{"id":144558,"date":"2023-10-01T15:38:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T19:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/rwddev\/?p=144558"},"modified":"2023-10-01T15:38:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-01T19:38:23","slug":"housing-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen Up! Is the so-called housing crisis mainly a crisis of expectations?: A guest post by Hugh Holland | Commentary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This Listen Up! guest post is by Hugh Holland. Hugh Mackenzie will be taking a break from Listen Up! over the next few weeks.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Hugh Holland<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are hearing a lot lately about a housing crisis. What are the basic factors and issues creating this so-called \u201ccrisis\u201d? The following chart of mid-2023 data shows Canada\u2019s comparative standing on some of those basic factors.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More floor space requires more land, more building materials, more labor (fewer homes from the same limited number of tradesmen), more furnishings, more electricity, more heating fuel, and more maintenance. Average home sizes in the US and Canada have doubled since 1950. Older folks remember the smaller 3-bedroom, one-bath post-war homes of the 1950s. Many of them are still providing good homes right here in Huntsville. Could it be that our appetite for bigger homes is catching up to us and exceeding our ability to provide all the basic inputs?    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our lower average temperature requires much more expensive foundations, more insulation, and higher capacity heating systems. Many homes in warm areas like the southern USA are built on simple concrete slabs with no foundation.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Population densities affect land prices. Canada has one of the lowest overall population densities in the world, but in the more populated areas like southern Ontario, we are not that much different from many other countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another factor in overall affordability is the emergence of the Internet in 1990.  Many families are now spending as much or more on digital services (Internet, cell phones for everyone, TV with specialty channels for everyone) as they spend on food.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do bigger homes and vehicles make people happier? A comparison of home sizes by country with the UN Happiness Survey indicates bigger homes don\u2019t necessarily make people happier. Perhaps it\u2019s the stress of all those higher costs and extra maintenance?    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our vehicles are also bigger than in most other countries. Bigger cars and trucks (in a low-density country with longer driving distances) and bigger homes (in a colder country) result in emissions per capita of 19 tonnes per year in Canada, compared to 18 tonnes in the USA, and 7 to 9 tonnes in most European and Asian countries including China. Oil and Gas companies say if they stop supplying oil and gas before consumers stop using it, there will be spiking prices and a crippling energy shortage. Indeed, Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine (and Europe) demonstrates that fact.        <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada has the legitimate excuse of low population density and low average temperature for our high emissions numbers that are helping to drive climate change. But we also have many possibilities for getting to net-zero emissions. Along with adopting electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles and mobile equipment, moving to smaller and more energy-efficient homes is the next most fertile ground for reducing emissions. Smaller homes help to preserve precious farmlands, carbon-absorbing forests, and wetlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1965, the world\u2019s population passed 3.3 billion and an international organization called The Club of Rome wrote an insightful report called \u201cLimits to Growth\u201d. It said the earth\u2019s capacity to supply resources to a growing population is not without limits. Three per cent economic growth doubles everything in 24 years. Could it be that as the world population passes 8 billion, that truth is coming home to roost, and we may have to adjust our expectations, even in North America?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Big is a House? Average House Size by Country – 2023 – Shrink That Footprint<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hugh Holland is a retired engineering and manufacturing executive now living in Huntsville, Ontario.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

Don\u2019t miss out on Doppler!<\/h5>\n

Sign up here<\/u><\/a> to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
\nLocal news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to support local news<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/broadstreet-zone>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Listen Up! guest post is by Hugh Holland. Hugh Mackenzie will be taking a break from Listen Up! over the next few weeks. By Hugh Holland We are hearing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1904,"featured_media":144564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3244],"class_list":["post-144558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-wasted-food"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nListen Up! Is the so-called housing crisis mainly a crisis of expectations?: A guest post by Hugh Holland | Commentary - Huntsville Doppler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We are hearing a lot lately about a housing crisis. What are the basic factors and issues creating this so-called \u201ccrisis\u201d?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Listen Up! Is the so-called housing crisis mainly a crisis of expectations?: A guest post by Hugh Holland | Commentary - Huntsville Doppler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We are hearing a lot lately about a housing crisis. What are the basic factors and issues creating this so-called \u201ccrisis\u201d?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Huntsville Doppler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HuntsvilleDoppler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-01T19:38:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-01T19:38:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2023\/10\/fk0GKMgh-POGO-ED.