Statscan numbers

[Surrealplaces]

I see people leaving their units and going to nearby parks to play, this age of neighbourhood actually have a decent amount of parks so it is possible to send kids off to play in the them. Not having a yard also means no maintenance, there are some cost and time benefits to that.

Agreed on the yard size. Most people need only enough space for their BBQ and some chairs, a few flower pots etc.. I lived in a townhouse when I was a kid, and we had a small yard with the garage taking up 2/3rds. We had a deck that was probably around 15' X 15' and that took up most of the rest of the yard. The front yard had grass area that was bigger, but was never used. Most people can get by quite easily with a 15' X 15' yard space. I realize most of the new rowhomes might have smaller yard spaces, but point being people can make use of small outdoor spaces, just have to use them in an efficient way.

Take this small rowhome development on 10th St NW. Probably due to setbacks, they have a patch of grass out front that will never, ever get used. Basically a waste of space. Put that in the back and you turn it into a deck and you have a nice outdoor living space, rather than just a yard. Lately and going forward the trend is for smaller yards and the key is to think of them as an outdoor living space instead of a yard. The closest park makes a good 'yard' space for kids and pets.

In this case the developer was able to put in roof top decks which function as good or better than a typical yard space.

 

[CalgaryTiger]

The setbacks are so pointless, that space could be much better used or moved to the back, like you say. There are numerous bad examples in Altadore/Marda Loop. Some of the newer courtyard development are forced to be pushed to the sidewalk and if a regular townhome did that it would much better.

 

[CBBarnett]

If I had a magic wand and the zoning rules allowed, I'd gladly shift my house 5m forward to the front property line and have a 5m larger backyard.

 

[CalgaryTiger]

The setbacks are so pointless, that space could be much better used or moved to the back, like you say. There are numerous bad examples in Altadore/Marda Loop. Some of the newer courtyard development are forced to be pushed to the sidewalk and if a regular townhome did that it would much better.

This is what I'm talking about...

Perfect front setback execution. Front fences, well organized vegetation, excellent material choice.

The worst setback execution I've seen. Utility/Storage rooms, a contrasting mix of materials, trees in raised boxes that have since died, they also won the downspout lottery (there are so many of them), and poorly maintained grass:

 

[Surrealplaces]

Those setbacks are definitely an issue, and in a lot of cases it's simply from trying to match the original setbacks. For example in this one on 24th, we see the 24th ave side has a decent setback. Just enough to allow for some shrubs, but the 17th ave matches the setback of the street, and we have a large patch of space covered in grass that's mostly useless. The only thing it accomplishes is increasing your water bill. Granted some landscaping might help, but still a space that's not really useful for anything.

 

[Surrealplaces]

Housing starts for Feb 2025. Calgary was king of the hill. As suspected last month's strong results for Montreal was more of a blip. Overall though a general slowdown over the last 12 months or so, especially with the big 3 metros.

City	SFH	semi	row	apartment	total
Calgary	500	238	279	1390	2407
Toronto	167	4	156	1152	1479
Edmonton	536	72	238	632	1478
Vancouver	127	62	110	1105	1404
Ottawa/Gatineau	143	32	162	756	1095
Montreal	52	6	67	732	857

 

[UrbanWarrior]

Having more starts than Toronto and Montreal combined is crazy, even if only for a month. Just wild.

 

[trtcttc]

Having more starts than Toronto and Montreal combined is crazy, even if only for a month. Just wild.

Toronto's condo market has grinded to a halt. The land cost + market price of units basically nothing new pencils out.

 

[Surrealplaces]

Toronto's condo market has grinded to a halt. The land cost + market price of units basically nothing new pencils out.

Same for Vancouver. It's been slow there for a while now, showing less starts than Calgary in some other months as well.

The one I find interesting is Montreal. With the exception of a couple of months, they've had really sluggish numbers for over a year now. I suspect the fact that almost all of their population growth has been temporary residents, the demand isn't there yet, and may not be for a while.

 

[DougB]

Alberta accounted for almost half of national population growth:

Population estimates, quarterly

Estimated number of persons by quarter of a year and by year, Canada, provinces and territories.

www150.statcan.gc.ca

​	Quarterly Growth​	Quarterly Growth Percentage​	Percentage of Total Growth​
Newfoundland and Labrador	-301​	-0.06%​	-0.47%​
Prince Edward Island	-21​	-0.01%​	-0.03%​
Nova Scotia	-49​	0.00%​	-0.08%​
New Brunswick	1,582​	0.18%​	2.50%​
Quebec	11,380​	0.13%​	17.95%​
Ontario	10,839​	0.07%​	17.10%​
Manitoba	4,042​	0.27%​	6.38%​
Saskatchewan	4,218​	0.34%​	6.65%​
Alberta	28,496​	0.58%​	44.96%​
British Columbia	2,724​	0.05%​	4.30%​
Yukon	178​	0.38%​	0.28%​
Northwest Territories	138​	0.31%​	0.22%​
Nunavut	156​	0.38%​	0.25%​
Canada	63,382​	0.15%​	100.00%​

 

[trtcttc]

Alberta accounted for almost half of national population growth:

Population estimates, quarterly

Estimated number of persons by quarter of a year and by year, Canada, provinces and territories.

www150.statcan.gc.ca

​	Quarterly Growth​	Quarterly Growth Percentage​	Percentage of Total Growth​
Newfoundland and Labrador	-301​	-0.06%​	-0.47%​
Prince Edward Island	-21​	-0.01%​	-0.03%​
Nova Scotia	-49​	0.00%​	-0.08%​
New Brunswick	1,582​	0.18%​	2.50%​
Quebec	11,380​	0.13%​	17.95%​
Ontario	10,839​	0.07%​	17.10%​
Manitoba	4,042​	0.27%​	6.38%​
Saskatchewan	4,218​	0.34%​	6.65%​
Alberta	28,496​	0.58%​	44.96%​
British Columbia	2,724​	0.05%​	4.30%​
Yukon	178​	0.38%​	0.28%​
Northwest Territories	138​	0.31%​	0.22%​
Nunavut	156​	0.38%​	0.25%​
Canada	63,382​	0.15%​	100.00%​

Depending on how severe the international reduction turns out to be, but we could cross 5M this year from the looks of it?

 

[kora]

Something else that Alberta still on pace for 100,000 growth this year

 

[kora]

Depending on how severe the international reduction turns out to be, but we could cross 5M this year from the looks of it?

Almost certainly. The population clock for Alberta got updated to 4,981,477 https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2018005-eng.htm

 

[Mountain Man]

By Stampede we should be 5mil.

 

[CBBarnett]

Depending on how low those non-permanent resident numbers go, we seem likely to be entering a period of pretty small provincial growth (although for now at least, still relatively high compared to other provinces). The dramatic collapse of non-permanent immigration numbers is just beginning so will take a few years to come through.