Resisting the push to Calgary’s suburbia

[Surrealplaces]

Interesting article about challenges facing those who prefer to live in the core.

Resisting the push to Calgary’s suburbia

Growing families happy to live in the city’s urban core are finding bigger homes hard to find

www.theglobeandmail.com

 

[zagox]

Interesting article about challenges facing those who prefer to live in the core.

Resisting the push to Calgary’s suburbia

Growing families happy to live in the city’s urban core are finding bigger homes hard to find

www.theglobeandmail.com

The author and those quoted in the article seem to be surprised/annoyed about two facts of real estate:

1) Larger properties cost more than smaller ones
2) Places that have a lot of amenities and conveniences cost more than places with fewer amenities and conveniences

Therefore, to spend a fixed amount of money on a place to live, you must trade off the size of that property against the amenities and conveniences available surrounding it.

 

[Chinook Arch]

The author and those quoted in the article seem to be surprised/annoyed about two facts of real estate:

1) Larger properties cost more than smaller ones
2) Places that have a lot of amenities and conveniences cost more than places with fewer amenities and conveniences

Therefore, to spend a fixed amount of money on a place to live, you must trade off the size of that property against the amenities and conveniences available surrounding it.

The article also indirectly highlights the issue that was discussed in the taxation discussion. A house in Rundle is much cheaper per square foot than a house of the same size in the core. A lot of that is due to location but part of it is due to taxes. When you pay more for taxes on your 2 bedroom apartment than you do on a 3 bedroom house with a yard, alley and a basement it helps make the suburbs more desirable.
Improving the tax inequality won’t fix everything, but it would help.

 

[Tarsus]

Agreed. Adjusting the tax inequity isn’t the cure all, but at least it helps. I would prefer not to subsidize inner city development, but rather adjust the taxes so they’re based more on usage rather than market value. In a roundabout way this would promote inner city development without subsidization.