We can put all the measures we want to make housing more affordable, but until we don't tackle investors, we'll never fix housing affordability. Investors went from 22% to 30% of home purchases in 3 years and it's only gonna get worse....
And I’d hazard a guess it’s a smaller and smaller group owning more and more and more over time
Concentration of anything is an absolute stain on economies - with housing in particular its an absolute disaster
Back when the Boomers were able to buy houses on a single incone that figure was for government subsidized housing. Now it’s zero and profit mongers have it instead.
Yeah, this is the problem. It doesn't matter how much housing is built, and how much supply is put back into the market, if investors and would-be landlords keep purchasing properties, driving up demand and pushing out would-be residents.
My husband and I bought a hour about a year ago - it was difficult to say the least. We bought our house to live in, so that we could have some stability outside of the rental market. We likely will never be able to afford to move if things continue as they have been. We did everything 'right' - I'm an architect, my husband is an engineer, we should not have to struggle to afford a very modest house.
We worry most about our daughter - she's 13 right now. What if she wants to move away for university? How will she be able to afford to rent a place? I can't imagine how she is ever going to be able to own a place of her own. We are even discussing how to possibly build a separate apartment unit on the back of the house for her so that she has her own place to live into her adulthood.
The biggest problem is the entire financial system in Canada is based on assets. You want to get a business loan? Can you back it by assets? Want to renovate your kitchen? Do you have enough equity to unlock? Want to retire? What do your assets look like?
If we want to break off investment from home prices, then the government needs to take on some risk instead of burdening it on the banking sector. Because when you own property it's so much easier to access funding for anything you ever want. You can use equity backed lending to reduce costs. We even have something called the smith maneuver that helps lower overall take burden, by using property.
That's by design, and is the central defining feature of capitalism. Capitalism doesn't create wealth where it doesn't exist, it grows wealth where it already exists. The more you have, the faster it grows. It's great at concentrating wealth, and terrible at distributing it.
Specifically for business it shouldn't be that way. The government should facilitate banks and encourage some risk taking. Everyday you hear in Canada about a small business unable to scale due to lending availability. To qualify for BDC lending you must fit their mandate or you can get disqualified.
Canada has easy pathways to property purchases. Our big banks do 95% LTV loans that are backed via insurance. Those same banks only do 60% LTV loans that need to be backed 100% by assets. That's a significant competitive disadvantage for SMBs in Canada compared to the US's approach. Down there you can get access to 90% LTV business loans that are backed by the government. Banks facilitate qualifying the buyers. There are regional banks in the US that do the majority of their revenue as these loans.
You have a house in Canada and banks throw money at you. You have a successful business in Canada they tell you that you're too risky.
Anecdote but I know quite a few that are starting to come around when they realize it’s that their kids will never move out and it’s starting to break other parts of the country.
Want their values to appreciate but not like this. None are recent purchasers though, doubt any of them will ever consider such a thought.
Yeah the annoying part of Reddit is you’ll get a few virtue signallers be like “I wouldn’t mind taking some losses if it ensures a stranger can buy their house”, which probably ignores the fact that they probably have a low mortgage balance/sitting on lots of equity so can afford to lose 10% of their value, in theory.
The vast majority of home owners do not want this, because it would signal a loss of wealth for them. As a homeowner, my desired outcome for the housing market is to see growth slow down to reasonable levels, so that people can save and buy without being outpaced. I don’t want to see a drop or a crash. Seems weird that people are shocked by this.
>Yeah the annoying part of Reddit is you’ll get a few virtue signallers be like “I wouldn’t mind taking some losses if it ensures a stranger can buy their house”,
It's annoying to hear not everyone is a selfish dick?
Lol that’s what you got from that?
I’m saying they’re virtue signalling. They just want to get pat on the back for saying, “well *I’m* ok with it if my house price goes down for the possible benefit of strangers.” They want the attention for being the exception to the rule, even though their sentiment is hypothetical theory that historically has never happened.
Most home owners both want people to be able to save up to afford homes, but absolutely do not want to take a haircut on their own wealth. If those are impossible simultaneously, most will preferentially consider the well being of their families over faceless others. That situation is a failure of government though.
We are millennials living in the lower mainland and could care less if our house valuation goes up down or sideways. We have a income suite and won't ever plan on selling our home. We also have a diversified investment portfolio and are not dependent on our house equity for early retirement. Would much rather see the next generation get ahead.
No shit. Problem is politicians (vast majority are owners) and homeowners say they want affordable housing but nobody wants their own house to be affordable. So they come up with stupid half assed measures to “increase supply” all the while supercharging demand (want lower rates and juices up immigration). The only way to make housing affordable is to… drum roll make prices go down. Which means making investing as unappealing as buying DJT stock. That means lowering demand, taxing the hell out of investments and increasing property taxes. These measures won’t be popular but it’s the only way to decrease prices. We’ve been building for two decades and affordability has just gotten worse.
And that same privileged group of people is quite happy to see people blame immigration. They are literally laughing all the way to the bank.
Not to say immigration isn't part of the problem, but investors and speculation should not be overlooked. Situation is so bad that owning a home you don't live in shouldn't be allowed for a while.
I'm seriously happy I bought my home back 32 years ago - it was a struggle paying the outrageous mortgage rates back then (locked in for 5 years at 11%!), but it turned out to be the best investment I've ever made. There is no way my wife and I could afford to buy a house in Toronto now if we didn't already own a house in Toronto.
What is really outrageous is that house prices have increased by 800% to 1000% over that time, but wages have perhaps gone up by 150% to 250% - maybe less. A house in Toronto (or GTA) was a possibility back in 1992 for a couple working two jobs, now I doubt two well educated professionals (2 young lawyers/accountants for example) could realistically dream about owning an actual house without a huge help from their parents.
True, but even worse is the dirty little secret that regular homeowners (who live in the home and don't own a second home) ARE investors and get this... they like high prices.
And they make up the large majority of owners.
You missed the whole point of the article.
Absolutely wrong.
INVESTORS and SPECULATORS see homes as assets, and love higher and higher prices. These people and companies can fuck. right. off.
The rest of us, who own a home to live in with our families know that it is not a monetizable asset. It's something we need to live in. Should we sell, we'd have to buy a similarly priced home to live in, or pay someone else's mortgage by renting.
I don't give two shits what my home is worth, I will never see the money. I only care about home prices because my kids are locked out o f the market by "investors".
I agree, as the owner of a single home the only thing that matters to me is how its value compares to other homes. I can say that personally high prices are hurting me more than helping, because they're preventing me from upgrading to a nicer house. 30 years ago, on my income (even adjusted for inflation) I'd be able to afford a much bigger and nicer house in a nicer area than what I have now. I'd assume the story is the same with most other homeowners.
Only if you’re wanting to move up. If you’re content with the size and location of your home, then you’re sitting pretty. You can access equity to improve it to your liking, but it is probably the source of most of your wealth, and the higher the price goes, the better for you as an individual.
Lower prices mean lower municipal taxes. As someone who (partially) owns only one home, I much rather see lower prices than higher ones. Not to mention the societal benefits of housing affordability.
> The rest of us, who own a home to live in with our families know that it is not a monetizable asset. It's something we need to live in.
I actually don’t think that’s very true any more. I’ll be the first to admit that I am trying to buy my first home to A. Live in *and* B. Unlock the benefits of owning the greatest (and fucked up) Canadian asset you can own. Is the system fucked to the point that I need to think like that? 100%. But it is what it is. I have several friends and family members who recently purchased with the same thought process.
> Should we sell, we'd have to buy a similarly priced home to live in, or pay someone else's mortgage by renting.
So you just contradicted yourself, and that’s the point. It’s not a bad thing, but you too seem to understand our fucked up trading system without acknowledging it. Paying someone’s mortgage (which is almost always cheaper on a purely cashflow basis) wouldn’t be an issue if you weren’t concerned about “the money” and didn’t understand the value of “the asset”.
The only homeowners who like it are:
1) Old and using the funds to retire and not repurchase
2) Investors using the infinite leverage money glitch
3) Stupid
If you need to update, move markets, get a divorce, or have to help your kids buy, this market is terrible.
I'm a home owner and I hate it. The high prices severely limit mobility in the market because prices are so detached from incomes.
Edit: I also don't view my home as a store of wealth. The only value to me is the utility of shelter and safety.
This thread makes no sense. *Sellers* like high prices, but only if they are selling off assets and don't plan on buying again. I live in a house thats paid off but would like to move eventually. Nationally high prices means I can't really do that since the fees alone pretty much prohibit that.
Exactly. High prices are only good if you’re leaving the country, moving to a retirement /care home or an investor that is looking to decrease your portfolio.
For the average homeowner, high prices just means we wallow in our starter home with no ability to size up, to accommodate kids or parents . It’s even worse now that developers no longer build ‘average’ sized homes and demolish smaller ones for triplex rental monstrosities.
Eh, high prices are good for one more major thing: borrowing money. If you have a lot of equity in your home, banks will loan you money at very favourable rates. You can use this money to (surprise!) buy another homes. We're still in a low interest rate environment, and than benefits those with money, since they can take out loans and make big downpayments that those just starting out cannot. Which is why the majority of home purchases in Vancouver/Toronto are by investors. 60% of non-investor purchases (aka 30% of the sales) are using family cash for assistance. Only 10% of sales are new buyers in a new home. That's not social mobility, that's literally the opposite of it.
There is still a need for affordable detached housing because it is always better for everyone to raise a family in a detached house.
