Housing shortfall, costs and affordability

[tomh009]

Supposing that we could snap our fingers and instantly create 36,000 housing units in the region ... is there really demand for that many? That's about 10 years' worth of residential construction at current pace. The existing affordability issues aside, that really seems a massive number for needed units.

I think yes. The number of people that currently live with parents, roommates, etc, that would prefer not to I think easily totals 36,000. That's only 5% of our population.

Of course, this housing would also have to be cheaper than our current housing for that to work out. But housing here is currently very expensive. Just falling to say Tampa or Las Vegas prices would increase the number of households.

A fair point. But I took the liberty of highlighting a key phrase: I think these kinds of scenarios are mostly more of a "want" than "must" have. Yes, it would be good to have housing options for that -- but at the current price levels I don't think they would be affordable anyway. I believe most people choose to have roommates more because of the cost than because of the lack of housing availability.

So, unless the federal and/or provincial governments find a solution to the housing affordability issues, I don't think the region needs to create another 36,000 units beyond the current pace.