[Coprolite]

I, too, can contribute many anecdotes regarding the declining interest among my generation (Gen Z) in owning a single-family home. One of my friends is dead-set on living in a studio apartment, while another friend who grew up on a ranch and in a suburb outside Edmonton is really enjoying life in her condo in the Brewery District. A third friend who moved here from a small town for university has taken quite a liking to living in a walkable area (Whyte Ave). Plus, a friend who grew up in a McMansion has often complained about how much of a hassle it is to clean and maintain such a large house.
And in my experience, the older I get, the smaller and smaller my dream home becomes. I live in a 2000 square-ft house in the suburbs with a renovated basement, and it already feels like too much to clean and maintain. Plus, the yard is a useless open lawn (that I have to regularly mow) with no recreational value, and it would take a significant investment to turn it into a space where I would want to hang out (paving stones, a fire pit, way more trees for more shade). But why bother when I could head out to the lakes or mountains for a nice campfire or swim? I’d take a modern condo in a heartbeat if it weren’t for the lack of a private garage (although I don’t want a car-dependent lifestyle, I’ll always want to own a car, and so a private garage where I can maintain it and store tools is a must). Hence, I really want a garage suite, but with additional ownership over the garage below. Traveling to Italy was also the nail in the coffin of my dead dream for a single-family home in the suburbs.

Hell, my folks lived in a big old 1970s house in the Bon Accord with a huge yard. It was a good option when I was a kid because we were a family of five and my mom really liked to garden. But then things hit the point where all of us were gone and it was a bit on the big and empty side a lot of the time. My dad actually floated the idea of moving into a condo apartment, after a complex was built in Gibbons of all places just above the river valley, but my mom really liked her garden. Then my dad died and my mom hit the phase in mourning where she really wanted to downsize all of his things and it became a really cavernous, empty place that was a lot of work to keep clean. Then my mom had her second battle with cancer, her sister flew in and the two of them rented an air BnB in a condo apartment downtown, and she started thinking something like that would suit her well. The idea rather took when suddenly maintaining that garden seemed like so much more work, even with the help of friends. When it was time to start her radiation, she stayed in an outpatient residence on the U of A campus. And she saw a lot of the kinds of places I lived in: first a secondary suite, then a little house in the core. Driving was also getting to be more of a burden for her, and she was increasingly wary of doing it after dark or when the weather was bad, and she started to really like the idea of having more things to walk to. By the time her third battle with it came along, which led to her moving into an assisted living facility on Whyte for the remainder of her life, she was well and truly burnt out on the idea of a big house and big yard.

I'm positive that whatever I have now, I'm not going to want a bigger house that's further from everything as time goes by. I'm only going to get less able and less inclined to deal with that kind of model.

 

[SarcasticMarmot]

Curious though, do any of the gen z here have a couple kids yet? I’m a bit older… I used to live in a condo downtown and now live in the burbs. It seems impossible to live in a condo with all the crap you need for your kids lol

This is exactly our missing middle problem. There are almost zero, reasonably priced, useful family oriented multi-family housing projects centrally located in Edmonton. Everything is either shoe boxed sized condos or massively expensive townhomes. We need more large, non-luxury apartments! We lucked out and found a 1450 square foot 3 bedroom condo in a 4 story with an elevator and heated underground parking and it is heaven. It's not in a neighborhood everyone is comfortable in but we love it. Has enough space for ourselves, our soon to arrive first child, and our camping gear/sewing hobbies/cats etc.

People are going to continue to move to the burbs until we start building stuff that people can actually live in with families/hobbies/etc that take more space than the 800 sqft coffins they are building now allow for!

 

[thommyjo]

I don't get why this isn't the path being taken in Boyle Street. 2-3 story townhomes like what is in Blatchford or Midtown St. Albert would be great. Building 1-2 towers at a time isn't going to do anything, it'll need to be fast suburban speed of development. Somewhat like Stadium Yards has been.

Agreed. Challenge will be getting families in that area. Chicken and egg. Basically need to build 400+ units and fill them all at once for the area to be safe enough for people to want their kids there.

I think a few good parcels for a “Regent Park” type development would be:

- 111st and 98ave provincial government block. Basically a TOD with a school Nextdoor and lots of mixed density already.

- 105st and 99ave. Everything around Omega.

- 124th and 105ave. Aldritt lands I believe?

- a bunch of rossdale and some of the lots with homes/apartments hitting end of life in Wihkwentowin

 

[yeggator]

Curious though, do any of the gen z here have a couple kids yet? I’m a bit older… I used to live in a condo downtown and now live in the burbs. It seems impossible to live in a condo with all the crap you need for your kids lol

Touché, none of us have kids (although some of my friends don’t want them, like the one who wants to live in a studio apartment). If I were to have kids, I’d probably upgrade to a 3-bedroom townhouse, a 2000 square-foot house like the one I live in at the absolute maximum though, and even this feels cavernous. We’ll see when I get to that point in my life (I’m a long way away from that).