Is Chasing Too Many New Homes Canada’s Next Big Failure?

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 necessaryHow immigration affects housing demandWhy housing starts don't tell the full storyThe shortage of family-sized homesHigh-rise condos vs. townhomes and detached homesThe hidden costs preventing more housing from being builtWhat metrics governments should focus on instead of housing startsCan Canada restore middle-class housing affordability within a decade?Subscribe for more conversations on housing, affordability, economics, and public policy.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 Instead04:11 - Balancing Housing Supply with Immigration Demand05:21 - The Population Math: Why 500k is Overkill06:40 - How Developers Bet on Future Immigration Policy08:39 - Why the Type of Housing Matters (High-Rises vs. Townhomes)10:12 - How Many Homes We Actually Need to Build11:08 - Solving the Crisis by Lowering Construction Costs13:04 - Will Baby Boomers Free Up Suburban Housing?Research/linksThe Impossible Trinity that Broke Canadian Housinghttps://open.substack.com/pub/missingmiddleinitiative/p/the-impossible-trinity-that-broke?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=webThe Housing Trilemma: Why You Can't Afford a Homehttps://www.missingmiddleinitiative.ca/p/the-housing-trilemma-why-you-cant Hosted by Mike Moffatt & Cara Stern & Sabrina MaddeauxProduced by Meredith MartinFunded by the Neptis Foundation https://neptis.org/