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. Little is known about long-run trends in the proportion of households that own their own home, largely because reliable data are difficult to obtain. Census data, coupled with crosssectional 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. In 1862 the ownership rates in the two cities were virtually the same. Subsequently they diverged, so that by 1921 Toronto could claim to be a city of "homes" while Montreal remained a city of tenants. Only since 1941 have ownership levels in Montreal risen appreciably. 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