I’m off this week to South Florida to check out Art Basel (among other things). This week isn’t a great week to be leaving the city since it’s the Toronto Real Estate Forum and lots of people are coming to the city for that. But I’ve wanted to go to Art Basel for over a decade, so it was about time I did that.

I also decided to pick up the new Monocle Travel Guide to Miami. This is the 8th city that they’ve covered and, as you might know from reading this blog, I’m a big fan of Monocle. (I’m still waiting for the Toronto edition, guys.)

As part of this guide launch – which was timed to coincide with Art Basel Miami Beach – they also released a short video that is worth watching.

When most people think of Miami they probably think of sun and flash. And that is certainly part of the DNA of the city. But Miami has also grown into a global city with important and extensive connections to Latin America. It’s also an incredible place for those who love art, architecture, and design. If you watch the Monocle video, I’m sure you’ll feel that. 

Miami is absolutely one of my favorite cities.

There are thousands of people who read this blog via email or by following on Tumblr. The rest of the readership just stops by on the web and visits periodically.

But of the thousands of regular readers, I know that many do not click through to the comment section. And that’s a shame. Because oftentimes I find the comments more interesting than my actual post.

Take for example yesterday’s post on The Millennial Dream. 

The initial post was about Millennial housing choices (and some stats on marriage and fertility rates). The comments provided some additional color on the trends, but they also got into mobile dating apps and whether or not it’s easier or harder to meet people in cities, today. It was a fun discussion.

This got me thinking and reminded me that people come to cities not only because of labor markets, but because of dating markets. 

So for today’s piece, I thought I would post the following diagram from Richard Florida’s book, Who’s Your City? It shows how many more singles (aged 20-64) there are – according to gender – in the largest US metro areas.

I couldn’t find an equally detailed map for Canada, but based on this, it looks like Toronto is slanted towards single women and Calgary is slanted towards single men.

Does the above look right to you?

On my way back from Philadelphia this past weekend I wrote a post called, The Philadelphia (real estate) story. It was about how opposite the market is in Philly compared to Toronto.

After writing that post and because of a discussion in the comment section, I started thinking about condo vs. rental apartment development across the US. Because unlike cities such as Toronto and Vancouver, it struck me that – outside of maybe New York and Miami – most U.S. cities are really not building a lot of for sale condos. And if you’re from Toronto or Vancouver, I bet that feels odd to you.

But what exactly is that number?

As of the first quarter of 2015, condos as a percentage of all new multifamily (apartment) construction in the US was only 5.5%. That’s a tiny number and is down from over 50% before the Great Recession, which means most cities in the US really are building mostly rental. Last year the US built 264,000 multifamily units across 11,000 buildings.

So why is that happening?

There appears to be a number of factors, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.

There’s a supply side constraint:

Another obstacle cited by developers: construction loans. Matt Allen, chief operating officer of the Related Group, a developer based in Miami, said he can get a construction loan for roughly 75% of the cost of building an apartment complex. But lenders will cover only 50%, on average, of a condo complex’s cost because of the greater risk, he said.

There’s a demand side constraint:

As a result, the Federal Housing Administration, which backs mortgages made to low-wealth buyers, tightened its lending standards in a series of moves from 2008 to 2012. Under the new rules, in order for the FHA to insure mortgages in a given condo complex, at least half of the units must be owner-occupied and no more than half can be FHA-insured, among other requirements. For condo projects under development, at least 30% of units must be under contract for sale before the FHA will start backing mortgages there. Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tightened their standards as well.

And there are macroeconomic factors:

On the entry-level end, tepid job growth early in the recovery and the younger generation’s affinity for flexibility have fueled demand for rentals. Apartment rents are up nearly 16% since 2010, according to Reis Inc.

Notwithstanding the above, could this be a post-recession policy pendulum that has swung too far in one direction?