BOOM AND BUST: THE EFFECTS OF HOUSE PRICE INFLATION ON HOMEOWNERSHIP PATTERNS IN MONTREAL, TORONTO, AND VANCOUVER

it is widely supposed that urban house price inflation has recently put ownership beyond the reach of many potential home buyers. In fact, between 1974 and 1982 this was not uniformly the case in Canada's three largest cities. Homeownership rates declined in Vancouver, held steady in Toronto, and increased in Montreal. In Montreal all social classes shared in an ownership boom. In Toronto, the middle class fared well, blue-collar workers rather poorly. In Vancouver, blue-collar workers held their own, but the middle class lost ground. Everywhere the relative position of the self-employed declined. The geographical impact of house price inflation has been variable while the social and political implications merit study. There is a need for synthetic studies of specific cities.