Buried on Page 119 of the federal budget is a commitment to "introduce legislation to regulate the issuance of fiat-backed stablecoins in Canada." I'm absolutely delighted to see this! We released a research report on the idea back in September:

Today's Ontario Fall Economic Statement now forecasts fewer than 65,000 housing starts this year, which would be the fewest number of starts since 2014.

Budget reaction piece at The Hub. A number of experts weigh in; I share my thoughts on housing, along with the government's decision to follow Keir Starmer's footsteps in adopting Brexit-inspired language to refer to immigration reform. Read here:

New MMI episode! Today, we ask, "Is Canada the worst country in the world when it comes to housing affordability?" The short version: It depends on what metric you use, but quite possibly "yes". For the long answer, watch the episode here: www.youtube.com/watc...

Earlier today, MMI cautioned readers not to expect a housing miracle in today’s Federal Budget. I went into the budget lockup expecting to be disappointed, but I had inadequately prepared myself for how disappointed I would be. My take here: www.missingmiddleini...

Out of budget lockup. I recently wrote: "Ottawa imposes a 10 percent luxury tax on yachts... yet a family buying a semi in Scarborough pays the equivalent of 15 percent in [DCs] and land transfer taxes." Today the gov't addressed this by eliminating the luxury tax on yachts.

New MMI piece! When it comes to housing policy, our expectations are quite low for today's federal budget. We hope to be pleasantly surprised. Here's why we're not expecting to see much, despite aggressive targets and cratering new home sales: www.missingmiddleini...

New MMI piece! Canada vs. the World: The Worst Record on Housing Affordability Since 2004 Home price-to-income ratios in Canada have increased by over 80% since 2004, the highest among the 23 OECD nations with full data. Read here: www.missingmiddleini...

There has been an unexpectedly high level of interest in the data I posted earlier today on housing affordability across OECD countries. The full piece will be available tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. on the MMI Substack.

Bonus Sunday piece! The GTA’s Missing Middle: Not Just a Housing Type, but a Whole Generation of Families The math is clear: families go where family-sized homes are built (r = 0.71). Read here: www.missingmiddleini...

I do mean the platform. I find if I post anything here that could be interpreted as even remotely critical of the federal government, there's instant backlash. It's weird.

I'm really beginning to loathe Bluesky. If a chart is posted as a spoiler, that means the larger piece will contain explanatory details not found in the spoiler. Anyway, here's the price-to-income change data for every OECD country, spanning 2004-2024.

I received multiple requests to see how Portugal performed in terms of housing affordability from 2014 to 2024. Here is every single OECD country with data from that period. And, yep.. Canada is only the 2nd worst out of 32 countries. Portugal is slightly worse than Canada.

Spoiler for an upcoming piece. I often hear people dismissing Canada's housing crisis by saying, "Mike, home prices skyrocketed everywhere, it's not just a Canada thing". Turns out... nope. It really is a Canada thing.

Special bonus Saturday piece, on how the provincial government is underestimating and underforecasting the number of families leaving the GTA for other parts of Ontario, and why this will cause housing shortages to persist. Read here: www.missingmiddleini...

Every single day, I'm told that home prices have to stay high since seniors rely on that equity to fund their retirement. The evidence that this is true, however, is remarkably thin. Yet it's something that's nearly universally treated as true.

OH FUCK GEDDY LEE IS WEARING AN EFFIN BIRDS SHIRT AT THE WORLD SERIES

"If we don’t have a shared vision of what we want the housing system to look like, then we’re just going to get an incoherent mess of policies," - @mikepmoffatt.bsky.social We know that building non-market #housing pulls people out of precarity, and we need a LOT more of it. buff.ly/K7ckysj

Spoiler for an upcoming piece. The GTA is increasingly a place Ontarians move from, rather than to, and that's not just a pre-pandemic-era thing. Yet Ontario municipal planning is based on the idea that the future will be like the present.

Millions of Canadians have experienced the special hell that is waiting on hold for someone from CRA to answer. You may even be one of the nearly 80k taxpayers who were wrongfully assessed last year. @MikePMoffatt & @SabrinaMaddeaux examine what the data is telling us about CRA

On this week's episode of the Missing Middle pod, @SabrinaMaddeaux and @MikePMoffatt unpack the CRA’s 100-day “fix,” why it’s only a Band-Aid solution, and the deeper structural issues inside Canada’s tax system.

New episode! We examine reports on dysfunction at the Canada Revenue Agency, the government's 100-day fix, and we share personal stories, including the challenges parents of children with complex medical needs face when dealing with the CRA. Watch here: www.youtube.com/watc...

We really need to see George Springer re-enact Kirk Gibson in the 88 World Series tonight.

