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I didn't mean it's literally barren land or that it's impossible to inhabit. I meant there are few desirable places to reside (to me and anyone I've ever known

I didn't mean it's literally barren land or that it's impossible to inhabit. I meant there are few desirable places to reside (to me and anyone I've ever known) on the basis of access to jobs, culture, major hospitals, higher education, etc. Yes some people can live full and happy lives in Timmins, Ontario. But is anybody moving to Timmins from Vancouver because they're tired of housing prices? Not really. Thus, demand to live in places like the GTA are sky high (and I argue, deservedly so) In the US there's at least one city in every state that I'd voluntarily live in. Most have several. The amount of choice there is insane.

cmrdporcupine 5y ago
No, I still think you're wrong, and the thing you're saying isn't happening (people relocating from major cities to remoter areas) is clearly happening in pretty much all Ontario and BC. At least right now because housing prices have skyrocketed everywhere, not just in the GTA or lower mainland. The pandemic actually drove people out of urban areas and drove up prices all over the province. Especially places like Squamish or Collingwood that already had cachet for upper middle class people (but were previously affordable because of the difficulty of commuting from them). While this is most obviously the case for southern Ontario, I think you'll find actually Timmins or Sault Ste Marie, etc. have gone up at precipitous rates as well. And elsewhere in the country:. Lots of people relocated to Nova Scotia during the pandemic, because housing was cheaper there, they handled COVID better, and they figured they could work remote forever. Housing prices have skyrocketed there, too. The only place where this didn't happen is in Alberta, where low oil prices and other factors. caused a bit of a net emigration and lower housing prices for a bit and things were quite affordable there. That's now changing as the price of oil goes up. In the end, there's boatloads of places for people to live in Canada, those places are growing, in some ways regaining a bit of the demand they had prior flattening out in the 1990s & 2000s. The problem is in general that industry and good paying jobs aren't necessarily coming with the people and they're creating an affordability problem for the existing "locals". In the past people concentrated in the GTA and the lower mainland BC because of jobs jobs jobs. Remote is changing that a bit. For now.

cmrdporcupine 5y ago

No, I still think you're wrong, and the thing you're saying isn't happening (people relocating from major cities to remoter areas) is clearly happening in pretty much all Ontario and BC. At least right now because housing prices have skyrocketed everywhere, not just in the GTA or lower mainland. The pandemic actually drove people out of urban areas and drove up prices all over the province. Especially places like Squamish or Collingwood that already had cachet for upper middle class people (but were previously affordable because of the difficulty of commuting from them). While this is most obviously the case for southern Ontario, I think you'll find actually Timmins or Sault Ste Marie, etc. have gone up at precipitous rates as well. And elsewhere in the country:. Lots of people relocated to Nova Scotia during the pandemic, because housing was cheaper there, they handled COVID better, and they figured they could work remote forever. Housing prices have skyrocketed there, too. The only place where this didn't happen is in Alberta, where low oil prices and other factors. caused a bit of a net emigration and lower housing prices for a bit and things were quite affordable there. That's now changing as the price of oil goes up. In the end, there's boatloads of places for people to live in Canada, those places are growing, in some ways regaining a bit of the demand they had prior flattening out in the 1990s & 2000s. The problem is in general that industry and good paying jobs aren't necessarily coming with the people and they're creating an affordability problem for the existing "locals". In the past people concentrated in the GTA and the lower mainland BC because of jobs jobs jobs. Remote is changing that a bit. For now.