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Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
Most are getting help from their parents. I think that’s well-established. It’s amazing how generous the bank of mom and dad becomes once grandkids enter the picture.
What does that show us? It shows us that even at those eye-watering prices, couples will do whatever it takes - beg, borrow, steal - to get into a detached home. They’ll take on $600k more in debt to upgrade from a downtown condo to a suburban family home. Living in the high density city centre was just a transitional lifestyle phase.
The flight from urban centres during the pandemic also shows us that a great many people with property there did not love the lifestyle, but only lived in the inner city because it was convenient for work. Remove or reduce the need to go into the office and the utility of living close to the office goes down.
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I think if 3 bedroom places, with proper layouts, were readily available close to the city centre, those places would be in very high demand. Everyone has their own preferences, but a 3 bedroom townhouse in the city vs. a detached home in Surrey/Coquitlam is not even a contest. The problem is so few of those townhouses currently exist.
Once again, I'll point to Montreal as the model of how to do things properly. Montreal has a variety of well built 3 bedroom townhouses close to the city centre that sell for $700k-1.2 million, and those are extremely popular with families.
The "missing middle" is definitely a thing outside of Montreal. IMO people are only moving away from the city centres, because they absolutely have to. When I speak to people who make that move, it's always the same story. They are in a 600-800 square foot condo, which is no longer liveable with multiple kids or kids older than 5. They would like to find more space, but the quality of anything bigger that's also within their budget just doesn't make it possible. So they reluctantly move to the suburbs. Some adjust and are able to find great child orientated social groups. Others end up alcoholics and philanderers.