In Montreal, where only 55.7% of residents own their home (the lowest rate of the major Canadian cities), Moving Day is particularly busy and has been described as "a kind of moving madness". Exterior staircases leading up to second, third, or even fourth-storey apartments are common in many neighbourhoods, in part because historically this reduced the size of buildings and therefore decreased the owner's property taxes. These staircases are often narrow, curved, and metal – not ideal for nonprofessionals carrying major appliances. According to New York Times writer Ian Austen, "unlike apartments in the rest of Canada, the ones here [in Montreal] rarely come with kitchen appliances, adding to the movers' burdens." Cities also schedule extra garbage and recycling pickups for this period to deal with unwanted furniture and empty boxes left beside the road. According to Hydro-Québec, more than 700,000 Quebec households moved in 2009, including 225,000 on the island of Montreal.
