An explorative investigation of the dynamics of housing affordability in a booming oil economy: a case study of St. John's, Newfoundland 1991-2011

Okkola, Aila Sinikka (2016) An explorative investigation of the dynamics of housing affordability in a booming oil economy: a case study of St. John's, Newfoundland 1991-2011. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Researchers have addressed the dynamics of housing affordability in the major metropolitan areas in Canada. However, housing costs are also growing rapidly in smaller resource driven urban agglomerations during commodity booms. The objective of this thesis is to explore the dynamics of housing affordability in such urban agglomerations with a focus on St. John’s, Newfoundland. This project encompasses two sections. An exploratory section of the thesis presents a descriptive data analysis approach to the evolution of incomes and housing costs between 1991 and 2011, followed by an investigation of trends in housing cost to income ratio, homeownership rate, housing debt and housing quality. The second section employs a more rigorous methodology of quantile regression analysis to ascertain the relative importance of various household characteristics on housing cost to income burden. This thesis finds that new patterns of growing housing affordability problems are emerging in smaller resource driven urban agglomerations in Canada.

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