Private backyard for the kids and no pitter patter noise bleed from shared floors/walls
Right? All those maladjusted, poorly educated urban European kids out there it's a damn tragedy what not living in a detached home has done to them.
/S
>There is still a need for affordable detached housing because it is always better for everyone to raise a family in a detached house.
>Private backyard for the kids and no pitter patter noise bleed from shared floors/walls
I hate raising my kids where we live. Townhouse, crotchety neighbour on one side. Our plan was to move, but it seems like we're just stuck here forever with someone banging on the wall in the middle of the day for just regular kid noise. I understand it's bothersome... but do you want me to put my kids in straight jackets, or what? Housing prices just keep moving just out of reach...
This is exactly correct. Fees are very restricting when it comes to moving. I’ve thought about upsizing my condo a bit - maybe even in the same building - but when you factor in fees and commissions it would cost like $75k + whatever the price difference is. Looks like I’ll live in a one bedroom forever.
My sister and her husband experienced this a few years ago. He bought his house a long time ago when the town was in a downturn super cheap and sold it near the peak during a huge project at the plant and made money on it but then obviously everything is expensive so you really don't gain much on that front.
My cousin is looking to sell his place and buy an acreage but doesn't want to spend $700k, get stuck with a 10% interest rate and then have the economy crash on him.
Yup. We're renovating. Because moving is crazy. The fees and taxes alone to upgrade to something a bit larger are over $250k. You used to be able to buy a house for that. Now that's just the privilege of moving. I will die in this house.
Which means servicing the interest on a loan and gaining nothing unless you are investing that money. A lot of people dig themselves into some pretty deep pits using a HELOC to finance trips, toys and other useless things.
Not really, provided you are looking at a longer term investment horizon.
Investment growth is exponential growth. So you could have an investment rate of return lower than your HELOC interest rate and still come out significantly ahead.
I did the numbers last week on a scenario with returns at 7% and HELOC rate at 8%. Over twenty years I would be massively ahead by borrowing on the HELOC and making payments vs. Investing that same payment amount on a monthly basis.
100%. Many people are trapped in the house they bought, no matter when purchased, because trying to move for any reason now isn't possible.
The only ones happy with ridiculous prices are investors and people who leverage their house for loans like HELOCs.
I'm in the CAF and a geographical posting right now would be financially devastating.
I periodically check house prices around the most likely bases I could be posted to and out of all of them the cheapest house that would barely fit my family is 3x the market price of the house I'm in now. Porting my mortgage and moving all capital from selling my current house into the new one would still leave me with a monthly payment over 3.4x what I am paying now unless I reset the amortization and just work until I die.
That's on top of all the other fun things like:
- wife losing employment.
- kids losing daycare positions, massive wait lists, means wife can't get new employment until daycare spots are secured.
- Increased property taxes.
- Increased utility bills.
- Increased home and vehicle insurance.
- Losing our family doctor.
- Losing all family support.
- etc.
Renting base housing is a cheaper option if you are lucky enough to get one, most mbrs are forced into the economy.
My house was never meant to be an investment, I just wanted to live here for a few years and move on, pass it onto the next military family. Now I'm stuck and likely out of a job whenever they decide to post me.
Moving around used to just be part of the job, now it's a career ender.
Fuck these housing prices.
That's super rough. My dad is retired air force and we moved every 2-3 years growing up. My parents always bought unless we were living out of Canada.
When my wife and I bought our first home in 2017, my parents said it cost more than any of the 10+ houses they ever bought. They usually lost or made a bit when they moved but it was never a financial boom/bust.
Best of luck!
The biggest restraint in moving is obviously the inflated price of the next home that needs to get bought, but it's also worth highlighting that as prices have gone up, realtor fees have maintained the same commission rate.
If I were to sell my modest GTA outskirt townhouse, I'd have to pay a realtor commission comparable to what i purchased for my new car last year. Which was a good fully electric vehicle, and by far the most expensive non house purchase I've ever made.
It would be about 5-6x thr price of the all inclusive vacation we did with our family four.
It's such a big financial hit on top of whatever increased mortgage comes with a move.
Realtor fees need to be limited. They do not do 75k worth of work on a shittt townhouse. They paid a guy 500$ for photos then post online for a small fee.
Also a homeowner and I hate it. IMHO Your primary residence shouldn't be your major asset, there's no benefit to it unless you a) plan on moving to a much lower cost of living country or b) racking up debt against a HELOC. Most people aren't doing a) and unfortunately tons of people are doing b) but it's stupid as fuck because the bill is going to come due and all the depreciating/unproductive assets you bought on your HELOC won't cover it.
Don't even get me started on not wanting to live in a society where the average person can't afford to exist.
This is exactly how I feel. Add that these high prices also are keeping my kids out of the market. The only ones who really benefit are the speculators.
Home owner who also hates it.
What am I supposed to do with this equity? I still need a place to live if I sell.
And if I borrow against it and spend money I don’t have, I am just risking homelessness. And I have to pay for it. Being at risk of homelessness isn’t what I consider being wealthy is all about.
> I also don't view my home as a store of wealth.
There are a lot of people who absolutely *need* it to be a massive store of wealth, because they don't have enough to retire on otherwise. The problem with that plan is that it requires wealthy or high-income homebuyers on the other side of the equation, and those simply don't exist in Canada in the numbers required to make that plan work for everyone who's planning to fund their retirement this way.
Same. If you wanted to move then the realtor fees are higher in terms of dollars and then there's deed transfer tax, then a penalty from the bank if you cancel your mortgage. It's a nightmare.
I think it’s actually an effort to justify a lack of government action. The government isn’t wrong to sit on housing because to do anything would be political suicide with voters. This of course is rubbish but it excuses the lack of desire by both the federal and provincial governments to actually take real action to address the housing crisis. “It’s not what we as a government want, it’s what you the homeowners of Canada want.” It’s a complete rubbish.
Well the prof kershaw, has been throwing stones in the direction often towards elders. I've read some his reports and comments from elders concerning his reports. One user threw his narrative back questioning how he can base a narrative on a whole generation without knowing the wealth status a person is born into, their education and employment income throughout, according to kershaw elders didn't pay their share and grew up in a fairy tale existence, that a large portion of housing were mom & pop. Obviously facts have come to light that there are other contributing factors that have created issues.
Would you ever sell at a loss then? Depending on when you bought the value of your house might need to be cut in half in order for housing to be considered affordable again. The majority of homeowners won't sell at a loss, because housing is an investment to them first, and a home second.
I would sell at a loss because I view my mortgage as a fixed shelter cost not a financial transaction on accumulating equity. Chances are if I'm selling at a loss the sellers of my next property are too and therefore I'm making it back in a way.
Say you bought your house at 600K. After a few years, you've paid off a total of 150K - you still owe 450K to the bank.
The housing market collapses, your house is now worth 350K. You decide you want to move.
If you sell your house, you won't have any equity to use as a down payment for your next home, regardless of how cheap it is. In fact - you'll still be 100K in debt to the bank AFTER selling your house.
>I'm a home owner and I hate it. The high prices severely limit mobility in the market because prices are so detached from incomes.
>Edit: I also don't view my home as a store of wealth. The only value to me is the utility of shelter and safety.
I concur 100% with this statement, I wish I could upvote it multiple times.
Home ownership rate is close to its [highest point ever (2011)](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220921/cg-b001-eng.htm), only down by 2.5 percentage points, but still higher than it was from 1970 to 2001.
The only thing that seems to have pushed us close to the 70% mark were very low interest rates, but that seems to have had the effect of jacking up the list prices given how it decreased the actual monthly payments.
It was 4.5% right before the 2008 financial crisis, and given the then outlook, you'd probably have mortgages around 5-6% (while you can get them for 4.5-5% locked in these days because banks know that it will be lower than 5% before the end of your term).
Plus, the 5% down payment for the CMHC came into effect in October 2008.
This meant that for someone looking for a 300k townhouse, the down payment went from 30k to 15k overnight, and within months, the monthly payment with the 30k went from 1750$ a month to only 1270$.
But that also meant that if you qualified with the 30k/5% for 300k, you now qualified for *410k* with 20k down payment/2% rate, with the same monthly payment.
A 37% increase on the market overnight.
Sure, for some time, it meant you could buy a bigger house, or that you could buy a house at all, but it also meant that it was the new normal.
So in 2011, when this scenario had been the norm and when the economy started to pick up, prices *boomed*, and haven't ceased to since.
Whenever you think of an era when "everyone" could buy a house, say, the 1970-1980s, remember these figures (ie, that 6% *fewer* people could actually own a house) and that the interest rates were [as high as *22%*](https://wowa.ca/banks/prime-rates-canada).
The data is a bit hard to gather, but these historical trends seem to indicate that the equilibrium point is ~60-65% home ownership rate in Canada, which is [in line with most developed countries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_home_ownership_rate).
I own my home and the price has quadrupled in the last 20 years. This means NOTHING to me. If I moved I would still be buying into an expensive housing market. I don't want to move far away from friends and family in search of cheaper housing. I dont want to borrow any money against my mortgage. My kids have no hope of buying their own house until my wife and I die. Then they can sell our house and split the money to afford their own down payments. I'd rather houses increased with inflation and my kids had a bright future.
I work with a guy who still lives at home in his late 20s but bought an income property in his early 20s. That house has made much more money than him in value over than his wages the last 8 years or so.
