Nothing small about these houses in the walkable neighbourhood of Roncesvalles:
* https://www.google.com/maps/place/150+Geoffrey+St,+Toronto,+...
* https://www.google.com/maps/place/150+Westminster+Ave,+Toron...
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roncesvalles,_Toronto
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcar_suburb
You still have a (back)yard and can have a garage attached to a laneway. Just up the street there are more modestly sized houses (3 bedrooms usually):
* https://www.google.com/maps/place/50+Geoffrey+St,+Toronto,+O...
Video on the concept by the Not Just Bikes channel, "Suburbs that don't Suck - Streetcar Suburbs (Riverdale, Toronto)":
* Walkability, large houses = very expensive neighborhoods and gentrification
* Large houses, affordable = rural areas where cars are required
* Affordable, walkable neighborhood = Tiny apartments/homes in an urban area
* A bit of the best/worst of all 3 = Suburbs
Up until ~2000 it was not so, because living in the city was for immigrants and all the WASPs moved into the innter/outer suburbs with their white picket fences. The area of the links is where the Poles concentrated; to the west were the Ukrainians; to the east is Little Portugal (then onto Chinatown); to the north-east is Little Italy. Toronto is a good example of what Jane Jacobs saying 'you don't live in a city, but in a neighbourhood':
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_neighbourhoods_in_Toro...
And the reason why Toronto (SW Ontario) is so expensive, especially since 2015, is because we've had so much immigration in the region, but housing hasn't kept up by pure volume (regardless of density or other factors).
But I was thinking about walkability from European perspective where it means you don't need to own a car (the places you've liked to look like every household has a car). When I lived in London on multiple occasions I've had jobs within 20 minute walk from where I lived.
I know people who are in the area that do not have a car, but the area has been gentrified over the last few years, so folks have cars 'just because why not' really.
Still generally applies per the label of streetcar suburbs. The area in question is just south of a subway line, and Roncesvalles has a streetcar line going through it to a station.
Walkable neighborhoods need destinations you can walk to. Businesses need a minimum number of customers to be viable, so the denser the neighborhood the more variety of destinations it will have.
To avoid cars taking up the space, it's necessary to have high-frequency public transport, and that also requires high population density to be viable.