Raise the Hammer

Actually many more us want to live in places like Glanbrook or Dundas or Ancaster. That's why so many of the people who live in the core are poor because they cannot afford to live in the burbs. So many of the homes in the burbs are way to expensive for so many of us to live in. The wealthy among us live in those expensive huge houses out in the suburbs. The poorer ones are forced to live in the city. This applies to every city. Look at the price of real estate in NYC. Some of the most expensive condos and apartments in the world are there. Now look at the price of those wonderful estates just outside the city. Those cost even more than the city condos. If people can afford it most want to live in a house not a box in a big building. I am sure there are people who want to live in the city but there is no huge demand for condos so there are very few being built. Some are and will continue to be but compare that to how many single family homes are being built and the demand for them. How many condos are as expensive as new houses so in demand out in the burbs? If people have money and choice mostly they want to live in a house. Ryan you live in a single family home, I know it is tall on a narrow lot and close to the street but would you really want to give that up and move into a condo or apartment? Probably not very few of us do.

By definition single family homes are low density housing and that is what the vast majority of people want.

It is easy to expect others to do things like give up there houses and live in apartments for the greater good but pretty hard to do it ourselves.

Even in places like Mississauga that have a high density because they have a lot of condos and apartment buildings a lot of people live there because they cannot afford to live in a house. What does any house cost in Mississauga? How far from the house to work? Mostly people live in apartments because they need to, either because they cannot afford a house or because they are not capable of looking after house, not because they want to.

So many of our elderly struggle with that. They want to keep living in their own home but as the years go by they become less and less capable of looking after a house and eventually must give it up and move into an apartment or condo.

One of the reasons so many of our forefathers came to this great land from Europe was the lure of the ability to buy their own house. To this day it is easier and more affordable to do that here than there.

This basic difference in housing fuels so many of those differences between their cities and ours.

I believe that a lot of the newer houses being built in the burbs that sell for between $300,000 and $500,000 are between 2,500 and 3,500 ft2. How many homes like that are being built in Europe today? To this day that separates the 2 cultures.

I know you do not approve but that is reality part of my realism approach. You should try it some time.