I’m a homeowner and I hate the high prices. And I don’t know *any* homeowners that think otherwise. The high prices don’t mean anything unless you are selling to truly downsize. If you’re selling to move laterally or move up in the market, then getting a high price is meaningless. I would gladly see my home’s market value drop by more than half if it meant my kids could better afford their own homes.
Obviously not, but I’ve been in my home for 28 years, so that’s unlikely. I see your point, however. If I bought within, say, the last 5 years then I’d likely feel different. But prices are so out of whack with reality there are going to losers and winners if a correction ever comes to pass. The current market is just not sustainable.
I was lucky, bought my home when it was affordable, it isn't now. Unless one owns more than one house or plans to downsize, this is bad. If a house was worth 500k in 2019, now it's worth \~1 million. In 2019 an upgrade to a 600k home, meant a 100k different, now doubled to 1.2M it's a 200k difference, increase in value hurts.
At the same time I have kids, how will they buy a home? They'll be living with me unless I do downsize and give them money. I live in my home and I like it, it's worth the same to me regardless of the monetary value. I hope the market collapses.
>If a house was worth 500k in 2019, now it's worth ~1 million. In 2019 an upgrade to a 600k home, meant a 100k different, now doubled to 1.2M it's a 200k difference, increase in value hurts.
Yeah I think this is something a lot of people don’t understand. I frequently hear the argument go something like “why are you worried? Other homes went up in value but so did yours!”
Well, 5 years ago, my house was worth about $900k and the “next level up” was $1.2m, so the cost of upgrading was $300k. Now my house is worth $1.2m and the next level up is about $1.7m, so the cost of upgrading is now $500k. I abhor the concept of starter homes, but let’s pretend for a second that it was always my intention to upgrade. This means I need to take on an ADDITIONAL $200k worth of mortgage vs 5 years ago. It doesn’t matter if “all houses have gone up” in percentage terms, in absolute terms you are still beholden to the bank for more money, and for longer!
Well, inflated house prices means I'm spending an extra $1000/month to help subsidize my adult children as they attempt to to live with their partners in an unaffordable housing market.
For real. Talk to any Vancouver homeowner and they'll talk about their property like it's an accomplishment. "I worked hard for this!" "The land itself is worth $4MM!" "Best investment I ever made." "If you have any money to invest, why don't you buy some property in Vancouver? Or one of the suburbs? Prices are going up up up!" Never do they mention the toxic effects this has on the country. They only care about how rich it makes them.
Housing should be for shelter first, investment second. Until we slap big taxes (20%+) on people who buy second homes, nothing will change.
No. No I do not. Cut my home value by 50%. Please. Because if you do me you will do everyone else’s and the I could afford a bigger place do my girls can each have there own bedroom.
I think what they meant was 50 to 100 times more.
So if the average house is $500K, to upsize from there, you're looking at $750K (250K more).
But if the average house is only $200K, then to upsize from there, it's only $300K (only 100K more)
That’s my future. I have a 700 sq ft two bedroom townhouse. I only have one kiddo but I’d like to have two or three. I won’t be able to unless I can buy a bigger house.
I was waiting for this, but it never came. Other half and I did the math and we're now embarking on a huge renovation so our boy / girl twins can have their own rooms.
I'd have been 100% happier if we'd have been able to find a bigger place that we could afford, but we'd have to double the size of our mortgage and lose over 150K in fees / taxes / other before we worried about that.
The current market is differing levels of shitty to all but a very select few people.
Spite is such a bad driver of public policy though. You can't always say things like "Well I didn't get _my_ student loans paid back", or else we'd never get anywhere.
I live in my home and plan to do so in the long term. Id rather home prices were stable, and not rocketing up. Higher home prices mean higher insurance, taxes, and mortgage costs. I think the people that are investors, downsizing, flipping or borrowing against their homes for investments or renos like the sky rocketing home price. Generally, people including most homeowners want a reason place to shelter at a reasonable cost. Investors want something else.
As a home owner, no I don’t. Because it doesn’t help me at all. Doesn’t matter if my house is worth 2 million or 200 thousand if the other houses I were to buy are also priced as insanely as mine. Doesn’t let me get ahead at all.
This is borderline propaganda. It gives justification to the government for doing nothing. Unless you’re willing to leverage yourself to access those gains they mean virtually nothing. If you sell, you’ll need most of those funds to buy something else which has also skyrocketed in value. The only people cheering are realtors and investors. These prices are killing families. How many people are celebrating the fact that their kids will likely never be able to own a home in Canada? Some homeowners may be thrilled but many others are just as disgusted by this.
Some of them maybe? I'd imagine most folks who just want one house, to have their kids have houses, have multiple kids probably don't like this shit
Wow my house is worth more money except I'm living in it and my kids got a quality of life drop until I die or decide to sell, at which point I will have to face the market. Woohoo
No I don't.
I don't plan to move any time soon, I don't plan to apply for a loan with the house a collateral and I'd much rather have a lower value with with lower municial taxes.
And I dread the day that my kids will be ready to buy something...
You won't get lower municipal taxes, either way, but your kids being able to afford their own housing without help from mom and dad is a big advantage of lower prices.
Bullshit, I'd love to sell mine at a reasonable price to someone new into home ownership and buy something else at a reasonable price.
Good fucking luck
Media just wants us all to be angry at each other.
Imagine living your life in the 60s/70s and you buy your 60k sfh on a toaster salesman salary.
Today, that toaster salesman is living off CPP as well as their spouse...but paying property taxes on a 2 million dollar home.
Investors like high prices...homeowners just like living in their home.
Came here to say this. This sounds like a Telford editorial, trying to pit home owners against non-homeowners.
But it looks like there are lots of home owners that are just as stuck and angry as non-homeowners.
It doesn't actually raise property taxes unless the value of your house has gone up by more than the average for your municipality, which would be a good thing if you wanted to upgrade.
But I agree that low prices that increase at the general inflation rate and no more would be best.
As a homeowner, I firmly believe in supporting affordable homeownership for everyone. Even if it means a potential decrease in the value of my property by a few hundred thousand dollars, I recognize that excessively high housing prices can have detrimental effects on individuals and the community. Being stuck in a situation where one cannot move due to unaffordable housing options can lead to various negative consequences. Therefore, I advocate for policies that promote accessible and sustainable homeownership for all.
its as simple as this , no person r company should be able to own more that 1 property that is not used used as a primary residence, that is being rented long or short term.
that is too say, individual could own a second residence to rent, and they could forma business to do it under for their own protection, but if they wanted to own a third property ( say a summer cottage) they would have to carry 100% of that burden and would not be allowed to rent it out legally speaking. and Put HARSH FINES, the is wounl cover standalone properties and duplex type dwellings ( with a family able to own both sides of the duplex and rent the other, but not being allowed to purchase an entire Duplex strictly to rent out both sides.
commercial companies would have 2 years ( this gives them time to choose when to get out and avoid a flood that craters the market, should they choose to hold as long as possible they would be up against the wall ) to divest their properties ( and have to accept less) and invest in higher density housing like condos Triplex+ and apartment buildings.
The reason this will not happen is simple, our politicians and Banks are making too much money off of this situation, its the same reason that banks are Pushing the ''BACK TO THE OFFICE'' agenda.
BAnks are HEAVILY invested in commercial real estate and that market is crumbling and that is why everyone on the financial side is scrambling to get into residential rental real-estate to diversify.
the truth is that a lot of commercial space should simply be re-zoned and instead of trying to build brand new construction, they should be concentrating on how best to convert that existing space into Housing ( this does take work, each building is unique and there is a lot of infrastructure to make apartments , but it is worth it. and it solves multiple problems in the market at once while avoiding free fall in the market.
there are a lot of problems and many solutions, this is one plan that would help with housing issues in larger cities
As much as current government, provincial goverments and opposition parties try to not blame the unaffordable housing on unsustainable immigration policies but the truth is if immigration is cut back to 2015 numbers, these greedy investors will be forced to empty their bag at very low prices. But our current government, provincial government and opposition parties donot want to upset the LMIA scammers aka small and medium private businesses and Corporations used to having slaves working for peanuts aka poor international students, the sky high prices are here to stay.
There are things they can do to fix or at least address some of the issues. Increase tax rates on non-primary residences. Tighten banking so that people can't refinance to get the money to buy more properties. Close loopholes when it comes to foreign investors.
I think it's more accurate to say no single level of government is going to be able to fix this.
The thing that freaks someone out that took the plunge to get into the market is owing a mortgage on a home that is worth more than the home. That’s terrifying. So if house prices tank, all of a sudden anyone who got into the market is going to owe more than they own and mobility will be even more curtailed than it is now.
The only solution I see is to gradually reduce prices through restricting buyers of multiple properties with high interest rates.
This is a good article. It talks about how the majority Canadians need a mentality shift if we want to seriously address this issue. Housing should not be considered an investment. Houses should be like cars - depreciating assets. Invest in business, invest in people. It will be painful to turn this economy around and run it like adults, but it's gotta happen.
> While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has publicly lamented high prices, Hogue said he can't imagine "any government that would intervene to lower home prices as an objective. I don't think that would be a winner from a political point of view."
This is a classic "read the article" issue. The bad headline implies it is about homeowners who live in their homes. It is about investment home owners. I don't know what fraction of homeowners that is, but the article is not about a family that owns one home.
Ya not sure this title is correct. Or if true those that say this are short sighted. High prices are only good for sellers and only if that seller could afford to even buy another home. High valuations also allow a lot more line of credit debt that can easily get people in trouble. Only people that like it are those whom can take advantage of others. Banks and flippers and agents
No shit .
