Downtown Real Estate

[Kosy123]

Traditionally sure, the single-family house has been the gold standard. There's no denying it's still probably the end goal for the majority of people, but as a Gen Z zoomer, I can confidently say that this is changing and rapidly among the upcoming cohort of owners of renters. Many people around my age are either a) indifferent to the idea of owning a house or b) actively don't want to for various reasons. The huge cost of time and money for maintenance and care, feeling the need to buy more stuff just to fill the space, and the lack of options for transit/expectation of car ownership may not be super appealing to take on for some people, myself included.

Like I said, houses are still big and will be in the future for sure, but changes are very much on the horizon.

As a fellow Gen Z zoomer, I can confirm that there's more and more interest in non-SFH housing. Either because of cost or as a genuine lifestyle choice.

Plus I'm more than fine with renting for a bit and investing the savings too which is a bonus.

 

[Tropical]

As a fellow Gen Z zoomer, I can confirm that there's more and more interest in non-SFH housing. Either because of cost or as a genuine lifestyle choice.

Plus I'm more than fine with renting for a bit and investing the savings too which is a bonus.

This Millennial has zero interest in maintaining a yard I use under 1% of the time. And I have even less interest in a ton of square footage at the expense of a walkable, fun neighbourhood.

I'm happy to hear this!

 

[Kosy123]

This Millennial has zero interest in maintaining a yard I use under 1% of the time. And I have even less interest in a ton of square footage at the expense of a walkable, fun neighbourhood.

I'm happy to hear this!

Why have yard when walkable city is your yard

 

[Coprolite]

This Millennial has zero interest in maintaining a yard I use under 1% of the time. And I have even less interest in a ton of square footage at the expense of a walkable, fun neighbourhood.

I'm happy to hear this!

I'm GenX and I rent a little old house in the core. I've mostly been an apartment dweller, but I like living in it: it's in a great location for me and I like having a little garden to putter around in while I conspire with magpies and incite the yard geese. I wouldn't want to be the guy who owns this thing because it has more issues than National Geographic. I particularly wouldn't buy it off the owner at the price of the land it's on, meaning that this place is probably going to be torn down for redevelopment eventually. And I inherited a big old box of a 1970s house on a big old 1970s lot in the overwhelmingly built in the 1970s town that I grew up in, and I was so happy to cut that thing loose in a heartbeat because I didn't want to drive absolutely everywhere, especially as I age, because I saw how isolating that was for my mom.

The other half and I decided to buy a place (partly to allow us to live together somewhere we could both work from home, partly to accommodate for the possibility of one of her folks passing and the survivor needing relatives close at hand), but found that there was VERY little out there that really fit our priorities. There's quite the tapestry out there of too big, too long in the tooth, massively inefficient, and stuff that's all of the way out in Summerside, Smith-Smythe-Smith on Henday, Fauntleroy or freaking Narnia. Or heck, sometimes you nail the trifecta and you find an oversized house from the 1970s that needs a new roof AND it's out in Beaumaris of all places.

If it weren't for Blatchford, it would've been quite an ordeal to really find a place which checks all of our boxes.

 

[whattheheck]

I dunno. Owning certainly has its advantages, especially when considering the equity that can be built up. The problem is the type of homes being built. Too many are too big with massive garages. After 20 years, reno costs would be thru the roof.

A good family-size home should be around 1400-1600 sq ft, with a detached back garage. On a lot that's maybe 28 ft wide. Think Westmount, just off 124th street.

The way old Toronto single family homes were built is ideal. Those neighbourhoods - on a grid - are the places people want to be.

 

[Coprolite]

I dunno. Owning certainly has its advantages, especially when considering the equity that can be built up. The problem is the type of homes being built. Too many are too big with massive garages. After 20 years, reno costs would be thru the roof.

A good family-size home should be around 1400-1600 sq ft, with a detached back garage. On a lot that's maybe 28 ft wide. Think Westmount, just off 124th street.

The way old Toronto single family homes were built is ideal. Those neighbourhoods - on a grid - are the places people want to be.

Westmount, sadly, is a great place to find houses which already desperately need that costly renovation, or which have experienced renovations at the hands (hooves?) of folks with the design sense of actual bison. But the form of the neighbourhood is great. Sadly, there is comparatively little of the city nowadays like this, and the houses in the neighbourhood which are actually GOOD command pretty hefty prices.