In the first nine months of the year, Ontario had just over 28,000 condo and freehold housing starts—the lowest level since 1995. And with new/pre-construction sales falling, things are going to get worse before they get better.

Pre-construction/new home sales down 51% in Canada's six largest housing markets. More proof that the housing slowdown is not just a Toronto or a condo thing. It's also other housing forms outside of Toronto. Full numbers here: www.missingmiddleini...

New MMI piece! New housing sales data is out, and it's grim. Across Canada's six largest markets, new and pre-construction home sales are down 51% y-o-y. The slowdown isn't just a Toronto condo issue - it crosses geographies and home types. Read here: www.missingmiddleini...

Great piece on Toronto being awarded $283 million in infrastructure funding from the federal government's CHIF program, a program they absolutely do not qualify for. Federal dollars are scarce, and need to be used to drive municipal reforms.

Canada has all these tech and biz groups who want to bring in more talent. The political barrier is a lack of housing. Yet, as far as I can tell, they're spending zero resources trying to fix the housing crisis. I really don't get it.

Of all the housing charts not made by MMI, this one is my favourite. It shows how, despite rhetoric, housing shortages aren't a global phenomenon, but they do seem to be an Anglo-American one.

New piece! In "A Symptom of Scarcity: What the Growth of Ground-Oriented Rentals Tells Us", we examine the rapid growth of ground-oriented homes being used as rentals from 2016 to 2021. Read here: www.missingmiddleini...

"Federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson says the average price of housing — not necessarily individual home values — must fall to restore affordability in Canada." This is not possible. More homes or any type will impact some part of the market.

Good luck tonight to the @BlueJays from everyone at the Missing Middle for the first game 7 since 1985. As a token of our appreciation, here's a video of @MikepMoffatt and me awkwardly doing the wave. LET'S GOOOOOOOO

I've been reading a recent study on evictions in Toronto, and how they can massively increase (or sometimes decrease) when building ownership changes hands. Doing some digging, and going beyond the study, it really reveals the dynamics of TO apartments.

Browsing eBay and... This is why I'll never finish my 1971 OPC baseball set.

Examining year-over-year EI data. I knew Ontario was struggling, but I had no idea about the significant increase in EI beneficiaries in Quebec compared to last year. Here's every EI region that experienced a 10% year increase in EI beneficiaries.

Toronto simply does not want to solve the housing crisis.

1) Toronto was going to use development charges to fund a project that was critical for existing residents 2) Now the feds are putting in money as a reward for Toronto reducing DCs, which they didn't actually do

This is what makes the whole thing so great and hilariously ironic. Being a fan of the 60-102 White Sox is about the most Calvinistic thing ever and it's... the Pope.

I love, absolutely love, the fact that we have a Pope that is a diehard Chicago White Sox fan.

New episode! We show how one small dispute on one tiny Toronto street is a microcosm of Canada's housing dysfunction, and why it's so hard to get anything built. Watch "Nightmare on Craven Road" here: www.youtube.com/watc...

I'm on Newstalk 1010 at 7:20 am to discuss the federal government's $283 million infrastructure funding for Toronto, which doesn't seem to be leading to the construction of more housing. Let me explain.

This federal infrastructure announcement for Toronto is puzzling. It works out to less than $4500 a home - couldn't the City fund this with their massive development charges? And is there any requirement for them to lower DCs by an offsetting amount?

I often talk about my experience buying a new home in 2004. New freehold housing is all but extinct in Ontario. Everything is either a condo or a rental... and condos appear to be the next to go.

Did you know that the Missing Middle is also on TikTok? More housing discussion there, including on why Tillsonburg is growing so rapidly www.tiktok.com/@them...

Ontario is making some changes to municipal planning, including positive steps like using a standard set of population projections. However, the proposed implementation will exacerbate housing shortages, not improve them. Read "Built to Fail" here: www.missingmiddleini...

Bonus Thanksgiving piece! We conduct an in-depth analysis of the migration of families from the GTA to Eastern Ontario, noting that more than three-quarters of Ontario couples with children reside in a ground-oriented home they own. Read here: www.missingmiddleini...

Ontario municipalities must submit data each year on important issues like development charges, which helps citizens understand how their money is spent. 2023 data was due in May 2024, yet data for 31 municipalities is still unavailable, including for Hamilton and Cornwall.

Fantastic piece by Don Iveson on what Edmonton is doing right on housing. There are lots of lessons here for other communities.

Today's announcement on the CRA moving closer to the option of auto-filing is a great excuse to post one of my all-time favourite shorts.

The province of Ontario is soliciting comments on Provincial Planning Statement implementation, and boy, do we have thoughts...