Surging housing prices in Iqaluit have many feeling hopeless

[Nite]

A lack of available housing in the rapidly growing city has led to a surge in housing prices. In order to build more homes in Iqaluit, the city needs more access to potable water

Sky high housing prices and a ruthless market have many lifelong Iqaluit residents feeling hopeless that they will ever be able to become homeowners.

"It gives me no hopes and dreams that I'll ever be able to own a home in my hometown," said Connie Nowdluk, a 41-year-old resident who grew up in the city.

A lack of available housing in the rapidly growing city has led to a surge in housing prices.

Over the last two years local Iqaluit sell and swap Facebook pages have become the main bulletin board for what's for sale in the city.

Some recent houses posted for sale on these pages include a one-bedroom, plus den, converted 816-square-foot trailer for $475,000. Or a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house at 1,040 square feet posted for $600,000.
...........

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/housing-iqaluit-infrastructure-1.6303663

Iqaluit for those that don't know is probably the fastest growing city in Canada in which half the population is younger than 15. Housing shortages has always been a problem for the North and the problem is getting worst.
Iqaluit is also experience a water crisis as their main source of water became contaminated in 2021 and all drinking water has to be shipped/ flown in. Also with the rapid population growth, infrastructure can not keep up as most building materials have to be shipped in but the port is frozen for most of the year so there is a small window to get all the supplies to the city.

[mhays]

I don't understand why people don't cluster into an urban core in a place like that, vs. the pure sprawl it appears to be. Shared walls and short walks seem pretty important!

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Iqalui...067c9129c2!8m2!3d63.746693!4d-68.5169669

[Manitopiaaa]

Originally Posted by mhays

I don't understand why people don't cluster into an urban core in a place like that, vs. the pure sprawl it appears to be. Shared walls and short walks seem pretty important!

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Iqalui...067c9129c2!8m2!3d63.746693!4d-68.5169669

Because people don't want to hear their neighbors fucking, or domestic abuse, or children crying at 3am. The same reasons why Americans pay premium for a single-family detached.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by mhays

I don't understand why people don't cluster into an urban core in a place like that, vs. the pure sprawl it appears to be. Shared walls and short walks seem pretty important!

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Iqalui...067c9129c2!8m2!3d63.746693!4d-68.5169669

Not convinced something like this is better
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiksi

[the urban politician]

Iq-al-huh???

Never heard of this place

[Nite]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Iq-al-huh???

Never heard of this place

It's the capital and largest city in Nunavut, also the fastest growing city in Canada.
It's growing so fast that it can't keep up with any of its infrastructure needs right now.



https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/iq...-of-potential-covid-19-exposure-gn-says/

https://www.rcinet.ca/eye-on-the-arctic/...truction-canada-drinking-water-shut-off/

[mhays]

You don't hear your neighbors in a well-built apartment. Or a townhouse.

Apartments don't have to look like the ones in Siberia.

I thought this was an urban board!

How about Tromso, which is quite a bit higher in latitude: https://www.google.com/maps/@69.646575,18.9533831,240a,35y,39.43t/data=!3m1!1e3

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by mhays

You don't hear your neighbors in a well-built apartment. Or a townhouse.

Apartments don't have to look like the ones in Siberia.

I thought this was an urban board!

How about Tromso, which is quite a bit higher in latitude: https://www.google.com/maps/@69.646575,18.9533831,240a,35y,39.43t/data=!3m1!1e3

Tromso is much milder. Cities in the "cold arctic" have all sorts of constraints that make it hard. Iqualuit looks pretty similar to Greenlandic cities like Sisimut
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sisimiut_panorama_in_summer_2010_(1).jpg

Not saying it's impossible to have better architecture, but the required above-ground pipelines and such don't make it easy!

[Nite]

Originally Posted by mhays

You don't hear your neighbors in a well-built apartment. Or a townhouse.

Apartments don't have to look like the ones in Siberia.

I thought this was an urban board!

How about Tromso, which is quite a bit higher in latitude: https://www.google.com/maps/@69.646575,18.9533831,240a,35y,39.43t/data=!3m1!1e3

Iqaluit has plenty of multi family housing, more than you will find in other cities it size.
I am pretty sure most residence live in multiunit housing actually,

[38 Geary]

What's in Iqaluit that makes it a desirable place to live again? I'm not sure sprawling into the tundra further is a great idea.

[edale]

Why is it growing so quickly? What's the draw? Consolidation of rural native peoples into the city or what?

[montréaliste]

The architescts for these housing schemes deserve a good flogging.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by homebucket

What's in Iqaluit that makes it a desirable place to live again? I'm not sure sprawling into the tundra further is a great idea.

I suppose it's more desirable than even smaller villages in the Arctic?

[mhays]

Ok, I misunderstood its level of multifamilyness. Shoulda looked more closely at my own link. And I didn't consider construction challenges with permafrost etc. But couldn't things be closer together so you can walk, avoid the wind, etc.?

[Nite]

Originally Posted by edale

Why is it growing so quickly? What's the draw? Consolidation of rural native peoples into the city or what?

High paying jobs, higher educations and high natural increase, 50% of the population is younger than 15.

Originally Posted by mhays

Ok, I misunderstood its level of multifamilyness. Shoulda looked more closely at my own link. And I didn't consider construction challenges with permafrost etc. But couldn't things be closer together so you can walk, avoid the wind, etc.?

The google images and streetview for Iqaluit are old and don't capture the rapid building boom over the last decade.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by mhays

Ok, I misunderstood its level of multifamilyness. Shoulda looked more closely at my own link. And I didn't consider construction challenges with permafrost etc. But couldn't things be closer together so you can walk, avoid the wind, etc.?

https://www.uaa.alaska.edu/academics/col...tic/_documents/building_in_the_north.pdf this looks like a fun read. I think there are a lot of considerations about the way the snow drifts, etc. You don't want the snow to drift over a building, obviously.

[eschaton]

This discussion reminded me of Whittier, Alaska, where almost all of the residents live in a single 14-story apartment building.

The building has a laundromat, convenience store, health clinic, and church. The school is connected by a tunnel. In the winter you barely have to go outside.

An odd fact is the city actually has another abandoned highrise of roughly the same scale.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by Nite

High paying jobs, higher educations and high natural increase, 50% of the population is younger than 15.

I'm pretty sure that it's almost exclusively due to high birth rates. If there's an increase in employment that leads to people moving to Iqaluit from elsewhere, it's to service a growing population due to high birth rates.

It's not like Iqaluit is growing due to the presence of a specific high-growth industry, and the high wages are gobbled up by the astronomical cost of living up there.

[Crawford]

I thought those northern towns were growing bc of resource extraction.

They're basically Canadian versions of U.S. reservation towns? But with Amish/Hasidic style birth rates?

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I thought those northern towns were growing bc of resource extraction.

They're basically Canadian versions of U.S. reservation towns? But with Amish/Hasidic style birth rates?

Yes, pretty much. I don't know if Arctic resource extraction really employs that many people, and my guess is that most people would be temporary workers who live on a campsite at the mine and fly directly to a city in the south with little or no interaction with Iqaluit, except maybe changing planes at the airport. Iqaluit isn't a major centre for mining operations the way that say Fort McMurray is for tar sands.