McKenna and husband Jeff Richards had been intrigued for years by a slower-paced life outside of the city. But it wasn't until COVID-19 brought their respective businesses - Richards is a chef - to a halt that the two moved from Toronto to the town of Grand Valley to live with his parents.“We've kind of fallen in love with this small-town vibe,” McKenna said. “It's a really lovely community.
“In the last 10 days, we have seen an overwhelming migration of people up here,” Chris Keleher, a Royal LePage realtor who specializes in Collingwood and The Blue Mountains, said on Friday. “It's funny, because when we were up in the summer, our thought was always like: could we actually live up here?” Francis said.
Royal LePage numbers show Vaughan, just north of Toronto, saw an 83 per cent jump in May over the same time last year. Peterborough and Lindsay were up 56 per cent, and Kitchener and Cambridge saw an increase of 53 per cent. In some cases, such as McKenna and Richards who could no longer afford their $2,300-a-month Parkdale apartment, moving was a financial necessity.
Home Group Realty's John Gaida moved to Erin, Ont., from the GTA with his wife in 2011. They live on a permaculture farm with a food forest, pigs and chickens on three acres of land.
I'll bet the people of Grand Valley appreciated them moving there during a pandemic! 😕
Bye...don’t let the door hit you on the way out to the country