The housing market in Waterloo near the home of Wilmot Township Mayor Natasha Salonen is rising, even though she earns about $90,000 a year from her work as mayor and regional counselor with the local power utility, she says she can't afford to buy a home in the municipality she leads.

Salonen says, "I live in the house with my parents, living in this area is really impossible for a young professional with student debt and I definitely know I'm not alone in that."

Wilmot Township is located outside Kitchener-Waterloo, and has a population of about 22,000. According to the Waterloo Region Association of Realtors, the average home in Wilmot sold for $916,167 last month.

While it is worth noting that Salonen is only 28 years old, her situation is still unique among her political peers, as she says, "I realized around the table that I was the only one without a home among my municipal colleagues in the area."

Salonen became the first female mayor of Wilmot in October 2022 when she garnered over 60 percent of the votes.

She is still repaying student loans after graduating from Oxford University in England in 2019, and says this contributes to her inability to buy a home, adding that many of her friends in their late twenties are also unable to buy homes in Wilmot.

Salonen continued, "One just hit the market. I don’t know what it sold for, but it was listed at $798,900 and it’s about 1,000 square feet."

Realtor Sean Ramoutar from Royal LePage Wolle Realty says the situation is not surprising, even for the mayor, "Unfortunately, this now seems par for the course, what we’re seeing now is that first-time homebuyers are really affected, and there’s a significant barrier to entering the market right now."

He added that this means some parents are seeing their children move back home to save up so they can buy their own place. Ramoutar explains, "Right now, we’re seeing a lot of multigenerational families living in the same home due to the barriers to entry."

Salonen supports last month’s announcement to build 10,000 affordable and accessible homes in the area by 2030. While she acknowledges that there are people in much worse situations than hers, she says this project doesn’t necessarily target young professionals earning similar wages to hers.

She hopes municipal leaders can come together to create opportunities for that demographic as well. In the meantime, Salonen says above all, the situation helps her connect with the people she represents - perhaps in a way she never imagined.