratic and only 10% technical, given how much hatred community-run ISPs get

MaxPock 10/25/2024||

I've seen those deals in Italy where they give you a free house in village .The catch though is that you'll end up spending thousands of Euros on repair to bring it upto standard.

Geekette 10/25/2024||

That's already in place; the mayor cites wifi availability, including free coverage downtown.

mdaniel 10/25/2024||

[deleted]

randomdata 10/25/2024||

Funny attempt at correcting a misspelling that isn't there, but he wrote "the mayor [as in a person] cites [as in what he said]", not "the major city".

From the article: "We also have a dome of free Wi-Fi coverage over part of our downtown [Chochrane]. Do you have that in Toronto?"

zahlman 10/26/2024||

> Funny attempt at correcting a misspelling that isn't there

> [Chochrane]

Muphry's Law strikes again ;)

randomdata 10/26/2024|||

> Muphry's

Indeed i does.

glass1122 10/26/2024||

Incredibly isolated - Canada is a huge country. Property taxes, access to basic services, Power/Gas might be incredibly expensive. Groceries are very expensive. Too expensive to build homes in those locations, because of isolation. there is a reason these properties sold for 10 dollars.

defrost 10/26/2024|

Population 5,000. An hours drive from Timmins, 700 km North of Toronto.

Much bigger and closer to other towns than where I grew up. Isolated is relative.

There are houses there already, so it's certainly possible to build there. Probably requires being able to hire and load a double trailer semi, cast a concrete slab, do some plumbing and electrical work yourself.

Bit cold for my liking but it'll suit some.

KRAKRISMOTT 10/25/2024||

This area doesn't seem too bad if you own a plane. It's perfect for a Skyhawk.

manishsharan 10/26/2024||

If only we could get rid of the "Return to Office" being pushed by corporate , this could turn out to be great for young families.

rasz 10/26/2024|

Few drawbacks

- distance to medical facilities

- internet

- shipping costs are insane in Canada