Housing boom offers less affordable prices; encourages condo living

The new TD Economics report has said that the decade-long housing boom “belies a number of problems” in the Canadian marketplace.
 
Less affordability for more homebuyers across Canada is one of the problems the housing boom carries with it, despite bringing economic benefits to the GTA, the report claimed.
 
Another problem was the drastic decrease in the diversity of housing options and the stagnant construction of other homes apart from condo units, including as semi-detached homes.
 
“A healthy economy should have a good degree of mobility and a good degree of housing choices,” said deputy chief economist and vice-president at TD Bank Derek Burleton in an interview.
 
“What we’ve seen in the past ten years is this affordability challenge has spread to the middle class and even to other, higher income levels.”
 
GTA is also seeing more young people purchasing condos, as their ability to move into a larger property is “impeded by soaring costs for units other than small downtown units and a lack of reasonably-priced alternatives.” This includes young couples with children.
 
“The leap into home ownership is becoming more difficult, and those that have purchased condos as starter homes will face limited flexibility in moving up given rising housing costs,” the report reads.

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