Has the oil boom generated new problems of housing affordability in resource-driven agglomerations in Canada? A case study of St. John’s, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, and Fort McMurray, 1991–2011

Abstract

Recent studies focused on Canadian metropolitan areas suggest that growing income inequality underlies problems of housing affordability for low and moderate income earners. This article investigates how unprecedented commodity-led economic growth between 1991 and 2011 has impacted housing affordability in five resource-driven agglomerations in Canada. Housing affordability is analyzed across income quintiles, looking at income, housing costs, tenure, housing quality, and housing debt. Using Statistics Canada Census micro data, we find that low to mid-income earners faced the fastest relative increase in housing costs between 1991 and 2011, combined with small income gains over that period. Homeowners in the lowest income quintiles seem particularly vulnerable when carrying a mortgage, with economic volatility engendering greater risks of housing market contractions or job loss over time. Whereas previous literature has emphasized housing vulnerability in large metropolitan areas, the results highlight new patterns of risk-laden housing-related vulnerability in resource-driven regions in Canada.

The changing determinants of housing affordability in oil-booming agglomerations: a quantile regression investigation from Canada, 1991–2011

“…While rising housing prices in resource-driven urban agglomerations have been noted before (e.g. Okkola & Brunelle 2017;Goldenberg et al 2010;Randall & Ironside, 1996), there is to date limited knowledge on how such rapid transformations affect these communities and which households are most impacted over time. Growing evidence suggests that low to moderate income earners, such as support and service workers, may be the most at risk of facing problems of affordability-a reality which contrasts their critical role in making these communities livable (Ennis, Finlayson & Speering, 2013;Goldenberg et al 2010).…”

Examining Post-Fire Perceptions of Selected Mitigation Strategies after the 2016 Horse River Wildland Fire in Alberta, Canada

“…On 3 May, it swept through the community, causing a city-wide evacuation of more than 88,000 people and the loss of 2400 homes with a total estimated economic impact of about CAD 8.9 billion [1,[3][4][5]. Fort McMurray is an urban service centre and the largest settlement in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) that has a population of 66,573 [6] with a growth of about 80% since 2000 [7]. It is a central economic hub in Alberta and Canada because of the oil sands industry, where the expected investment for the industry is approximately CAD 200 billion by 2030 [8].…”

For the Children: Notions of Childhood in Women's Narratives of Home in Rural Newfoundland*

“…Since 2018, scholars have been calling for more attention on how housing and homemaking practices relate to housing systems, economies, and mobilities (Alam et al 2020; Easthope et al 2020; Okkola and Brunelle 2018a; 2018b; Penfold et al 2020). These housing and homemaking practices include an array of activities, including residential choice: mainly the decision to live in a particular place and/or to move away.…”