Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec are border cities. They exist on either sides of the Ottawa River. And yet, 2017 data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation revealed that there’s about a $450 per month rent spread on the average two-bedroom apartment in these… Read More
There’s a stretch of restaurants and bars on the south side of King Street, west of John Street, here in Toronto, that I generally try and avoid. I won’t name names, but if you’re from Toronto, you know what I’m talking about. With all due… Read More
A colleague of mine sent me this Bloomberg article today and said, “Here’s an article about things you already know.” The article cites a recent report by Altus Group that compared government-related fees on new housing across Canada and the U.S. What they discovered will… Read More
This week, Matthew Yglesias of Vox makes the case for raising kids in the city. Spoiler: Driving sucks. Cities have lots to do. And parks can be better than lawns. However, he also talks about why this proposition is becoming increasingly difficult for many families.… Read More
Rachelle Younglai and Chen Wang’s recent piece in the Globe and Mail on suburban household debt (in Canada) has a number of interesting stats. Here are some of them: Looking at debt service ratios across the country, the most financially stressed neighborhoods in Canada are… Read More
The below graphs are taken from a recent (June 2019) report by Knight Frank on “prime” residential pricing across the world. They define “prime” as generally being the top 5% of each market by value. What these graphs show are the spread between the average… Read More
Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron, Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, and author of, Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in New Urban America. In his recent piece in Beyond Chron, he makes the argument that, from San Francisco to… Read More
Here’s a chart from Knight Frank’s 2019 Global Affordability Monitor that I think you’ll find interesting: It compares real home price growth and real household income growth (after tax) over the last 5 years for 32 world cities. The bolded percentages represent the former and… Read More
The City of Nelson, BC — which happens to be the launching pad for some of the best snowboarding in the world — is currently conducting a laneway house design competition. The objective is to come up with a set of “pre-reviewed” design options that… Read More
Adrian Cook’s recent blog post about parking got me thinking about a few driving-related issues. Adrian points out that most condo buildings only allow owners to rent out their parking spots to people who already live in the building. But oftentimes, that’s not the customer.… Read More
