1) Employment Trends/Job Creation
The biggest driver of the real estate market is jobs. The more diverse the economy, the ‘safer’ and more solid the foundation is for real estate investing.
Hamilton’s strong job market is strong, with employment growth of 2% a yr since Jan 2015.
Our unemployment rate of 5.4% is on average lower then other parts of Ontario, although increased .3% since January 2015.
Hamilton Health Sciences has nearly 10,000 employees working at six unique hospitals and a cancer centre. Hamilton Health Sciences was recently selected by GE Healthcare as the first site in the world to receive new prototype technologies for use in a molecular breast imaging research program.
Other large scale employers in Hamilton are:
St. Joseph’s Healthcare: 2,706 employees
Stryker Canada: 213 employees
FirstOntario Credit Union: 256 employees
Horizon Utilities Corporation: 397 employees
Unemployment Rate: The number of people without work who are available for work, and are actively seeking work. It is a well-known indicator of labour-market health.
Hamilton has an array of prosperous, stable industries, making living and working enjoyable and affordable, creating low risk real estate investments.
In Hamilton, 71.7% of census families were married couples in 2011, while 10.8% were common-law-couples and 17.5% were lone-parent families.
2) Net Migration
Hamilton is the third destination of choice for new immigrants to Ontario and according to Statistics Canada more than 24% of our population is born outside of Canada.
Immigration
People from other countries moving into the area
Intra-migration
People moving from other parts of Canada into the area
The 3 largest Central Metropolitan Area in Canada saw migration losses within the rest of their province, specifically Toronto (-22,800), Montréal (-3,600) and Vancouver (-4,400).
These migration losses primarily benefited the surrounding non-CMA areas. The Toronto CMA also recorded significant migration losses to the benefit of the neighbouring Oshawa and Hamilton CMAs
3) Population Age
The average age of a Hamiltonian is 41.3 years of age
Distribution of Population by Age Group
4) GDP Growth
Hamilton is Canada’s 9th largest regional economy in Canada with a GDP per capita of approximately $48,000 in 2006.