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Akua Schatz and Brendon Purdy have trouble finding space for a coffee table, not to mention the baby they are expecting this fall.

The couple, both in their mid-30s, live in a 500 square foot home in the Vancouver neighbourhood of Dunbar. Completed last year for $280,000, the modernist two-storey home stands on what used to be Mr. Purdy’s parents’ backyard.

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While the style may be precedent-setting for Vancouver, they are not alone in living small. Increasingly, young families in the city’s constricted housing market are eschewing a distant suburban address for the ease and walkability of the core – even if it means doing it without enough space for a Christmas tree.

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From post-war bungalows to 1990s McMansions, the Canadian house has spent the last 60 years progressively ballooning into one of the largest domiciles in history. But amid shrinking lot sizes, skyrocketing land prices and a new generation of homeowners uninterested in the lures of suburban life, the ever-expanding Canadian house has finally reached its apex. After decades of pushing the limits of human dwellings, Canada’s unbridled passion for square footage is coming to an end.