In the 35 years that my folks owned their house, the amount they had to put into it probably offset most of the appreciation in the value of the house, and this was a house bought for $50K back in 1986. That same $50K sitting in a balanced growth fund would probably have amounted to much, much more money than the final sale value of the house and without constantly devouring money. It still needed a lot of work when I sold it. I'm not pretending the townhouse that my other half and I bought is going to build anything. It's just a place that's ours.

 

[yeggator]

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.

 

[edm13]

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.

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

 

[Avenuer]

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

I'm a late millenial ('93) with a 10 month old and I don't know how we'd get by in a one or two bedroom apartment. We are in an 1,850 sq. ft. house near Downtown and it's plenty of space for us, which is needed considering eveyrthing babies need!

 

[roe_]

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

My thought exactly. It is not new that younger people tend to like urban condos and apartments, but when people get older they often migrate to something larger and further out. Would be nice if there were more options for families in the core, but right now they are few and far between.

 

[thommyjo]

Gen Z here with 1 kid and another arriving this fall. Dream for us is exactly what most of the product in the new burbs is for that middle density housing. 1300-1600sqft townhouse. 2 or 3 stories. Detached garage or stacked for some storage. Yard isn’t a must, but could be nice to have a little space or a shared courtyard type garden space amongst 8-12 other townhomes.

There’s next to nothing like this in Wihkwentowin or westmount. Many of the new townhouse infills are rentals only. Or it’s duplexes and skinnies for 600-900k in more of the 1700-2300sqft range. We’ve bought a detached infill with a basement suite nearby the WVLRT as the compromise. Mature neighborhood with big trees. But dream would be a slightly smaller place more centrally. But there’s next to nothing that comes up and we look every few days.

Why we can’t get more townhomes centrally kills me. That’s what families want with 2+ kids. But most are forced to burbs for this product, or they buy super low density bungalows in mature ish areas. (Just had friends buy this week in parkview, meadowlark, callingwood, and elmwood!).

It’s buying season for the older gen Zs stressed about the market haha. Most of my friends would love to do westmount, grovenor etc. but everything is too expensive/big. We need more 400-600k townhomes. Not just high end luxury large infills and then 2bdrm apartments.

 

[Barnaby]

My thought exactly. It is not new that younger people tend to like urban condos and apartments, but when people get older they often migrate to something larger and further out. Would be nice if there were more options for families in the core, but right now they are few and far between.

I'm not planning on having kids, but who knows. I do know that I'd be much more inclined to live in a large apartment or a walkup instead of a house with a yard. Growing up in Grovenor I didn't really use my yard as a kid.

I like the new townhouse offerings at the Hendrix, CX, Eleanor, etc. That's something that Vancouver does well, and is probably going to get alot of traction here. I think the central areas could really use some freehold townhomes like what's in Brooklyn. Maybe someone can enlighten me on if the ZBR allows for actual row housing outside of an HOA.

For now its going to be 1 BR apartments. I don't see myself moving further away from DT than Grovenor or Glenora again for as long as I'm in Edmonton.

My move back to Edmonton, and downtown, is less than a month away.

 

[Barnaby]

Why we can’t get more townhomes centrally kills me. That’s what families want with 2+ kids. But most are forced to burbs for this product, or they buy super low density bungalows in mature ish areas. (Just had friends buy this week in parkview, meadowlark, callingwood, and elmwood!).

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.

 

[Coprolite]

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.

Boyle Street seems ripe for that sort of thing on all of the crappy Impark lots, and some of the early renderings of "The Quarters" had something similar. But it seems the objective has shifted from missing middle to towers.

 

[Coprolite]

I'm not planning on having kids, but who knows. I do know that I'd be much more inclined to live in a large apartment or a walkup instead of a house with a yard. Growing up in Grovenor I didn't really use my yard as a kid.

I like the new townhouse offerings at the Hendrix, CX, Eleanor, etc. That's something that Vancouver does well, and is probably going to get alot of traction here. I think the central areas could really use some freehold townhomes like what's in Brooklyn. Maybe someone can enlighten me on if the ZBR allows for actual row housing outside of an HOA.

For now its going to be 1 BR apartments. I don't see myself moving further away from DT than Grovenor or Glenora again for as long as I'm in Edmonton.

My move back to Edmonton, and downtown, is less than a month away.

ZBR now allows townhouses in any residential area. They don't need an HOA or condo board.