4 ms·

And of course, the idea that there is "one housing market" in Canada, and presumably the US, is very much part of the problem.

mitthrowaway2 3y ago
How so? Can you clarify what you mean?
- r-s 3y ago
  Some bigger cities (such as Edmonton, 1M people) still have a somewhat sane real estate market. In Edmonton a single family detached home averages around 450k CAD, while average household income is over 120k.
martythemaniak 3y ago
Yeah, the US housing market is just too broad to be talked about as one thing. This used to be the case in Canada, where housing was really bad in Vancouver and Toronto, but alright elsewhere. This is just not the case anymore and the last ~5 years or so the Vancouver/Toronto problem has become very widespread. Small cities and town now have insanely high costs as well.
- randcraw 3y ago
  So have undeveloped land prices risen as much as existing houses? It seems like the obvious solution is to add new housing outside of town to serve the unmet demand, as every metro area in the US has done for over a century. With so much land and so few people, why hasn't Canada done this too?
  - TheRealPomax 3y ago
    Because most of Canada is uninhabitable. It's like asking why the entire state of Alaska has fewer people than live in Seattle if it has so much land. And not "metro Seattle", just... Seattle.
    - raydev 3y ago
      To be fair, even if most of Canada is uninhabitable, there's still plenty of undeveloped habitable land.
ninth_ant 3y ago
The housing market is highly interconnected, as people sell homes in expensive areas and thus drive up prices when they compete for homes in less expensive areas. This creates a ripple effect as those new markets show price gains, and owners in those areas can sell their homes and move to other further-flung areas. So yes, there are regional differences but they impact each other and can broadly be considered a single market.

mitthrowaway2 3y ago

How so? Can you clarify what you mean?

r-s 3y ago
Some bigger cities (such as Edmonton, 1M people) still have a somewhat sane real estate market. In Edmonton a single family detached home averages around 450k CAD, while average household income is over 120k.

martythemaniak 3y ago

Yeah, the US housing market is just too broad to be talked about as one thing. This used to be the case in Canada, where housing was really bad in Vancouver and Toronto, but alright elsewhere. This is just not the case anymore and the last ~5 years or so the Vancouver/Toronto problem has become very widespread. Small cities and town now have insanely high costs as well.

randcraw 3y ago
So have undeveloped land prices risen as much as existing houses? It seems like the obvious solution is to add new housing outside of town to serve the unmet demand, as every metro area in the US has done for over a century. With so much land and so few people, why hasn't Canada done this too?
- TheRealPomax 3y ago
  Because most of Canada is uninhabitable. It's like asking why the entire state of Alaska has fewer people than live in Seattle if it has so much land. And not "metro Seattle", just... Seattle.
  - raydev 3y ago
    To be fair, even if most of Canada is uninhabitable, there's still plenty of undeveloped habitable land.

ninth_ant 3y ago

The housing market is highly interconnected, as people sell homes in expensive areas and thus drive up prices when they compete for homes in less expensive areas. This creates a ripple effect as those new markets show price gains, and owners in those areas can sell their homes and move to other further-flung areas. So yes, there are regional differences but they impact each other and can broadly be considered a single market.