Housing Facts

One percent of Greenland's population lives in a single apartment building!

UBC student Tim Chen realises it is cheaper to fly to class than pay rent. So he lives with his parents in Calgary and flies to Vancouver for class. Flights: $1,200 CAD/month. Vancouver one-bed: $2,700 CAD. He pockets the $1,500 difference. "It's a one-hour flight - same as taking a bus."

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that a city could seize Susette Kelo's home and give the land to a private developer. The city spent $78 million demolishing the neighborhood. Pfizer left town. The developer couldn't get financing. 20 years later, the land is an empty lot.

Kaitlin Jorgensen, a 30-year-old hairstylist in New York City, moved to Charlotte and kept her job. She flies to NYC every other week, splits rent in Charlotte for under $1,000, and pays around $1,000 a month for the commute. Total $2,000. Manhattan rent alone would be $4,000. She called it the happiest she has ever been.

Sears sold up to 75,000 complete houses by mail-order between 1908 and 1940. You picked a model for $360 to $2,890, and a railroad boxcar arrived with 30,000 pre-cut pieces, 750 pounds of nails, 27 gallons of paint, and a 75-page manual. An estimated 70% are still standing, built by the company that later failed to adapt to e-commerce.

More than 420 severely injured veterans have been handed the keys to mortgage-free houses built around their injuries. It started when a Massachusetts construction supervisor saw a news story about a soldier who lost both legs in Iraq, found no group building homes for men like him, and started one in 2004. New houses are still being handed over.