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"468\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Doppler Online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Hville_Doppler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Hville_Doppler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Doppler Online\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Doppler Online\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/person\/3e6b0695dcb78273e5a4854699a12938\"},\"headline\":\"Listen Up! Is the so-called housing crisis mainly a crisis of expectations?: A guest post by Hugh Holland | Commentary\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-01T19:38:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-01T19:38:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/\"},\"wordCount\":634,\"commentCount\":22,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2023\/10\/fk0GKMgh-POGO-ED.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Wasted food\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Commentary\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/\",\"name\":\"Listen Up! Is the so-called housing crisis mainly a crisis of expectations?: A guest post by Hugh Holland | Commentary - Huntsville Doppler\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2023\/10\/fk0GKMgh-POGO-ED.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-01T19:38:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-01T19:38:23+00:00\",\"description\":\"We are hearing a lot lately about a housing crisis. What are the basic factors and issues creating this so-called \u201ccrisis\u201d?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2023\/10\/fk0GKMgh-POGO-ED.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2023\/10\/fk0GKMgh-POGO-ED.png\",\"width\":730,\"height\":468},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Listen Up! Is the so-called housing crisis mainly a crisis of expectations?: A guest post by Hugh Holland | Commentary\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/\",\"name\":\"Huntsville Doppler\",\"description\":\"Read Local\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Huntsville Doppler\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2025\/03\/logo-Canadian-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2025\/03\/logo-Canadian-1.jpg\",\"width\":760,\"height\":212,\"caption\":\"Huntsville Doppler\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HuntsvilleDoppler\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Hville_Doppler\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/huntsville_doppler\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/person\/3e6b0695dcb78273e5a4854699a12938\",\"name\":\"Doppler Online\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/author\/doppler-online\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Listen Up! Is the so-called housing crisis mainly a crisis of expectations?: A guest post by Hugh Holland | Commentary - Huntsville Doppler","description":"We are hearing a lot lately about a housing crisis. What are the basic factors and issues creating this so-called \u201ccrisis\u201d?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Listen Up! Is the so-called housing crisis mainly a crisis of expectations?: A guest post by Hugh Holland | Commentary - Huntsville Doppler","og_description":"We are hearing a lot lately about a housing crisis. What are the basic factors and issues creating this so-called \u201ccrisis\u201d?","og_url":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/","og_site_name":"Huntsville Doppler","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HuntsvilleDoppler\/","article_published_time":"2023-10-01T19:38:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-10-01T19:38:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":730,"height":468,"url":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2023\/10\/fk0GKMgh-POGO-ED.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Doppler Online","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Hville_Doppler","twitter_site":"@Hville_Doppler","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Doppler Online","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/"},"author":{"name":"Doppler Online","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/person\/3e6b0695dcb78273e5a4854699a12938"},"headline":"Listen Up! Is the so-called housing crisis mainly a crisis of expectations?: A guest post by Hugh Holland | Commentary","datePublished":"2023-10-01T19:38:18+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-01T19:38:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/"},"wordCount":634,"commentCount":22,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2023\/10\/fk0GKMgh-POGO-ED.png","keywords":["Wasted food"],"articleSection":["Commentary"],"inLanguage":"en-CA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/","url":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/","name":"Listen Up! Is the so-called housing crisis mainly a crisis of expectations?: A guest post by Hugh Holland | Commentary - Huntsville Doppler","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2023\/10\/fk0GKMgh-POGO-ED.png","datePublished":"2023-10-01T19:38:18+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-01T19:38:23+00:00","description":"We are hearing a lot lately about a housing crisis. What are the basic factors and issues creating this so-called \u201ccrisis\u201d?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-CA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2023\/10\/fk0GKMgh-POGO-ED.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2023\/10\/fk0GKMgh-POGO-ED.png","width":730,"height":468},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/housing-crisis\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Listen Up! Is the so-called housing crisis mainly a crisis of expectations?: A guest post by Hugh Holland | Commentary"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#website","url":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/","name":"Huntsville Doppler","description":"Read Local","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-CA"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization","name":"Huntsville Doppler","url":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2025\/03\/logo-Canadian-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2025\/03\/logo-Canadian-1.jpg","width":760,"height":212,"caption":"Huntsville Doppler"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HuntsvilleDoppler\/","https:\/\/x.com\/Hville_Doppler","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/huntsville_doppler\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/person\/3e6b0695dcb78273e5a4854699a12938","name":"Doppler Online","url":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/author\/doppler-online\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1904"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}