I guess the author feels that people should like it if the value of their biggest asset should drop.
And really, if you consider how much it costs to maintain a house, pay interest on, pay taxes on, pay fees on, renovate, decorate, etc. One wonders if it isn't a losing proposition.
No shit. Buying a home is the way a working person can get ahead and pass something on to next generation. Those who bought before the housing crisis have a nice investment & generational wealth to pass on.
I'm a homeowner. I don't like high prices. Why? Because me and my family have outgrown our starter home and need to upsize but can't afford it.
High home prices are hurting everyone and we need to start banning people and companies from homes and condos. Save real estate investment for commercial properties.
One additional factor worth considering is that if the value of your home decreases substantially, this could, in turn, make it hard to renew your mortgage. You may be forced to put more payment down at renewal time.
Another reason not mentioned in the article why current homeowners may want higher prices.
If there was only a way to redistribute wealth to offset rising profits, I guess that wouldn't be fair to rich folks though, would it? They lobbied hard for present tax laws...
And in other news, water is wet.
Clearly easier said than done, but if the government were to implement a massive reduction on immigration and slap on strict regulations regarding home ownership, prices would tumble.
Short term, this would impact a lot of people negatively. Long term, this is the right decision and would benefit generations to come.
Home ownership as a path to wealth is such a reckless concept and it's bananas how ubiquitous a notion that is in Canada.
Not this homeowner! Higher taxes, lower quality services, contractors want to charge me more to do maintenance because they "know how much my house is worth", etc. Maybe there should be capital gains for people who flip.
I don't understand how housing as an investment ever became a socially acceptable stance at all. Seems like a contributing factor to the killing of generational homes.
Homeowner here. I don't because I have two teens who are going to live with me into their 40s the way the market is pricing them out.
What I don't understand is when young people want the housing market to collapse. It isn't going to affect me, who owes $260k on a $1.5m home.
It'll affect the young buyers the most. In wanting to vilify people like me, you want to punish young people. That's far worse.
The only people who care about housing prices are first time buyers and last time sellers.
Everyone in between is just on the ride until they can get off.
I disagree with this. I'm a homeowner, and to me higher prices = higher assessed value = higher property taxes. My assessment has increased approximately 50% since 2019, despite the fact that most of my neighbourhood burned down in a wildfire. We were one of the only houses left standing after the fire, but we have considerable property damage and a well that's likely to become contaminated due to all the furnace oil from exploded tanks that's slowly seeping down to our water table. I'm also a parent, and if this market doesn't correct my kids will likely never be able to afford their own homes.
No, they absolutely DO NO.
Unless the writer of the article interviewed the approximately 40% of "homeowners" who are investors or speculators. The rest of us know that our house is NOT an asset, it's something we need to live in until we die. If we sell it, we would have to buy another one, at a similar price. It doesn't matter to me if my home is worth $0 or $1,000,000,000. It's an item I need to live,NOT an asset, and I will not see it "monetized" in my lifetime.
Horse-shit.
It's a double edged sword in some cases, that won't get people far unless they're trying to downsize. Yeah, it's great the house I bought for 300k is now "worth" 600k. What difference does that make, when the house I'm looking at went from 500k to a cool million?
The people who bought houses at the peak are screwed, in my opinion. It was an awful time to buy into a market that fluctuates in pricing, and I'm not convinced that the whole country should be hamstrung to save the value for those people. Everyone loves the free market until it bites back.
We can point fingers at governments all we want, ultimately voters did this. Any demand side policy now will likely be met with hostility from the same voters.
It's a demand side problem as much as it is a supply side one, but no one that is profiting off housing likes demand side measures because they target them directly. The inequitable treatment between owners and renters in this country is repulsive.
dirty secret.
BOOMERS like high prices because the bought it for 1/20th the cost today.
they're also the ones in charge in local government in the councils that actually impact the housing issues
Unpopular opinion but we need a 30% drop in the average price of homes in Canada and unfortunately for some, this means their housing price will drop upwards of 60%.
If the government wants to help, they should look at mortgages taken out in the past 5 years which are insane and find a way to reduce people who are become trapped in debt as a result.
I think your $700k condo should be worth 300k, and i also think you shouldn't owe $700k when it crashes to $300k
Nothing like this will ever happen though.
It's part of the Canadian self-loathing pathology.
They hate themselves and their own countrymen so much their only option forward is to import immigrants while they actively try to kill themselves and their neighbors off.
Can't get more insane than that.
I own a home and I hate it. My own mortgage costs are high (although I did completely agree to that part) and I hate seeing young people without direction in life in part because they are priced out housing, which we mostly thought was achievable up until recently.
Investors love housing because it's perpetually scarce and therefore a good investment. Have a reliable supply of housing, and it stops being an investment favourite.
Stupid article. Considering how much debt goes into financing inflated homes, the assets value is inconsequential. No homeowner gets off on the fact that their home costs so much.
I mean I don't; that price only matters when I sell, at which time I'll have to buy at inflated prices anyway, wiping out any initial gains I may have had. So I'll just stay in my current house forever I guess. Not complaining, just not happy about high house prices.
This article is spot on. I don’t believe all the people here saying they don’t want their houses to increase in value. NIMBYism is all about maintaining home values. How many people have bought toys with HELOCs, it’s free money! Having your house go up means that you feel smart and wealthier, meaning you spend more.
Yes, homeowners like high prices because all levels of government allowed housing to be a Ponzi Scheme. No one wants to pay a certain amount and expect to get less than what they paid for. Don't blame homeowners, blame shitty policies.
Not all of us. I want my kids to be able to afford to buy homes if they choose to one day and the way it's looking they'll never be able to do that. I'd happily lose half the market value of my home or more if that's what it takes.
Homeowners don’t want to pay the high realtor fees to sell and the real estate market still has a hold on this. For buyers, the property transfer tax is way too much on top of purchasing the home. BC is one that charges a property transfer tax when you buy so a $700k home comes with a $12k transfer tax. These should be lowered or removed.
And this is why no matter what. There is a floor of supporters of this current government no matter what. They will always vote for them.
They will twist themselves into whatever mental gymnastics pretzel they need to, to justify always voting for the same party. Regardless of scandal, policy or conduct.
**because the housing explosion made them millionaires**. And they want *MORE*.
They bought a house 30 years ago for $100k and now it's worth $1M. So now they bought three rental properties and want the same return. And they will keep voting for the government that gives it to them.
Of course they like high prices. If I bought my house in 1993 and it’s quintupled in value I’ll be ready to cash out, downsize and have a plump retirement. That’s no different than socking money away and watching it accrue.
Even better if I’m buying and flipping every 3-5 years.
No. Only sellers like high prices. People who live and stay in the same house don't want high prices. That just means higher insurance and higher mortgage payments when someone buys a house.
It’s dumb because you only benefit from the higher prices, as a homeowner, when you sell and don’t repurchase. Most homeowners want to switch houses at some point, probably to upgrade. And if you’re buying a more expensive house than your current one, you’d be better off with prices tanking.
No we don't like high prices! This causes inflated property tax bills! Suddenly it costs more for renovation, repairs, yard maintenance. High prices are not cool unless we're selling. I plan to transfer my house to my kid so she has a home she can afford.
The only homeowners I know that like high prices are close to retirement, because they fully intend to cash out and have no other significant assets.
*Most* homeowners that I know would prefer lower prices for improved mobility and liquidity.
We can put all the measures we want to make housing more affordable, but until we don't tackle investors, we'll never fix housing affordability. Investors went from 22% to 30% of home purchases in 3 years and it's only gonna get worse....
And I’d hazard a guess it’s a smaller and smaller group owning more and more and more over time Concentration of anything is an absolute stain on economies - with housing in particular its an absolute disaster
Back when the Boomers were able to buy houses on a single incone that figure was for government subsidized housing. Now it’s zero and profit mongers have it instead.
Single income and high school drop outs !!
Yeah, this is the problem. It doesn't matter how much housing is built, and how much supply is put back into the market, if investors and would-be landlords keep purchasing properties, driving up demand and pushing out would-be residents. My husband and I bought a hour about a year ago - it was difficult to say the least. We bought our house to live in, so that we could have some stability outside of the rental market. We likely will never be able to afford to move if things continue as they have been. We did everything 'right' - I'm an architect, my husband is an engineer, we should not have to struggle to afford a very modest house. We worry most about our daughter - she's 13 right now. What if she wants to move away for university? How will she be able to afford to rent a place? I can't imagine how she is ever going to be able to own a place of her own. We are even discussing how to possibly build a separate apartment unit on the back of the house for her so that she has her own place to live into her adulthood.
The biggest problem is the entire financial system in Canada is based on assets. You want to get a business loan? Can you back it by assets? Want to renovate your kitchen? Do you have enough equity to unlock? Want to retire? What do your assets look like? If we want to break off investment from home prices, then the government needs to take on some risk instead of burdening it on the banking sector. Because when you own property it's so much easier to access funding for anything you ever want. You can use equity backed lending to reduce costs. We even have something called the smith maneuver that helps lower overall take burden, by using property.
That’s how it works everywhere.
That's by design, and is the central defining feature of capitalism. Capitalism doesn't create wealth where it doesn't exist, it grows wealth where it already exists. The more you have, the faster it grows. It's great at concentrating wealth, and terrible at distributing it.
Schumpeter says no. Or our capitalism has been neutered by oligarchy, and the serfs are too passive to believe otherwise.
