Canadians used to live in a country that built housing with everyone in mind. What happened?
This week, contributor Sean Micallef looked at what went wrong with an integral part of the Canadian dream: affordable housing.
“There was a time when Canadians did not speak of condo bubbles, when the only house flippers were tornados, and when the granite countertop had yet to become a fetishized middle-class object. Instead of the national real estate fantasia we live in today, between the late 1940s and early 1990s Canadians lived in a country that built housing for a variety of income levels and circumstances—and lots of it. Then we stopped.”
“Over the last quarter century, the federal and many provincial governments have essentially ceased investing directly in housing, opting instead to let the market take over and focusing primarily on buyers. If you can afford it, there were and are options, but a growing number of Canadians cannot: a down payment on even a shoebox condo is out of reach for many, and in cities across the country, the rent is simply too damn high.”
What do you think of Canada’s housing situation? Let us know!
