Cost of housing in Canada

[IKnowNothing]

Horses for courses.
The prairies have the space- if they want to go the route of sprawl that's their choice.

But Southern Ontario is a different story. Too much of the best farmland in the country is already under suburbs. We have massive stocks of low density SDH's, a centuries worth. But we need more places for people to live. Filling in the remaining gaps within urban boundaries with lower cost/ higher density housing is both what the free market and societal need is calling for. The role of central planning in the next little bit should be to

• enable it via infrastructure
• ensure social needs are looked after ie. push developers for livable family size units, not micro condo bachelor pads, make sure there's green space and adequate parking
• get out of the way and take Nimby's with them

In terms of the overall situation, looking at CREA data for some "non-GTA" urban centres (Guelph, KW, London, Barrie)

• The average price is flat with where it was in approximately summer 2021, no net price growth in 3 years
• IF prices finish the year where they are now (big if) the 5 year price growth (as a %) from 2020 to 2025 will actually be smaller than that of 2015-2020, with all of it happening in the first 18 months of the window

Pie in the sky hope for a path out- that the pain of the last two years has slapped some sense into the market, and we've found a short/mid term equilibrium point where rates relaxing to ~3-3.5% just increases affordability and volume of transactions rather than kickstarting another run up, and prices go sideways for another couple/few years before settling into a long term <3% growth rate again.

 

[YZT580]

Fair, but that is still an example that higher density living =/= worse outcomes.

I guess other examples could be city centres in the Netherlands, etc - not necessarily Amsterdam or Paris or London.

But about going outside and playing - even in downtown Toronto, community parks are still a thing and very popular (not just by the homeless crowd). A bunch of my friends, with kids, live in higher-density living and go to the parks regularly.

older parks in established neighbourhoods under the old regulations. The European cities that I lived in all featured homes and flats built right on the road allowance with large green spaces in the rear and had large parks and playgrounds within walking distance. They also had shops, pubs, and schools all within the same walking area. Here we have eliminated many of those amenities: neighbourhood shops gave way to malls and strip plazas, schools have been consolidated with added busing removing children from their local area, locals have given way to Montana and Kelsey and parks in new areas have become parkettes with two benches and an ugly statue and no swings or teeter totters.

 

[dimsum]

older parks in established neighbourhoods under the old regulations. The European cities that I lived in all featured homes and flats built right on the road allowance with large green spaces in the rear and had large parks and playgrounds within walking distance. They also had shops, pubs, and schools all within the same walking area. Here we have eliminated many of those amenities: neighbourhood shops gave way to malls and strip plazas, schools have been consolidated with added busing removing children from their local area, locals have given way to Montana and Kelsey and parks in new areas have become parkettes with two benches and an ugly statue and no swings or teeter totters.

Are you talking about…

gasp

15 minute cities?!?!?!??!!!!????

 

[dapaterson]

Are you talking about…

gasp

15 minute cities?!?!?!??!!!!????

 

[Rifleman62]

I moved from LONDON, UK to WINNIPEG, CANADA ​