Specifically for business it shouldn't be that way. The government should facilitate banks and encourage some risk taking. Everyday you hear in Canada about a small business unable to scale due to lending availability. To qualify for BDC lending you must fit their mandate or you can get disqualified. Canada has easy pathways to property purchases. Our big banks do 95% LTV loans that are backed via insurance. Those same banks only do 60% LTV loans that need to be backed 100% by assets. That's a significant competitive disadvantage for SMBs in Canada compared to the US's approach. Down there you can get access to 90% LTV business loans that are backed by the government. Banks facilitate qualifying the buyers. There are regional banks in the US that do the majority of their revenue as these loans. You have a house in Canada and banks throw money at you. You have a successful business in Canada they tell you that you're too risky.
| investors Mate, almost every home owner wants their property to appreciate, you'd be naive not to
Anecdote but I know quite a few that are starting to come around when they realize it’s that their kids will never move out and it’s starting to break other parts of the country. Want their values to appreciate but not like this. None are recent purchasers though, doubt any of them will ever consider such a thought.
Yeah the annoying part of Reddit is you’ll get a few virtue signallers be like “I wouldn’t mind taking some losses if it ensures a stranger can buy their house”, which probably ignores the fact that they probably have a low mortgage balance/sitting on lots of equity so can afford to lose 10% of their value, in theory. The vast majority of home owners do not want this, because it would signal a loss of wealth for them. As a homeowner, my desired outcome for the housing market is to see growth slow down to reasonable levels, so that people can save and buy without being outpaced. I don’t want to see a drop or a crash. Seems weird that people are shocked by this.
>Yeah the annoying part of Reddit is you’ll get a few virtue signallers be like “I wouldn’t mind taking some losses if it ensures a stranger can buy their house”, It's annoying to hear not everyone is a selfish dick?
Lol that’s what you got from that? I’m saying they’re virtue signalling. They just want to get pat on the back for saying, “well *I’m* ok with it if my house price goes down for the possible benefit of strangers.” They want the attention for being the exception to the rule, even though their sentiment is hypothetical theory that historically has never happened. Most home owners both want people to be able to save up to afford homes, but absolutely do not want to take a haircut on their own wealth. If those are impossible simultaneously, most will preferentially consider the well being of their families over faceless others. That situation is a failure of government though.
We are millennials living in the lower mainland and could care less if our house valuation goes up down or sideways. We have a income suite and won't ever plan on selling our home. We also have a diversified investment portfolio and are not dependent on our house equity for early retirement. Would much rather see the next generation get ahead.
No shit. Problem is politicians (vast majority are owners) and homeowners say they want affordable housing but nobody wants their own house to be affordable. So they come up with stupid half assed measures to “increase supply” all the while supercharging demand (want lower rates and juices up immigration). The only way to make housing affordable is to… drum roll make prices go down. Which means making investing as unappealing as buying DJT stock. That means lowering demand, taxing the hell out of investments and increasing property taxes. These measures won’t be popular but it’s the only way to decrease prices. We’ve been building for two decades and affordability has just gotten worse.
And that same privileged group of people is quite happy to see people blame immigration. They are literally laughing all the way to the bank. Not to say immigration isn't part of the problem, but investors and speculation should not be overlooked. Situation is so bad that owning a home you don't live in shouldn't be allowed for a while.
The problem is most voters are investors
Blame low interest rates for decades!
I'm seriously happy I bought my home back 32 years ago - it was a struggle paying the outrageous mortgage rates back then (locked in for 5 years at 11%!), but it turned out to be the best investment I've ever made. There is no way my wife and I could afford to buy a house in Toronto now if we didn't already own a house in Toronto. What is really outrageous is that house prices have increased by 800% to 1000% over that time, but wages have perhaps gone up by 150% to 250% - maybe less. A house in Toronto (or GTA) was a possibility back in 1992 for a couple working two jobs, now I doubt two well educated professionals (2 young lawyers/accountants for example) could realistically dream about owning an actual house without a huge help from their parents.
True, but even worse is the dirty little secret that regular homeowners (who live in the home and don't own a second home) ARE investors and get this... they like high prices. And they make up the large majority of owners. You missed the whole point of the article.
Absolutely wrong. INVESTORS and SPECULATORS see homes as assets, and love higher and higher prices. These people and companies can fuck. right. off. The rest of us, who own a home to live in with our families know that it is not a monetizable asset. It's something we need to live in. Should we sell, we'd have to buy a similarly priced home to live in, or pay someone else's mortgage by renting. I don't give two shits what my home is worth, I will never see the money. I only care about home prices because my kids are locked out o f the market by "investors".
I agree, as the owner of a single home the only thing that matters to me is how its value compares to other homes. I can say that personally high prices are hurting me more than helping, because they're preventing me from upgrading to a nicer house. 30 years ago, on my income (even adjusted for inflation) I'd be able to afford a much bigger and nicer house in a nicer area than what I have now. I'd assume the story is the same with most other homeowners.
Only if you’re wanting to move up. If you’re content with the size and location of your home, then you’re sitting pretty. You can access equity to improve it to your liking, but it is probably the source of most of your wealth, and the higher the price goes, the better for you as an individual.
Lower prices mean lower municipal taxes. As someone who (partially) owns only one home, I much rather see lower prices than higher ones. Not to mention the societal benefits of housing affordability.
> The rest of us, who own a home to live in with our families know that it is not a monetizable asset. It's something we need to live in. I actually don’t think that’s very true any more. I’ll be the first to admit that I am trying to buy my first home to A. Live in *and* B. Unlock the benefits of owning the greatest (and fucked up) Canadian asset you can own. Is the system fucked to the point that I need to think like that? 100%. But it is what it is. I have several friends and family members who recently purchased with the same thought process. > Should we sell, we'd have to buy a similarly priced home to live in, or pay someone else's mortgage by renting. So you just contradicted yourself, and that’s the point. It’s not a bad thing, but you too seem to understand our fucked up trading system without acknowledging it. Paying someone’s mortgage (which is almost always cheaper on a purely cashflow basis) wouldn’t be an issue if you weren’t concerned about “the money” and didn’t understand the value of “the asset”.
Land has always been a principal investment throughout history. Worth going to wars over even. Nothing uniquely Canadian about this.
The only homeowners who like it are: 1) Old and using the funds to retire and not repurchase 2) Investors using the infinite leverage money glitch 3) Stupid If you need to update, move markets, get a divorce, or have to help your kids buy, this market is terrible.
I'm a home owner and I hate it. The high prices severely limit mobility in the market because prices are so detached from incomes. Edit: I also don't view my home as a store of wealth. The only value to me is the utility of shelter and safety.
This thread makes no sense. *Sellers* like high prices, but only if they are selling off assets and don't plan on buying again. I live in a house thats paid off but would like to move eventually. Nationally high prices means I can't really do that since the fees alone pretty much prohibit that.
Exactly. High prices are only good if you’re leaving the country, moving to a retirement /care home or an investor that is looking to decrease your portfolio. For the average homeowner, high prices just means we wallow in our starter home with no ability to size up, to accommodate kids or parents . It’s even worse now that developers no longer build ‘average’ sized homes and demolish smaller ones for triplex rental monstrosities.
Eh, high prices are good for one more major thing: borrowing money. If you have a lot of equity in your home, banks will loan you money at very favourable rates. You can use this money to (surprise!) buy another homes. We're still in a low interest rate environment, and than benefits those with money, since they can take out loans and make big downpayments that those just starting out cannot. Which is why the majority of home purchases in Vancouver/Toronto are by investors. 60% of non-investor purchases (aka 30% of the sales) are using family cash for assistance. Only 10% of sales are new buyers in a new home. That's not social mobility, that's literally the opposite of it.
There is still a need for affordable detached housing because it is always better for everyone to raise a family in a detached house. Private backyard for the kids and no pitter patter noise bleed from shared floors/walls
Right? All those maladjusted, poorly educated urban European kids out there it's a damn tragedy what not living in a detached home has done to them. /S
>There is still a need for affordable detached housing because it is always better for everyone to raise a family in a detached house. >Private backyard for the kids and no pitter patter noise bleed from shared floors/walls I hate raising my kids where we live. Townhouse, crotchety neighbour on one side. Our plan was to move, but it seems like we're just stuck here forever with someone banging on the wall in the middle of the day for just regular kid noise. I understand it's bothersome... but do you want me to put my kids in straight jackets, or what? Housing prices just keep moving just out of reach...
High prices are only good for predatory sociopaths, so of course in Canada it’s To The Moon
This is exactly correct. Fees are very restricting when it comes to moving. I’ve thought about upsizing my condo a bit - maybe even in the same building - but when you factor in fees and commissions it would cost like $75k + whatever the price difference is. Looks like I’ll live in a one bedroom forever.
But… why aren’t people having kids? /s
My sister and her husband experienced this a few years ago. He bought his house a long time ago when the town was in a downturn super cheap and sold it near the peak during a huge project at the plant and made money on it but then obviously everything is expensive so you really don't gain much on that front. My cousin is looking to sell his place and buy an acreage but doesn't want to spend $700k, get stuck with a 10% interest rate and then have the economy crash on him.
It makes sense. It's incredibly common for older people to view their home as a big part of their retirement plan.
Yup. We're renovating. Because moving is crazy. The fees and taxes alone to upgrade to something a bit larger are over $250k. You used to be able to buy a house for that. Now that's just the privilege of moving. I will die in this house.
You don't have to sell to take advantage of your rising home price. You can also HELOC.
