I made that table above for context as the raw housing number themselves are quite meaningless. Why CMHC doesn't do this extra analysis on a regular basis is beyond me.
More context is going beyond new housing starts and looking at the current status of everything that exists. Well, only as
current as the 2021 census and I'm sure the % of existing detached homes has declined right across the country, significantly in many cases.
Stats Canada % of single detached by CMA (starting with lowest):
Bottom 5
Vancouver: 27.7%
Montreal: 31.8%
Victoria 38.1%
Toronto: 39%
Quebec: 40.4%
Most other cities are in the 50 and 60% range, check the link as Stats Canada
has sorted them from east to west as they often do. Strange as people read left to right..
I tend to agree that having a new detached housing rate less than 10% is not ideal for choice/families and is what's driving up a lot of internal migration to Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. On the other hand the five cities listed above are known for their walkability and vibrant city centres (as are a few others not listed such as Halifax). Yes, there's a lot more to it than just detached vs. non ratio.. As we're likely headed for less than 50% single detached nation wide we need to ensure the non-detached are liveable and desirable, not micro investments units. How we do that is a whole other massive discussion.
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