History

Metrics, Mechanisms, and Mismatch: Immigration and other Components of Housing Demand in Canada

Components of Housing Demand
~ Nathan Lauster ~ Leave a comment

Co-authored by Jens von Bergmann and cross-posted at MountainMath.

Housing demand from external migration receives outsized attention in the public discussion. We take a recent Statistics Canada report on housing consumption by immigrants and non-permanent residents as an opportunity to clarify underlying concepts. We also broaden the scope to decompose housing demand in Canada into several components and estimate their sizes to better understand where demand for housing comes from and what is needed to meet that demand.

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Doubling Up – Distinguishing Families and Households

~ Nathan Lauster ~ Leave a comment

(Joint with Jens von Bergmann and cross-posted at MountainMath)

The concepts of family and household frequently get mixed up in the broader housing discourse. We have attempted to explain how these concepts differ, their various statistical constructions, and why it matters in the past. But these explanations can quickly turn quite abstract, so we wanted to complement them by talking about doubling up. This is a very simple way of demonstrating why families and households should not be viewed as interchangeable. We’re also hoping to provide an important reminder that households are malleable and should not be used as the basic unit to analyze housing needs.

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