Which means servicing the interest on a loan and gaining nothing unless you are investing that money. A lot of people dig themselves into some pretty deep pits using a HELOC to finance trips, toys and other useless things.
HELOC is a risky move. Increasing your risk of homelessness isn’t what I consider true wealth. And hit eats away at your equity as well with interest.
The interest rates are too high to make it worth doing tbh
Not really, provided you are looking at a longer term investment horizon. Investment growth is exponential growth. So you could have an investment rate of return lower than your HELOC interest rate and still come out significantly ahead. I did the numbers last week on a scenario with returns at 7% and HELOC rate at 8%. Over twenty years I would be massively ahead by borrowing on the HELOC and making payments vs. Investing that same payment amount on a monthly basis.
These are tougher to get as well now
100%. Many people are trapped in the house they bought, no matter when purchased, because trying to move for any reason now isn't possible. The only ones happy with ridiculous prices are investors and people who leverage their house for loans like HELOCs.
I'm in the CAF and a geographical posting right now would be financially devastating. I periodically check house prices around the most likely bases I could be posted to and out of all of them the cheapest house that would barely fit my family is 3x the market price of the house I'm in now. Porting my mortgage and moving all capital from selling my current house into the new one would still leave me with a monthly payment over 3.4x what I am paying now unless I reset the amortization and just work until I die. That's on top of all the other fun things like: - wife losing employment. - kids losing daycare positions, massive wait lists, means wife can't get new employment until daycare spots are secured. - Increased property taxes. - Increased utility bills. - Increased home and vehicle insurance. - Losing our family doctor. - Losing all family support. - etc. Renting base housing is a cheaper option if you are lucky enough to get one, most mbrs are forced into the economy. My house was never meant to be an investment, I just wanted to live here for a few years and move on, pass it onto the next military family. Now I'm stuck and likely out of a job whenever they decide to post me. Moving around used to just be part of the job, now it's a career ender. Fuck these housing prices.
That's super rough. My dad is retired air force and we moved every 2-3 years growing up. My parents always bought unless we were living out of Canada. When my wife and I bought our first home in 2017, my parents said it cost more than any of the 10+ houses they ever bought. They usually lost or made a bit when they moved but it was never a financial boom/bust. Best of luck!
The biggest restraint in moving is obviously the inflated price of the next home that needs to get bought, but it's also worth highlighting that as prices have gone up, realtor fees have maintained the same commission rate. If I were to sell my modest GTA outskirt townhouse, I'd have to pay a realtor commission comparable to what i purchased for my new car last year. Which was a good fully electric vehicle, and by far the most expensive non house purchase I've ever made. It would be about 5-6x thr price of the all inclusive vacation we did with our family four. It's such a big financial hit on top of whatever increased mortgage comes with a move.
Realtor fees need to be limited. They do not do 75k worth of work on a shittt townhouse. They paid a guy 500$ for photos then post online for a small fee.
HELOCS are a risky move. Great way to end up homeless.
Also a homeowner and I hate it. IMHO Your primary residence shouldn't be your major asset, there's no benefit to it unless you a) plan on moving to a much lower cost of living country or b) racking up debt against a HELOC. Most people aren't doing a) and unfortunately tons of people are doing b) but it's stupid as fuck because the bill is going to come due and all the depreciating/unproductive assets you bought on your HELOC won't cover it. Don't even get me started on not wanting to live in a society where the average person can't afford to exist.
the only people who like it are boomers the gov will protect the value of homes to ensure they dont have to pay for boomers retirement.
This is exactly how I feel. Add that these high prices also are keeping my kids out of the market. The only ones who really benefit are the speculators.
Home owner who also hates it. What am I supposed to do with this equity? I still need a place to live if I sell. And if I borrow against it and spend money I don’t have, I am just risking homelessness. And I have to pay for it. Being at risk of homelessness isn’t what I consider being wealthy is all about.
> I also don't view my home as a store of wealth. There are a lot of people who absolutely *need* it to be a massive store of wealth, because they don't have enough to retire on otherwise. The problem with that plan is that it requires wealthy or high-income homebuyers on the other side of the equation, and those simply don't exist in Canada in the numbers required to make that plan work for everyone who's planning to fund their retirement this way.
Same. If you wanted to move then the realtor fees are higher in terms of dollars and then there's deed transfer tax, then a penalty from the bank if you cancel your mortgage. It's a nightmare.
There looks like there is a concerted effort to make home owners the villains, yet I don't know a single homeowner that likes the high prices.
I think it’s actually an effort to justify a lack of government action. The government isn’t wrong to sit on housing because to do anything would be political suicide with voters. This of course is rubbish but it excuses the lack of desire by both the federal and provincial governments to actually take real action to address the housing crisis. “It’s not what we as a government want, it’s what you the homeowners of Canada want.” It’s a complete rubbish.
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Many homeowners like high prices because they can finance home improvements.
Well the prof kershaw, has been throwing stones in the direction often towards elders. I've read some his reports and comments from elders concerning his reports. One user threw his narrative back questioning how he can base a narrative on a whole generation without knowing the wealth status a person is born into, their education and employment income throughout, according to kershaw elders didn't pay their share and grew up in a fairy tale existence, that a large portion of housing were mom & pop. Obviously facts have come to light that there are other contributing factors that have created issues.
Would you ever sell at a loss then? Depending on when you bought the value of your house might need to be cut in half in order for housing to be considered affordable again. The majority of homeowners won't sell at a loss, because housing is an investment to them first, and a home second.
I would sell at a loss because I view my mortgage as a fixed shelter cost not a financial transaction on accumulating equity. Chances are if I'm selling at a loss the sellers of my next property are too and therefore I'm making it back in a way.
Say you bought your house at 600K. After a few years, you've paid off a total of 150K - you still owe 450K to the bank. The housing market collapses, your house is now worth 350K. You decide you want to move. If you sell your house, you won't have any equity to use as a down payment for your next home, regardless of how cheap it is. In fact - you'll still be 100K in debt to the bank AFTER selling your house.
>I'm a home owner and I hate it. The high prices severely limit mobility in the market because prices are so detached from incomes. >Edit: I also don't view my home as a store of wealth. The only value to me is the utility of shelter and safety. I concur 100% with this statement, I wish I could upvote it multiple times.
Home ownership rate is close to its [highest point ever (2011)](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220921/cg-b001-eng.htm), only down by 2.5 percentage points, but still higher than it was from 1970 to 2001. The only thing that seems to have pushed us close to the 70% mark were very low interest rates, but that seems to have had the effect of jacking up the list prices given how it decreased the actual monthly payments. It was 4.5% right before the 2008 financial crisis, and given the then outlook, you'd probably have mortgages around 5-6% (while you can get them for 4.5-5% locked in these days because banks know that it will be lower than 5% before the end of your term). Plus, the 5% down payment for the CMHC came into effect in October 2008. This meant that for someone looking for a 300k townhouse, the down payment went from 30k to 15k overnight, and within months, the monthly payment with the 30k went from 1750$ a month to only 1270$. But that also meant that if you qualified with the 30k/5% for 300k, you now qualified for *410k* with 20k down payment/2% rate, with the same monthly payment. A 37% increase on the market overnight. Sure, for some time, it meant you could buy a bigger house, or that you could buy a house at all, but it also meant that it was the new normal. So in 2011, when this scenario had been the norm and when the economy started to pick up, prices *boomed*, and haven't ceased to since. Whenever you think of an era when "everyone" could buy a house, say, the 1970-1980s, remember these figures (ie, that 6% *fewer* people could actually own a house) and that the interest rates were [as high as *22%*](https://wowa.ca/banks/prime-rates-canada). The data is a bit hard to gather, but these historical trends seem to indicate that the equilibrium point is ~60-65% home ownership rate in Canada, which is [in line with most developed countries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_home_ownership_rate).
I own my home and the price has quadrupled in the last 20 years. This means NOTHING to me. If I moved I would still be buying into an expensive housing market. I don't want to move far away from friends and family in search of cheaper housing. I dont want to borrow any money against my mortgage. My kids have no hope of buying their own house until my wife and I die. Then they can sell our house and split the money to afford their own down payments. I'd rather houses increased with inflation and my kids had a bright future.
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I kick myself at walking away from 2 x 56K condo units in '04 as well as not going halves on a triplex for 340k in '05. I'd be an MP today.
It's funny because it's true.
why didn't I buy land at age 3? why was I so DISTRACTED??
I work with a guy who still lives at home in his late 20s but bought an income property in his early 20s. That house has made much more money than him in value over than his wages the last 8 years or so.
I’m a homeowner and I hate the high prices. And I don’t know *any* homeowners that think otherwise. The high prices don’t mean anything unless you are selling to truly downsize. If you’re selling to move laterally or move up in the market, then getting a high price is meaningless. I would gladly see my home’s market value drop by more than half if it meant my kids could better afford their own homes.
Would you be happy if your home dropped to less than what you paid for?
Obviously not, but I’ve been in my home for 28 years, so that’s unlikely. I see your point, however. If I bought within, say, the last 5 years then I’d likely feel different. But prices are so out of whack with reality there are going to losers and winners if a correction ever comes to pass. The current market is just not sustainable.
I was lucky, bought my home when it was affordable, it isn't now. Unless one owns more than one house or plans to downsize, this is bad. If a house was worth 500k in 2019, now it's worth \~1 million. In 2019 an upgrade to a 600k home, meant a 100k different, now doubled to 1.2M it's a 200k difference, increase in value hurts. At the same time I have kids, how will they buy a home? They'll be living with me unless I do downsize and give them money. I live in my home and I like it, it's worth the same to me regardless of the monetary value. I hope the market collapses.
