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A Question for my Canadian Friends

RavingMac

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Have been watching Holmes Inspection and Holmes on Homes (I'm a big Mike Holmes fan) and have a question.

The great majority of homes Mike deals with are multi-family dwellings, what we call down south Condos or Town Houses. Why is that?

Canada is larger in area than the US with about 1/10 the population, but housing seems far more clustered and compact than where I live.
 

pigoo3

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Canada is larger in area than the US with about 1/10 the population, but housing seems far more clustered and compact than where I live.

Here's probably the #1 reason (2/3rds of the Canadian population live near the US/Canadian border):

2006 Census: Portrait of the Canadian Population in 2006

figure35-en.gif


- Nick
 

chscag

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Canada is larger in area than the US with about 1/10 the population, but housing seems far more clustered and compact than where I live.

Have you ever spent a 12 month tour at a Norad Radar site in Northern Quebec? I rest my case..... :p
 
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RavingMac

RavingMac

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Thanks, guys.
I realize the population is heavily concentrated south, but still doesn't account for what I am seeing. Last night I watched one where they were working on ninety year old duplexes.
Hard to believe that population pressure alone would have driven that kind of construction almost a hundred years ago.
 
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well it depends on where you are. Here in Toronto houses are skinny as ****. You would think real estate here was insane a hundred years ago. We have a detached now and it's considered quite wide for toronto but it's still not that wide.

You need to spend well over a million here at least to get anything wider than 15ft downtown.
 

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Although there is a lot of land, people don't want to live in 90% of it (as Nick's picture shows). There's much less habitable land relative to the United States. chscag seems to know what I'm talking about.

Here's some math to give you some context: the three territories have a total land surface area of 3,493,013 square kilometres which is roughly 35% of the total land surface under Canadian jurisdiction. However, only 106,455 people live in them which is roughly 0.32% of the population. To put that into perspective (as if that wasn't enough), there are more people in my electoral riding than in the three territories combined.

The population is also clustered around urban centres primarily. The Windsor-Quebec City corridor (the area in Nick's map that is offset in the top left hand corner and home to Groovetube and I) is home to about 18 million people or roughly 54% of the population. If you add Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary to that (the three largest urban areas outside of the W-QC corridor), you've got 68% of the population. That concentration is unlikely to change since that's where all the job opportunities are.

vansmith: providing lessons on Canadian demographics. ;)
 
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RavingMac

RavingMac

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Thanks, Van.
I keep promising myself a trip through Canada. Need to actually get around to doing it.
 

vansmith

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I keep promising myself a trip through Canada. Need to actually get around to doing it.
You and me both. I've only left that Windsor-Quebec City corridor a few times so I tend to have a fairly narrow view of what the country is like. I'd love to do the same across the United States which, as I understand it, has the same amazing differences in landscape from region to region.
 

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You and me both. I've only left that Windsor-Quebec City corridor a few times so I tend to have a fairly narrow view of what the country is like. I'd love to do the same across the United States which, as I understand it, has the same amazing differences in landscape from region to region.

If my memory & math are correct;)...I've lived in, visited friends/family, vacationed, traveled for business, or driven thru 46 of the 48 contiguous United States...some of them many times (and no I have never been a truck driver).;) YES...most definitely a WIDE diversity of landscapes in the US!

From the Canadian perspective...I've been to Toronto about 5-10x, Montreal 3-4x, and New Brunswick 2x. Would like to see some of Western Canada. Been to Seattle a handful of times...but never got across the border to see Vancouver & other Western Canada destinations.

- Nick
 
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RavingMac

RavingMac

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Been all over the US. Lived in Germany twice. But closest to Canada I've been is the American side of Niagara Falls.
 

vansmith

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If my memory & math are correct;)...I've lived in, visited friends/family, vacationed, traveled for business, or driven thru 46 of the 48 contiguous United States...some of them many times (and no I have never been a truck driver).;) YES...most definitely a WIDE diversity of landscapes in the US!

From the Canadian perspective...I've been to Toronto about 5-10x, Montreal 3-4x, and New Brunswick 2x. Would like to see some of Western Canada. Been to Seattle a handful of times...but never got across the border to see Vancouver & other Western Canada destinations.

- Nick
You've been to more places in Canada than I have! Hmm, I have to hurry up with my travel plans. I've been to Edmonton once and New Brunswick many moons ago.

Been all over the US. Lived in Germany twice. But closest to Canada I've been is the American side of Niagara Falls.
You're not missing much on the other side except for a casino. I've been on both sides (I have family in Buffalo) and although the Ontario side seems to play up the tourist card more than the NY side, they're essentially the same.
 

pigoo3

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Been all over the US. Lived in Germany twice. But closest to Canada I've been is the American side of Niagara Falls.

