It's one thing to rock up to a large bustling city with no information and expect to live there - people do it all the time. There are always apartments for rent and Dundas homes for sale in Toronto. But trying the same thing on a small town is a recipe for disaster. Do you even know if anyone in the area is selling their home? Have you any conception of what it will cost you? Is there a real estate agent who works that area or do you have to guess? If you can't find a place to buy, where will you stay until one opens up? Therefore, to help you start off on the right foot in Addington Highlands, we've created this guide to its real estate market.

First off, how big is the market? The answer is small - very small. Smaller even than the population of the 77 Carlton condo block in downtown Toronto. There are just over 2,500 people living in the township, which is made up of nineteen separate communities. This gives an average of only 131 people per town! The reality of course is that some communities are bigger than others. For instance, the municipal offices are located in Flinton, which makes it larger than the other villages in Addington Highlands.

The area of the township is more than 1,200 square kilometers and there are 2,350 private dwellings. This gives us a population density of just under two people per square kilometer, so if you had ideas about driving around looking for "for sale" signs you can forget it. You'd be old and grey before you even located all the houses. Therefore it's important that you disabuse yourself of the notion that the process of looking for a home here will be the same as looking for Toronto townhouses.

The usual procedure for searching for a home is to visit a real estate agent and have them present you with your options. This is fine if you're searching for a home in an area with a concentrated downtown, where agents' offices are easy to find, like Toronto or Milton. Real estate agents are pretty thin on the ground in the bush, however. You could try asking agents in the nearest cities: Kingston and Peterborough, or you could turn up at a pub or restaurant in Addington or Flinton and ask around.

Properties in Addington Highlands are a Mississauga real estate agent's dream. They're large and often have great views or water access (there are 16 lakes in the region). Resale homes can go for $100,000 to $400,000 depending on size and location while land can cost as little as $9,000 or as much as $80,000 depending on how large the lot is.