Urban Housing Markets: Recent Directions in Research and Policy

The Conference on Urban Housing Markets sponsored by the Centre for Urban and Community Studies in October 1977 was the first major conference on housing to be held in Canada since the First Canadian Housing Conference sponsored by the Canadian Welfare Council in 1968.

This volume is at once a record of the Conference and a review of important recent research on urban housing markets and related public policy issues. The book captures the flavor of a lively debate between academics and policy analysts, and the commentaries and discussion sections provide, in non-technical language, a statement of some major questions confronting government policy on housing.

In addition to its use as a record of an important Canadian conference, the book is a valuable collection of recent housing research. The ten papers cover a wide variety of topics ranging from conceptual and methodological issues on the one hand to critiques of Canadian housing policies on the other. They indicate the range of issues which must be taken into account in assessing housing policy. Taken together with the discussion material which helps to focus attention on strategic issues in both Canada and the United States, they provide a useful introduction to current debates over housing policy.

Larry S. Bourne is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Geography and former Director of the Centre for Urban and Community Studies at the University of Toronto.

John R. Hitchcock is a retired professor of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and former Associate Director of the Centre for Urban and Community Studies at the University of Toronto.