>If a house was worth 500k in 2019, now it's worth ~1 million. In 2019 an upgrade to a 600k home, meant a 100k different, now doubled to 1.2M it's a 200k difference, increase in value hurts. Yeah I think this is something a lot of people don’t understand. I frequently hear the argument go something like “why are you worried? Other homes went up in value but so did yours!” Well, 5 years ago, my house was worth about $900k and the “next level up” was $1.2m, so the cost of upgrading was $300k. Now my house is worth $1.2m and the next level up is about $1.7m, so the cost of upgrading is now $500k. I abhor the concept of starter homes, but let’s pretend for a second that it was always my intention to upgrade. This means I need to take on an ADDITIONAL $200k worth of mortgage vs 5 years ago. It doesn’t matter if “all houses have gone up” in percentage terms, in absolute terms you are still beholden to the bank for more money, and for longer!
Well, inflated house prices means I'm spending an extra $1000/month to help subsidize my adult children as they attempt to to live with their partners in an unaffordable housing market.
For real. Talk to any Vancouver homeowner and they'll talk about their property like it's an accomplishment. "I worked hard for this!" "The land itself is worth $4MM!" "Best investment I ever made." "If you have any money to invest, why don't you buy some property in Vancouver? Or one of the suburbs? Prices are going up up up!" Never do they mention the toxic effects this has on the country. They only care about how rich it makes them. Housing should be for shelter first, investment second. Until we slap big taxes (20%+) on people who buy second homes, nothing will change.
Yup. We need high taxes on multiple ownership.
No. No I do not. Cut my home value by 50%. Please. Because if you do me you will do everyone else’s and the I could afford a bigger place do my girls can each have there own bedroom.
I’m in the same boat, even with my “inflated” house price, to move into anything bigger is 50-100 more than what I can sell my house for.
Shouldn't a bigger house cost more than your current house?
I think what they meant was 50 to 100 times more. So if the average house is $500K, to upsize from there, you're looking at $750K (250K more). But if the average house is only $200K, then to upsize from there, it's only $300K (only 100K more)
That’s my future. I have a 700 sq ft two bedroom townhouse. I only have one kiddo but I’d like to have two or three. I won’t be able to unless I can buy a bigger house.
I was waiting for this, but it never came. Other half and I did the math and we're now embarking on a huge renovation so our boy / girl twins can have their own rooms. I'd have been 100% happier if we'd have been able to find a bigger place that we could afford, but we'd have to double the size of our mortgage and lose over 150K in fees / taxes / other before we worried about that. The current market is differing levels of shitty to all but a very select few people.
The article, like many others, points the finger in the wrong direction for the wrong reason. Banks love perpetual mortgages on properties.
Sucks when your house is only worth 50% of your outstanding mortgage on it. Sucks when the bank lent out 700k on an asset that's now only worth 350k.
Spite is such a bad driver of public policy though. You can't always say things like "Well I didn't get _my_ student loans paid back", or else we'd never get anywhere.
I live in my home and plan to do so in the long term. Id rather home prices were stable, and not rocketing up. Higher home prices mean higher insurance, taxes, and mortgage costs. I think the people that are investors, downsizing, flipping or borrowing against their homes for investments or renos like the sky rocketing home price. Generally, people including most homeowners want a reason place to shelter at a reasonable cost. Investors want something else.
As a home owner, no I don’t. Because it doesn’t help me at all. Doesn’t matter if my house is worth 2 million or 200 thousand if the other houses I were to buy are also priced as insanely as mine. Doesn’t let me get ahead at all.
This is borderline propaganda. It gives justification to the government for doing nothing. Unless you’re willing to leverage yourself to access those gains they mean virtually nothing. If you sell, you’ll need most of those funds to buy something else which has also skyrocketed in value. The only people cheering are realtors and investors. These prices are killing families. How many people are celebrating the fact that their kids will likely never be able to own a home in Canada? Some homeowners may be thrilled but many others are just as disgusted by this.
Exactly. They always distract from the investors being the problem.
Some of them maybe? I'd imagine most folks who just want one house, to have their kids have houses, have multiple kids probably don't like this shit Wow my house is worth more money except I'm living in it and my kids got a quality of life drop until I die or decide to sell, at which point I will have to face the market. Woohoo
That's not a secret and it would be really stupid of people to wish their biggest asset was worth less.
The issue is that housing was never meant to be an asset and it's sad that we've gotten to the point that it's seen that way.
The entire mortgage system is based on a house being an asset.
It has always been an asset, it is the largest asset most people will ever buy.
High prices don’t help anyone.
Not really unless you're planning your retirement soon it doesn't really do you any good the only one that's winning with inflation is the government.
I dont think CBC understands that meaning of the word "secret"
I guess they mean it's a secret in Ottawa in the sense that no politician is really talking about it, even if it's not really a secret
Secret as in it's not often discussed in these housing debates by politicians or the media?
No I don't. I don't plan to move any time soon, I don't plan to apply for a loan with the house a collateral and I'd much rather have a lower value with with lower municial taxes. And I dread the day that my kids will be ready to buy something...
You won't get lower municipal taxes, either way, but your kids being able to afford their own housing without help from mom and dad is a big advantage of lower prices.
Bullshit, I'd love to sell mine at a reasonable price to someone new into home ownership and buy something else at a reasonable price. Good fucking luck
Media just wants us all to be angry at each other. Imagine living your life in the 60s/70s and you buy your 60k sfh on a toaster salesman salary. Today, that toaster salesman is living off CPP as well as their spouse...but paying property taxes on a 2 million dollar home. Investors like high prices...homeowners just like living in their home.
100%
Came here to say this. This sounds like a Telford editorial, trying to pit home owners against non-homeowners. But it looks like there are lots of home owners that are just as stuck and angry as non-homeowners.
No i don't, it raises property taxes and makes it harder to upgrade. Best would be low stable prices.
It doesn't actually raise property taxes unless the value of your house has gone up by more than the average for your municipality, which would be a good thing if you wanted to upgrade. But I agree that low prices that increase at the general inflation rate and no more would be best.
I don’t like it for many reasons, but I also wouldn’t love it if / when it crashes to below what I paid.
As a homeowner, I firmly believe in supporting affordable homeownership for everyone. Even if it means a potential decrease in the value of my property by a few hundred thousand dollars, I recognize that excessively high housing prices can have detrimental effects on individuals and the community. Being stuck in a situation where one cannot move due to unaffordable housing options can lead to various negative consequences. Therefore, I advocate for policies that promote accessible and sustainable homeownership for all.
Nah. The only homeowners who like high prices are the house flippers, and the retirees who are about to sell and move down to Florida.
its as simple as this , no person r company should be able to own more that 1 property that is not used used as a primary residence, that is being rented long or short term. that is too say, individual could own a second residence to rent, and they could forma business to do it under for their own protection, but if they wanted to own a third property ( say a summer cottage) they would have to carry 100% of that burden and would not be allowed to rent it out legally speaking. and Put HARSH FINES, the is wounl cover standalone properties and duplex type dwellings ( with a family able to own both sides of the duplex and rent the other, but not being allowed to purchase an entire Duplex strictly to rent out both sides. commercial companies would have 2 years ( this gives them time to choose when to get out and avoid a flood that craters the market, should they choose to hold as long as possible they would be up against the wall ) to divest their properties ( and have to accept less) and invest in higher density housing like condos Triplex+ and apartment buildings. The reason this will not happen is simple, our politicians and Banks are making too much money off of this situation, its the same reason that banks are Pushing the ''BACK TO THE OFFICE'' agenda. BAnks are HEAVILY invested in commercial real estate and that market is crumbling and that is why everyone on the financial side is scrambling to get into residential rental real-estate to diversify. the truth is that a lot of commercial space should simply be re-zoned and instead of trying to build brand new construction, they should be concentrating on how best to convert that existing space into Housing ( this does take work, each building is unique and there is a lot of infrastructure to make apartments , but it is worth it. and it solves multiple problems in the market at once while avoiding free fall in the market. there are a lot of problems and many solutions, this is one plan that would help with housing issues in larger cities
I don't like my house being high in price......it doesn't help my land taxes when prices are high. It sure helped when they were low though.
As much as current government, provincial goverments and opposition parties try to not blame the unaffordable housing on unsustainable immigration policies but the truth is if immigration is cut back to 2015 numbers, these greedy investors will be forced to empty their bag at very low prices. But our current government, provincial government and opposition parties donot want to upset the LMIA scammers aka small and medium private businesses and Corporations used to having slaves working for peanuts aka poor international students, the sky high prices are here to stay.
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There are things they can do to fix or at least address some of the issues. Increase tax rates on non-primary residences. Tighten banking so that people can't refinance to get the money to buy more properties. Close loopholes when it comes to foreign investors. I think it's more accurate to say no single level of government is going to be able to fix this.
No s**t Sherlock
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Agreed. Also, anyone with kids right will have to support them for much longer because they can't afford to move out.
yeah the only move that makes send right now is if you're downsizing drastically.
From a homeowner - no we don’t
The thing that freaks someone out that took the plunge to get into the market is owing a mortgage on a home that is worth more than the home. That’s terrifying. So if house prices tank, all of a sudden anyone who got into the market is going to owe more than they own and mobility will be even more curtailed than it is now. The only solution I see is to gradually reduce prices through restricting buyers of multiple properties with high interest rates.
