Parenthood, incomes draw people to the suburbs
By Shannon Proudfoot
Canwest News/ Vancouver Sun
June 8, 2010

The suburbs around Canada's largest cities are magnets for young parents in the middle of the income and education scales, while the urban cores draw those on the extremes, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.

People in the prime child-rearing age group of 25 to 44 were most likely to move out of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver and into the surrounding suburbs between 2001 and 2006, the report says, with one in seven (14 per cent) making that move. In contrast, just five per cent in that age group made the move from the suburbs back to the city in Toronto and Montreal, and four per cent did so in Vancouver….

Families with incomes of $100,000 or more are less likely to move to the suburbs than those in the middle of the income scale, ….

On the other hand, the lowest-income families who bring in $20,000 or less per year were least likely of any income group to move out of the city core. The agency speculates they might not be able to buy a vehicle, which is crucial to living in the car-centric suburbs.

Family status is another big influence in where people live, and in all three cities, people who became first-time parents between 2001 and 2006 were among the most likely to leave the central municipality. In Vancouver, 27 per cent of new parents left the city for the suburbs, while just eight per cent of people living alone made the same move.

Aside from housing costs, Lochhead suggests childcare may drive young families to the suburbs, where there are plenty of others like them and they're more likely to be able to make arrangements for home-based daycare….