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Apartments on the corner of !03 ave and 116 st are down
 
I agree + i don't think its feasible to just wait for a bunch of quantitative studies to tell us what we already know to be true that more supply will lower prices. So why not give it a try?
one of the problems with your assumption that more supply will lower prices is that it's likely only true if the supply is adding like for like. replacing a 1,200 sf post war bungalow with two 2,400 sf skinny homes is likely to do exactly the opposite to average or median pricing.
 
one of the problems with your assumption that more supply will lower prices is that it's likely only true if the supply is adding like for like. replacing a 1,200 sf post war bungalow with two 2,400 sf skinny homes is likely to do exactly the opposite to average or median pricing.
Isn't that largely because we're purely looking at single family homes, and until recently additional density has been limited to single family? Post war bungalows are like 1000-1300 sf typically. If you replace a dilapidated small home with 2 new homes that are 1800-2200sf, it's not exactly shocking that the prices are higher, because like you said, we're not comparing like to like. But what if you could build 4-6 units on that land, that are 1000 sf each? Well they wouldn't have the same amount of yard/outdoor space, but they would likely be at a lower/more accessible price point than the original bungalow.

Edmontons current densification plans aren't leading to affordability because developers are increasing the floor area by ~4x, but only able to increase the number of units by 2 typically. This discrepancy basically guarantees that the homes will be more expensive.

But we can see with someone of the row homes that are being built on corner lots that this doesn't have to be the case. When 1 home is replaced with 4 with similar floor area to the original home, the price point ends up being a lot more affordable.

Obviously land prices add another layer of complexity, but I'm just trying to say that it's not really fair to look at the price of a post way bungalow and compare it to a new 2-3 storey infill home, and conclude that densification makes things unaffordable
 
Isn't that largely because we're purely looking at single family homes, and until recently additional density has been limited to single family? Post war bungalows are like 1000-1300 sf typically. If you replace a dilapidated small home with 2 new homes that are 1800-2200sf, it's not exactly shocking that the prices are higher, because like you said, we're not comparing like to like. But what if you could build 4-6 units on that land, that are 1000 sf each? Well they wouldn't have the same amount of yard/outdoor space, but they would likely be at a lower/more accessible price point than the original bungalow.

Edmontons current densification plans aren't leading to affordability because developers are increasing the floor area by ~4x, but only able to increase the number of units by 2 typically. This discrepancy basically guarantees that the homes will be more expensive.

But we can see with someone of the row homes that are being built on corner lots that this doesn't have to be the case. When 1 home is replaced with 4 with similar floor area to the original home, the price point ends up being a lot more affordable.

Obviously land prices add another layer of complexity, but I'm just trying to say that it's not really fair to look at the price of a post way bungalow and compare it to a new 2-3 storey infill home, and conclude that densification makes things unaffordable
Yeah, I know the affordability thing is complex. But it seems weird to compare brand new, larger homes to very old, often very outdated, smaller homes. And at a larger scale, as homes from the 60s get replaced, is there not downward pressure on homes from the 90s and 2000s that are starting to become quite old looking, neighbourhoods less new/shiny, schools older, etc? When those homes were originally built, I wonder if they were higher end or considered affordable? Lots of infill has just been single or 2 home builds in the nicest communities in Edmonton with high end custom home builders. Of course that’s expensive. But as more middle income areas see infill, and more of it is 4-12 units, prices will be better. West jasper has lots of townhomes for 400-450k that are bigger and nicer than other 400k older places in the area. Just less yard obviously.
 

AB major says its”under construction.”
 
Looks like the last house holding up the expansion of the Edmonton Ronald McDonald House is soon to be demo’d. I believe capacity is to be doubled (if not more) after the addition.

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