BMO’s Canadian Housing Update: Tale of Four Cities report states that despite some media warnings of a future condo crash in Toronto, a downturn is not in sight.

In the report, senior BMO economist Sal Guatieri analyzes housing conditions, particularly in the condo market, in the four major Canadian metros of Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal.

Some optimistic findings for the Toronto region suggest a sustainable market, namely:

• Condo buyers can expect to spend approximately 24 per cent of income on a new condo, versus 39 per cent for a typical house.
• Condos are an affordable option for the more than 80,000 new international migrants coming to the area every year.
• Echo boomers (i.e. Generation Y individuals) are expected to account for 30 per cent of GTA housing demand by 2021.

In a videocast outlining highlights from the report, Guatieri says that growth in the area’s population will fill most of the new units. “More than half of the units in the pipeline haven’t started construction and many won’t be built unless demand picks up,” he says.