We can dump on Ford all we want, but the fact is a lot of blame rests with Federal governments, both left and right, for the housing problem.
It is said that the right are not really looking for any solution (ie. too woke they say) that would cramp their views and ideology. The "left" (or centre left here), never seem to do the right thing in dealing with the solutions in the fear of offending the wrong people or something when they're in power (ie. so not woke enough). And the "moderates" just muddle things up...

...but I do not buy there isn't any solution to fixing the housing crises or even the economy that causes it via income disparity. Instead, I will say there is no real political and economic will to do it. And so here we are. /sigh
 
The proposed Eastern Avenue TOC, located near the future East Harbour Transit Hub, would create approximately 140 new residential units, including affordable housing, while also increasing employment opportunities. The proposed TOC would provide convenient pedestrian and cyclist access to the future East Harbour Transit Hub. This new SmartTrack GO Station and interchange station will support GO Trains, the Ontario Line, and future TTC Light Rail Transit, connecting thousands of daily commuters to downtown and across the Greater Toronto Area.

View attachment 514183

Draft concept of the proposed Eastern Avenue transit-oriented community, looking north.
The title says 140 storeys, I'm assuming that's a typo and not the world's tallest building going up in East York?
 
The proposed Eastern Avenue TOC, located near the future East Harbour Transit Hub, would create approximately 140 new residential units, including affordable housing, while also increasing employment opportunities. The proposed TOC would provide convenient pedestrian and cyclist access to the future East Harbour Transit Hub. This new SmartTrack GO Station and interchange station will support GO Trains, the Ontario Line, and future TTC Light Rail Transit, connecting thousands of daily commuters to downtown and across the Greater Toronto Area.

View attachment 514183

Draft concept of the proposed Eastern Avenue transit-oriented community, looking north.
Are all of these newly announced Transit oriented communities (I'm referring to the 6 in the 2023-10-19 Urban Toronto article) lands that are being expropriated by the Province?
 
Are all of these newly announced Transit oriented communities (I'm referring to the 6 in the 2023-10-19 Urban Toronto article) lands that are being expropriated by the Province?

Yes, these are all proposed on publicly owned sites, which, generally, we're deemed necessary for construction of their associated transit corridor infrastructure.

For further clarity the expropriation is past tense. The ownership is public, present tense.
 
I think it’s necessary to harp on govts for the housing crisis but I think it’s beyond them all at this point. We hyper commodified housing and now it’s tied up in a number of people’s investment strategies. So you can’t make housing cheaper across the board without collapsing the economy.

Yes, parents want their kids to be able to afford a home… just not their home, which they hope sustains triple the value they paid for it. And that’s unrealistic. No govt can figure out this Jenga tower, especially when the public can’t figure it out themselves and think there’s a silver bullet solution that appeases everyone.
 
Agreed, the only way to have affordable housing (and by affordable I don't in the slightest mean subsidized or low income housing) at the scale we need it does require a collapse in housing prices. It will be painful, but the low interest, low property tax, high return, sell over asking days need to end, and the profit made in real estate and housing needs to come from making housing at scale vs buying property and selling it, almost unimproved for more.

I don't think it is realistic to think government building of housing can realistically solve this crisis. It is part of the solution, but it is only a solution for people who can't work or have blockers to reasonable income. Housing today is such that there is a whole lot of people paid reasonable incomes but unable to afford housing and this needs to be solved by policy and incentives that get companies and investors into building, and that may cost the government over the short term but there are smart ways to to this that pay back over time.

Traditionally housing was between 2x and 4x average income, and now it is more than 10x income so to be affordable to the average person the housing prices need to drop by 60-70% or incomes need to go up 150%. Income going up 150% makes the cost of everything go up, whereas the cost of housing dropping 60-70% doesn't really impact the cost of much at all, it just erases investments that were only made possible by stupidly low and unsustainable interest rates. Basically people got rich by other people being in greater debt, no real value to cover this investment income existed in the market. We took money from the future and made some people rich now with it.
 
Agreed, the only way to have affordable housing (and by affordable I don't in the slightest mean subsidized or low income housing) at the scale we need it does require a collapse in housing prices. It will be painful, but the low interest, low property tax, high return, sell over asking days need to end, and the profit made in real estate and housing needs to come from making housing at scale vs buying property and selling it, almost unimproved for more.

I don't think it is realistic to think government building of housing can realistically solve this crisis. It is part of the solution, but it is only a solution for people who can't work or have blockers to reasonable income. Housing today is such that there is a whole lot of people paid reasonable incomes but unable to afford housing and this needs to be solved by policy and incentives that get companies and investors into building, and that may cost the government over the short term but there are smart ways to to this that pay back over time.

Traditionally housing was between 2x and 4x average income, and now it is more than 10x income so to be affordable to the average person the housing prices need to drop by 60-70% or incomes need to go up 150%. Income going up 150% makes the cost of everything go up, whereas the cost of housing dropping 60-70% doesn't really impact the cost of much at all, it just erases investments that were only made possible by stupidly low and unsustainable interest rates. Basically people got rich by other people being in greater debt, no real value to cover this investment income existed in the market. We took money from the future and made some people rich now with it.
Being in the building industry for more the 40 years i can tell you that to build any type of housing is outrageously expensive, if prices were to drop 60 to 70% nothing would be built as the cost of building would make it impossible to build and the housing crisis would get worse. the first thing the federal, provincial and municipal governments can do is to remove all taxes and levies on all affordable housing as a start, all 3 levels of government are sitting on tons of land that could be used for mixed housing.If you buy a house or condo and you flip it in the first 5 years you should be taxed on 100% of the profit and scale it down on the following years.These are just some ideas that might help to bring prices down on rentals and other types of housing. At this time one of the issues is that there is to much immigration IMO, I am pro immigration but there is to many people coming in and they need to live somewhere.
 

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