Liberals’ housing moves way too little, too late to improve affordability

Liberals’ housing moves way too little, too late to improve affordability

Thirty years ago, in Bill Tieleman’s old neighbourhood, houses sold for $180,000; today this one went for
$2.5 million.
Photo from Google
Streetview.

Years of inaction mean only the rich can hope to own a home in Vancouver.

By Bill Tieleman
9 Aug 2016
TheTyee.ca

“It is literally too late to close the door after the horse has left the barn.” – Old English saying.
The BC Liberal government is left with a distinctly unpleasant barnyard smell after it acted far too late to deal with skyrocketing housing prices and stepped into it with a new tax on foreign, non-resident homebuyers.

Metro Vancouver’s “prime properties” have seen a 36 per cent price increase in the last year, the highest in the world according to Knight Frank’s Prime Global Cities Index. The report, which looks at prices for the top five per cent of properties, found increases here outpaced real estate hotspots like Shanghai, Toyko, Miami, San Francisco or Zurich.

Oh joy.

And another report from BetterDwelling.com shows that in the past 15 years housing prices here rose 172 per cent, adjusted for inflation, while household income went up by a paltry 10.8 per cent.

Most experts recommend spending three to four times your annual income on a home, the report notes. “Turns out you would need a family income of $318,275, a whopping 322 per cent rise over today’s income.”

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