The growth of home ownership in Toronto, 1899-1913.

It is generally thought that in Toronto stagnant real incomes kept home ownership rates down during the first decade of this century. In fact, assessment data show that between 1899 and 1913 the local proportion of owner-occupied dwellings rose by about 20% points. The experience of Toronto challenges the assumption, common among geographers and historians, that prior to World War I suburban home ownership was overwhelmingly a middle class phenomenon. It also shows that homes must be viewed as places of domestic production as well as of consumption. -from Author