Is 500,000 new homes a year really what Canada needs to solve the housing crisis?

In this episode of the Missing Middle’s Classonomics Podcast, Mike Moffatt and Sabrina Maddeaux examine whether Canada's headline housing targets still make sense now that immigration has slowed and population growth has changed. They discuss why housing starts can be a misleading metric, why the type of housing being built matters just as much as the number of homes, and what governments should actually measure if the goal is restoring affordability.

Topics covered:

• Why the 500,000-home target may no longer be necessary
• How immigration affects housing demand
• Why housing starts don't tell the full story
• The shortage of family-sized homes
• High-rise condos vs. townhomes and detached homes
• The hidden costs preventing more housing from being built
• What metrics governments should focus on instead of housing starts
• Can Canada restore middle-class housing affordability within a decade?

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Chapters:

00:00 - Does Canada Really Need 500,000 Homes a Year?
01:40 - Where Did the 500k Housing Starts Target Come From?
02:47 - The Metrics Governments Should Focus On Instead
04:11 - Balancing Housing Supply with Immigration Demand
05:21 - The Population Math: Why 500k is Overkill
06:40 - How Developers Bet on Future Immigration Policy
08:39 - Why the Type of Housing Matters (High-Rises vs. Townhomes)
10:12 - How Many Homes We Actually Need to Build
11:08 - Solving the Crisis by Lowering Construction Costs
13:04 - Will Baby Boomers Free Up Suburban Housing?

Research/links

The Impossible Trinity that Broke Canadian Housing

https://open.substack.com/pub/missingmiddleinitiative/p/the-impossible-trinity-that-broke?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

The Housing Trilemma: Why You Can't Afford a Home

https://www.missingmiddleinitiative.ca/p/the-housing-trilemma-why-you-cant 

Hosted by Mike Moffatt & Cara Stern & Sabrina Maddeaux

Produced by Meredith Martin

Funded by the Neptis Foundation https://neptis.org/