Ahh yes...I totally forgot about Niagara Falls Canada. Been there a bunch of times. Was actually there last Fall.

- Nick
 

pigoo3

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You've been to more places in Canada than I have! Hmm, I have to hurry up with my travel plans. I've been to Edmonton once and New Brunswick many moons ago.

I've had a few extra years to do my traveling. Let's "revisit" this thread in about 25 years...and compare notes again!;)

One of my early US trips was when I was an undergrad. I basically circumnavigated the US (clockwise) starting in the Northeastern US. Took a semi-leasurly 1 month during the Summer.

- Nick
 
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One of the things I will note is lots of new construction housing (single family) here in the US is tightly squeezed together for no reason other than to shove more units into the available space. For example I was in Vegas for most of January and in SW Vegas there is a lot of land and a lot of new construction going on. All of it seems to be tightly packed despite the large amount of land given over to construction. These places have no yards to speak of and the houses might as well be multi-family with the little room between dwellings. While Canada may have been this was for some time, it appears the US is heading there too...
 
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RavingMac

RavingMac

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Not for me!

I feel constricted enough on my 1/2 acre lot. :p
What I REALLY need is 10+ acres.
 
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The builders will cram whatever they can build that a buyer is willing to buy. If those houses are sold, and are that crammed next to each other, which is something I hate, then good for the builders. I would rather live somewhere a bit farther with a bunch of personal space. My uncle lives in Canada, so I know what the OP was talking about, but there are just as many places that have open land housing. It's the dense, key cities where you notice this cramming of houses, which can also be found in U.S. cities.

My take on it is, if I can stretch my body, from fingers to toes, and I can touch my house and my neighbors at once, forget about it!
 
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Have been watching Holmes Inspection and Holmes on Homes (I'm a big Mike Holmes fan) and have a question.

The great majority of homes Mike deals with are multi-family dwellings, what we call down south Condos or Town Houses. Why is that?

Canada is larger in area than the US with about 1/10 the population, but housing seems far more clustered and compact than where I live.

We (Canadians) have British roots that were maintained longer than the US. Think of Boston or New York, but the model continuing into the early 1900's. Old duplexes, etc.

The US adopted a model that involved subdivisions, etc. More population could support the larger lots (roads, police, fire departments).
 
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When we were looking at houses before buying this one a few years back, we checked out some of the newer houses, and these ones were being shoehorned into available alleyways here in Toronto. I was amazed, and how even with my toyota matrix, not a big car, it was a tight squeeze to go down the street, and try to turn into the driveway, nevermind the garage. Everything was built like a hallway, the whole house. This whole condo thing which is out of control here in Toronto, is insane in how they have managed to squeeze in these cages everywhere, and they sell for anywhere from 300k and up!

Makes me wonder what 50 years from now would be like. A friend from Tokyo told me it's far worse there than it is here. Amazing.
 
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RavingMac

RavingMac

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When we were looking at houses before buying this one a few years back, we checked out some of the newer houses, and these ones were being shoehorned into available alleyways here in Toronto. I was amazed, and how even with my toyota matrix, not a big car, it was a tight squeeze to go down the street, and try to turn into the driveway, nevermind the garage. Everything was built like a hallway, the whole house. This whole condo thing which is out of control here in Toronto, is insane in how they have managed to squeeze in these cages everywhere, and they sell for anywhere from 300k and up!

Makes me wonder what 50 years from now would be like. A friend from Tokyo told me it's far worse there than it is here. Amazing.
I have a Matrix too, so I can imagine.

Thanks BTW for the comments, makes it a lot more clear. Guess my only real question left is why not expand North and get some breathing room? Does the weather deteriorate that quickly as you move away from the lakes?
Or, is it more of an societal inertia thing along the lines of what Van mentioned?

That is where the jobs, infrastructure etc already are . . .

My mental image tends to be like Dallas Fort Worth. Large population, but no real physical barriers so it continues to grow at the edges.
 

vansmith

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They are moving outwards - you should see how fast the subdivisions are springing up around the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). In fact, the regions around Toronto are some of the fastest growing areas in the country (along with massive growth in Alberta). So, it does sound like it's similar to Dallas-Fort Worth in that respect.

As for the weather, it depends where you head. Going north, there can be quite a change once you hit Barrie (that's about 90-100 km or 56-62 miles) - people pretty much need snowblowers which are not necessary in Toronto. In all honesty though, the weather is weird in this country...haha.
 

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