Metro areas in US and Canada with less than 50% detached housing

[Docere]

Detached dwellings

Boston 46.6%
Halifax 49.4%
Los Angeles 47.7%
Baltimore 45.4%
Miami 41%
Montreal 31.8%
New York 34.9%
Ottawa 45%
Philadelphia 43.4%
Quebec 40.4%
San Francisco 48.8%
Toronto 39%
Vancouver 27.7%
Washington 44.2%

[someone123]

Is this 2021 data? It will have changed by 2026. In Canada, there should be new 2026 data soon.

Almost all new construction is multi-unit in many Canadian cities these days.

[Docere]

2021 Census for Canada and 2024 5-year estimates for US. Probably the best basis for comparisons.

Canada does censuses every 5 years but fewer estimates or "lesser surveys." US does a census every 10 but more of the latter. Take your pick.

[iheartthed]

Los Angeles? Definitely would not have guessed that one...

[Docere]

And who'd have thought Vancouver would come in at the lowest share in Northern America?

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Docere

And who'd have thought Vancouver would come in at the lowest share in Northern America?

This ties in with the debate around how similar American and Canadian cities are. If you factor out city size, there obviously remain other factors across the border shaping development styles, car vs. transit use, etc. And in turn those differences have a wide impact on life in the cities which has been compounding.

The % detached will likely go down by some percentage points in most Canadian cities in the 2026 data. If I remember correctly, in Halifax it is something like 13,000+ multi-units under construction and 700 detached dwellings right now.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Docere

And who'd have thought Vancouver would come in at the lowest share in Northern America?

That doesn't surprise me, tbh.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

That doesn't surprise me, tbh.

Yeah, given the radical divergence of their surrounding hinterland landscapes, I find Toronto's figure a lot more surprising than Vancouver's.

British Columbia has like 3 square feet of flat land in the whole freaking province.

[someone123]

Vancouver is hemmed in by mountains and the ocean, but there's a lot of developable land left, and there could be more with infrastructure development. The agricultural land reserve system has a big impact on development along with the lack of highways, bridges, and tunnels.

[Docere]

Selected non-detached housing types (15% or higher):

Large apartment (US: 50 or more units; Canada: 5+ stories)

Toronto 30.7%
New York 19.6%
Vancouver 18.9%
Miami 18.7%
Washington 15.6%

Attached (US: 1 unit, attached; Canada: semi-detached or row house):

Philadelphia 29.4%
Baltimore 28.4%
Ottawa 23.4%
Washington 19.6%
Toronto 16.6%