Hacker News Reader

Comment by baron816 | Hacker News Reader

Yes, the population continued to grow, but the housing stock did not keep pace.

huge problem in Vancouver, a single bedroom/studio 500sqft in Vancouver is asking ~$3000 CAD / month or $2300 USD / month. 10 years ago I lived in a 600sq ft for half that rent including utilities and internet.

Wages has not changed here since the 80s and tech also underpays people for the same role. Meanwhile condo sales sees no sign of slowing down, everywhere real estate is on the decline, here it seems to continue.

I wonder if this is sustainable, there is a large number of multi bedroom condo units asking well above $5000 CAD / month

Canada has one of (if not the) lowest housing stocks per population in the developed world. BC and Ontario are on the lower end of all the provinces in this regard as well, which is a major problem when you count how much our population is growing and the fact that the majority of that growth ends up in the VAN/TOR greater metros.

https://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/about/economics/economics-p...

Canada's biggest problem is that we didn't lock out immigration policies to our infrastructure and housing policies. Bringing up that fact though often spirals into someone trying to claim that being concerned about the policies makes you a racist or anti-immigration which is nonsense.

yet the people flipping homes and own multiple properties are local canadians, so are immigrants to be blamed for wanting to buy a home? why is there no focus on corporations purchasing multiple units in bulk to flip it? I feel like this blame the immigration policy is an old trope that I been hearing since the 80s.

and this just highlights the issue in Canada: we can't even agree as to what the underlying issues are, instead we scapegoat minority groups because it has worked since the 80s.

see you're doing exactly what I described.. you saw someone mention the word immigration and went off like a dog on a steak without reading.

I'm not "blaming immigrants" - I'm blaming immigration policies that have Canada leading most of the developed world in net immigration while also being in last place for it's housing stock.

That situation causes a supply and demand loop that makes it profitable for corporations to flip units (the corps doing this is a SYMPTOM not the CAUSE of the problem).

I have no issue with immigration and I'm not scapegoating minority groups (seriously read next time please), what I'm saying is the policy that allows one needs to be directly influenced by the policy of the other or you get knock on effects like we are seeing now.

You are correct that we can't agree on the underlying issue, but not because anyone is scapegoating but because so many people want to concern troll and try to avoid having a discussion for fear of being labeled as insensitive.

but you are literally blaming immigration for the housing situation which is what a lot of trump supporting conservatives are pushing

<monkeywork> we didn't lock out immigration policies to our infrastructure and housing policies

*lock out -> lock our(?)

<upupandup> but you are literally blaming immigration for the housing situation

No, monkeywork is saying that housing policy and immigration need to be tied together. If we have slow housing growth, immigration must be restricted. If we want high immigration, we must allow fast housing growth.

There's significantly higher prices in areas of West Virginia with decreasing population (over the last few years and projected going forward)

So while it's one factor, it's far from the only factor.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com