The evolution of housing tenure in Montreal and Toronto since the mid-nineteenth century

Owner-occupation is important as a reflection and a determinant of economic opportunity. Census data, coupled with cross-sectional samples drawn from local tax records at twenty-year intervals, show that in Montreal and Toronto this proportion fluctuated a good deal between 1862 and 1981, although the general trend has been upward. As ownership levels increased in each city, a marked tenure gradient emerged between the inner residential districts and the suburbs. This gradient was established in Toronto by 1901, and in Montreal a little later. The recent innovation of condominium tenure is beginning to reduce, and even to reverse, the slope of this gradient as ownership units are built close to the CBD. -Publisher