Livin' la vida poco

There's an article in the National Post titled something grand about going small. Canadians are living in ever-larger houses, except in vancouver where they're living in ever-smaller condos. The example in the article is counselor Gordon Prices' west end apartment that is around 1100 square feet "which makes it about half the size of the average Canadian home."

Vancouverites are used to making do with less. Most have no choice; the city is sandwiched between water and mountains, and real estate here is astronomically priced, the highest in Canada. Traditional single-family homes -- even small bungalows -- cannot be had for less than $500,000, making them unattainable for even moderately high-income earners.

Figures released last week indicate that detached bungalows in Vancouver sell for an average of $758,000; in Toronto, they sell for an average of $387,744.

Other Canadians may wonder how people in Vancouver could possibly cope inside such small homes; Mr. Price's apartment is actually a generous size, by West End standards. And his neighbourhood has one of the highest population densities in North America, with about 20,000 people per square kilometre. That is more than four times the density of Montreal, one of Canada's oldest and most congested cities.

I'm glad they point out that 1100 square feet is actually a large west end apartment - interesting that they don't mention the sub-500 square foot ultra tiny condo's that are going in to many new towers downtown.