I can’t stop thinking about Zoë Coombes’ comment here. She’s absolutely right.

Why housing starts, particularly condo starts, are going to be bad for awhile.

Consider Hamilton, ON. Between 2000 and 2015, the monthly payment on a median-priced condo was consistently between 25-30% of median income.

It’s hard to make something so ridiculous up. Peak Malthusian environmental narcissism.

it’s wild that coastal cities have spent years debating if YIMBY policies will lower rents, and Austin just… did it

they streamlined permitting, upzoned most of the city, and eliminated parking mandates. Tons of housing is going up and rents are plummeting.

YIMBY policies work

Homes Prices Are Batshit Crazy In Ontario: What's The Provincial Government Solution? INCREASE TAXES ON NEW CONSTRUCTION

I know it's absolutely nuts but it's also true

Because in Ontario & Canada all governments love tax increases because governments never cut spending

2/

A dramatic four tower proposal (61s, 61s, 59s & 57s) by the Madison Group would add a punch of bold colour & dramatic design by NYC based Rafael Viñoly Architects to the midtown #Toronto skyline.

Project details via UrbanToronto: urbantoronto.ca/news/2024/04/m…

Bleak GTHA market outlook from Urbanation Inc. - sounds like perfect time to increase DCs (new home taxes)

'Lowest quarterly total since Global Financial Crisis in Q1-2009. Outside of that brief period, new condo sales haven’t been this low since late-1990s.'
urbanation.ca/news/gtha-new-…

Tonight, President Dave Depencier is celebrating the incredible work of Simcoe Home Builders members at the Awards of Creative Excellence!

Thank you CEO Sandy Tuckey for inviting OHBA to participate in this evening festivities!

And look who Pres Dave ran into!
#PastPresidentsClub

It’s not developers, and it’s not municipalities.

It’s you—the homebuyer or renter.

It’s the young family whose “forever home” just became $20,000 more expensive.

It’s the nurse or the mechanic who now has to pay $500 more per month in rent.

🧵 (12/17)

Suddenly, thousands of projects no longer pencil.

They’re compromised because the math doesn’t add up anymore.

Homebuilders planned for certain costs, and now those costs are going to higher.

But who ends up bearing the burden of those rising costs?

🧵 (11/17)

Doug Ford may not do much math, but homebuilders do.

They calculated the costs of their projects with this five-year phase-in period in mind.

Then Bill 185 came along, eliminated the five-year phase-in period of increased development charges, and undid all of that.

🧵 (10/17)

When a new housing bill comes out every few months contradicting the one before it, you get an environment of unpredictability that is toxic to the homebuilding process.

Projects that made financial sense in 2023 no longer do in 2024.

🧵 (6/17)

The West End HBA Awards of Distinction are about to begin - excited to hit the stage w these handsome fellas #westendaod2023

For only the third time this century, Ontario had fewer than 5,000 non-apartment housing starts in the first 3 months of the year.

Apartment construction still relatively strong, but ground-oriented development has all but dried up.

Thread time. This is old data (2018), but if you want to know why housing is so expensive - a huge part of it is taxes.

We tax housing construction like we tax cigarettes, and we wonder why we’re getting less of it.

New study finds Hamilton-Burlington third-least affordable region in Canada for housing thespec.com/business/real-… via @thespec

BREAKING: Iran has launched an attack against Israel using dozens of drones

Over $100 million for this project comes from development charges. These charges are a direct tax on housing construction, raising the price of both new and existing homes.

Despite this, one city councillor claims that 'the cost of this is nothing to the taxpayer to build.'

Thread time! Here's the TL;DR version.

Even if we could build homes for next-to-nothing, we're not going to bring back affordability for middle-class Ontario families unless we tackle high development charges and land costs.

Here's why.

So what are those development charges paying for? Some of it goes to housing-related infrastructure. Some of it goes to things like soccer facilities.

Up the 401 in Kitchener, they're being used to finance a $144 million dollar soccer complex. kitchener.citynews.ca/2024/04/08/144…