Comment 71679

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted November 28, 2011 at 21:58:22

"It was predominantly the collapse of the car-dependent suburban fringe that caused the mortgage collapse."

I dropped my jaw at this statement. First, at the notion that such a "collapse" has already happened, and second, that one could determine a causal relationship with the biggest economic crash in 80 years. Seriously?

Inner-city condos in a few select neighbourhoods are now in many ways trendier than suburbs in many ways, but I've really seen little evidence that suburban growth is "over". Drive around Hamilton, Guelph or the GTA, and you'll still see hundreds of bulldozers. Homes in the western part of the lower city (Kirkendale, Durand, Westdale etc) have always been poor representations of lower-city housing prices...I've seen houses on my street go for five figures since I moved in, and I still see plenty of houses further south going going for triple what those in my area sell for. Now, prices around me are rising possibly more than those in the suburbs, but that doesn't mean an instant end to suburban growth. Until the twentieth century, and in most places other than North America, suburbs have always been slums, and almost always managed to find a way to grow in spite of that fact.

Has the shift away from suburban housing begun? Definitely. Have we hit or are we nearing a tipping point? Probably. But this is all far from a done deal and anything but over.

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