A poll by highly respected IPSOS, released by BILD-GTA shows a strong awareness of the GTA’s severely unaffordable housing. In the 15 years from 2004 to the last pre-pandemic year of 2019, the median detached house price rose more than 160% (inflation adjusted), about...
Wendell Cox
Suburbanizing Canada: 2021 Census
Canada continues to move to the suburbs, as the 2021 census data shows. This is based on a Statistics Canada analysis on metropolitan (Census Metropolitan Areas, or CMAs) population and change since the 2016 Census. Statistics Canada (Statscan) divides the CMA...
Policy Restrictions have Caused the Housing Crisis
The choice we face is clear: a modest expansion of greenfield development or greater housing poverty For 18 years, I have been monitoring international housing affordability, as author or co-author of the Demographia Housing Affordability series. The latest...
Canada, U.S. Cities With Largest CBDs Lost Population
New population estimates by census authorities in Canada (Statistics Canada) and the United States (Bureau of the Census) show that cities (municipalities) with the largest central business districts lost residents in the year ended July 1, 2021. Currently data is...
Featured News
The Man who Saved the Plains Indians
At the time of Confederation, Canada’s Plains Indians were in a desperate situation. The same European-introduced guns and horses that resulted in a briefly glorious golden age for them had also resulted in constant inter-tribal warfare and the rapid disappearance of...
Renewed Talk of Abolishing the Indian Act
Political attacks on the Indian Act are back in the news, and that is a good thing. However, Canadian politicians, including First Nation politicians, need a credible plan about what to do before we pull out the champagne. Attacking the Indian Act is not a big deal...
The Urban Containment Effect (Zoning Effect) On Australian House Prices
By: Wendell Cox Originally published: April 5, 2018 Source: newgeography.com In delivering the Annual Report of the Bank to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration on August 18, 2006, (now...
Vancouver-Portland High-Speed Train Would Be a Costly Extravagance
The preliminary report forecasts that it will take $30 billion to $55 billion to complete. Experience suggests costs would likely be much higher. There are two principal problems. The first is that high-speed rail routinely costs much more than planned. The second is...
Wendell Cox joins Global News to discuss the advantages, or disadvantages to implementing a High Speed Train from Vancouver to Portland. (~10 minutes)
California’s Dense Suburbs and Urbanization
Many observers think California urban areas are more geographically expansive ("lower density" or to use the pejorative term, more "sprawling") then those elsewhere in the nation, especially the Northeast Corridor, which runs from the Washington DC metropolitan area...
Patrik Schumacher, managing partner of Zaha Hadid Architects, and consultant Wendell Cox are both controversial figures in the urbanist world. They joined Aaron M. Renn in conversation to talk about their beliefs and what it's like to challenge the urbanist...
Commuting In Canada: 2016 Census Report
Statistics Canada has just released the employment access data out of the 2016 Census, based on the main mode of commuting. Generally, there is little change between the modes, as Figure 1 indicates, compared to the 2011 Census results. (See: New Data on Commuting in...
Playgrounds for Elites
The revival of America’s core cities is one of the most celebrated narratives of our time—yet, perhaps paradoxically, urban progress has also created a growing problem of increasing inequality and middle-class flight. Once exemplars of middle-class advancement, most...
Time to Address Middle-Income Housing Affordability
"Kudos" to the Trudeau government for proposing the use of vouchers for low income housing and homelessness. It is too bad that even in the most successful economies, many people have insufficient means to provide their own housing. Vouchers are a better way to...
RBC Report Highlights Increasing Housing Affordability Challenges
Households could face even greater housing affordability challenges in the years to come, according to the September 2017 RBC Economics (RBC) Housing Trends and Affordability report. In noting that " The days of ultra low interest rates in Canada are over," RBC...