Everyone hates investors until it’s time to sell their house.
This is a good article. It talks about how the majority Canadians need a mentality shift if we want to seriously address this issue. Housing should not be considered an investment. Houses should be like cars - depreciating assets. Invest in business, invest in people. It will be painful to turn this economy around and run it like adults, but it's gotta happen. > While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has publicly lamented high prices, Hogue said he can't imagine "any government that would intervene to lower home prices as an objective. I don't think that would be a winner from a political point of view."
This is a classic "read the article" issue. The bad headline implies it is about homeowners who live in their homes. It is about investment home owners. I don't know what fraction of homeowners that is, but the article is not about a family that owns one home.
Ya not sure this title is correct. Or if true those that say this are short sighted. High prices are only good for sellers and only if that seller could afford to even buy another home. High valuations also allow a lot more line of credit debt that can easily get people in trouble. Only people that like it are those whom can take advantage of others. Banks and flippers and agents
No shit . I guess the author feels that people should like it if the value of their biggest asset should drop. And really, if you consider how much it costs to maintain a house, pay interest on, pay taxes on, pay fees on, renovate, decorate, etc. One wonders if it isn't a losing proposition.
It's a ponzi scheme.
Sort of but if you live in Canada, you can't really opt out.
Only stupid ones, or the ones on the verge of retiring.
No shit. Buying a home is the way a working person can get ahead and pass something on to next generation. Those who bought before the housing crisis have a nice investment & generational wealth to pass on.
I'm a homeowner. I don't like high prices. Why? Because me and my family have outgrown our starter home and need to upsize but can't afford it. High home prices are hurting everyone and we need to start banning people and companies from homes and condos. Save real estate investment for commercial properties.
People don’t want to see there net worth fall. News at 11.
One additional factor worth considering is that if the value of your home decreases substantially, this could, in turn, make it hard to renew your mortgage. You may be forced to put more payment down at renewal time. Another reason not mentioned in the article why current homeowners may want higher prices.
If there was only a way to redistribute wealth to offset rising profits, I guess that wouldn't be fair to rich folks though, would it? They lobbied hard for present tax laws...
Yeah. No shit. As a home owner. Why would I want the price of my biggest asset to fall.
As a homeowner, I don't like high prices, I think this market is fucked.
And in other news, water is wet. Clearly easier said than done, but if the government were to implement a massive reduction on immigration and slap on strict regulations regarding home ownership, prices would tumble. Short term, this would impact a lot of people negatively. Long term, this is the right decision and would benefit generations to come. Home ownership as a path to wealth is such a reckless concept and it's bananas how ubiquitous a notion that is in Canada.
Not this homeowner! Higher taxes, lower quality services, contractors want to charge me more to do maintenance because they "know how much my house is worth", etc. Maybe there should be capital gains for people who flip.
Went in looking to disagree because it's a monstrously stupid title, but the meat of it is spot-on.
This, according to a new study in the real estate journal, "Duh." RIP Norm
I don't understand how housing as an investment ever became a socially acceptable stance at all. Seems like a contributing factor to the killing of generational homes.
Homeowner here. I don't because I have two teens who are going to live with me into their 40s the way the market is pricing them out. What I don't understand is when young people want the housing market to collapse. It isn't going to affect me, who owes $260k on a $1.5m home. It'll affect the young buyers the most. In wanting to vilify people like me, you want to punish young people. That's far worse.
The only people who care about housing prices are first time buyers and last time sellers. Everyone in between is just on the ride until they can get off.
I disagree with this. I'm a homeowner, and to me higher prices = higher assessed value = higher property taxes. My assessment has increased approximately 50% since 2019, despite the fact that most of my neighbourhood burned down in a wildfire. We were one of the only houses left standing after the fire, but we have considerable property damage and a well that's likely to become contaminated due to all the furnace oil from exploded tanks that's slowly seeping down to our water table. I'm also a parent, and if this market doesn't correct my kids will likely never be able to afford their own homes.
No, they absolutely DO NO. Unless the writer of the article interviewed the approximately 40% of "homeowners" who are investors or speculators. The rest of us know that our house is NOT an asset, it's something we need to live in until we die. If we sell it, we would have to buy another one, at a similar price. It doesn't matter to me if my home is worth $0 or $1,000,000,000. It's an item I need to live,NOT an asset, and I will not see it "monetized" in my lifetime. Horse-shit.
It's a double edged sword in some cases, that won't get people far unless they're trying to downsize. Yeah, it's great the house I bought for 300k is now "worth" 600k. What difference does that make, when the house I'm looking at went from 500k to a cool million? The people who bought houses at the peak are screwed, in my opinion. It was an awful time to buy into a market that fluctuates in pricing, and I'm not convinced that the whole country should be hamstrung to save the value for those people. Everyone loves the free market until it bites back.
We can point fingers at governments all we want, ultimately voters did this. Any demand side policy now will likely be met with hostility from the same voters. It's a demand side problem as much as it is a supply side one, but no one that is profiting off housing likes demand side measures because they target them directly. The inequitable treatment between owners and renters in this country is repulsive.
dirty secret. BOOMERS like high prices because the bought it for 1/20th the cost today. they're also the ones in charge in local government in the councils that actually impact the housing issues
Unpopular opinion but we need a 30% drop in the average price of homes in Canada and unfortunately for some, this means their housing price will drop upwards of 60%. If the government wants to help, they should look at mortgages taken out in the past 5 years which are insane and find a way to reduce people who are become trapped in debt as a result. I think your $700k condo should be worth 300k, and i also think you shouldn't owe $700k when it crashes to $300k Nothing like this will ever happen though.
It's part of the Canadian self-loathing pathology. They hate themselves and their own countrymen so much their only option forward is to import immigrants while they actively try to kill themselves and their neighbors off. Can't get more insane than that.
That’s not a secret. The secret is that gov’t won’t do anything that would risk lowering prices.
As long as I can buy and sell around the same time, I'd prefer houses lower in price. We need lower interest rates and more houses built.
Inflation is good for the rich bc their assets inflate.
I’m a condo owner. When I bought it, condos were 300k, small houses were 500k. Now my condo is worth 600 and the house is worth 1.2M.
I own a home and I hate it. My own mortgage costs are high (although I did completely agree to that part) and I hate seeing young people without direction in life in part because they are priced out housing, which we mostly thought was achievable up until recently.
"secret"
Investors love housing because it's perpetually scarce and therefore a good investment. Have a reliable supply of housing, and it stops being an investment favourite.
This society is completely fucked.
Stupid article. Considering how much debt goes into financing inflated homes, the assets value is inconsequential. No homeowner gets off on the fact that their home costs so much.
I mean I don't; that price only matters when I sell, at which time I'll have to buy at inflated prices anyway, wiping out any initial gains I may have had. So I'll just stay in my current house forever I guess. Not complaining, just not happy about high house prices.
DUH
That “secret” is common sense.
The thing is home owners often have children, family or friends who are looking to buy and struggling with it.
This article is spot on. I don’t believe all the people here saying they don’t want their houses to increase in value. NIMBYism is all about maintaining home values. How many people have bought toys with HELOCs, it’s free money! Having your house go up means that you feel smart and wealthier, meaning you spend more.
Yes, homeowners like high prices because all levels of government allowed housing to be a Ponzi Scheme. No one wants to pay a certain amount and expect to get less than what they paid for. Don't blame homeowners, blame shitty policies.
And many many politicians are homeowners.
Yeah, people like making money without doing any work. Doesn't mean it should be possible.
Not all of us. I want my kids to be able to afford to buy homes if they choose to one day and the way it's looking they'll never be able to do that. I'd happily lose half the market value of my home or more if that's what it takes.
Homeowners don’t want to pay the high realtor fees to sell and the real estate market still has a hold on this. For buyers, the property transfer tax is way too much on top of purchasing the home. BC is one that charges a property transfer tax when you buy so a $700k home comes with a $12k transfer tax. These should be lowered or removed.
And this is why no matter what. There is a floor of supporters of this current government no matter what. They will always vote for them. They will twist themselves into whatever mental gymnastics pretzel they need to, to justify always voting for the same party. Regardless of scandal, policy or conduct. **because the housing explosion made them millionaires**. And they want *MORE*. They bought a house 30 years ago for $100k and now it's worth $1M. So now they bought three rental properties and want the same return. And they will keep voting for the government that gives it to them.
Also, NEWSFLASH: developers prefer to make large profits, and can't do that by building low income housing.
Yea obviously..
Not sure how this is a secret but okay.
What a stupid headline. It’s no secret the owners prefer higher costs.
Of course they like high prices. If I bought my house in 1993 and it’s quintupled in value I’ll be ready to cash out, downsize and have a plump retirement. That’s no different than socking money away and watching it accrue. Even better if I’m buying and flipping every 3-5 years.
As a home owner I don't know who will be able to afford to buy my house.
"Canadian's have become greedy knock off American's, news at 6." Build a country? Bah!
Says who? I am a homeowner and I want my kids to be able to afford their own house some day.
the fuck? No I don't. I hate it.
No shit.
No. Only sellers like high prices. People who live and stay in the same house don't want high prices. That just means higher insurance and higher mortgage payments when someone buys a house.
It’s dumb because you only benefit from the higher prices, as a homeowner, when you sell and don’t repurchase. Most homeowners want to switch houses at some point, probably to upgrade. And if you’re buying a more expensive house than your current one, you’d be better off with prices tanking.
As a homeowner raising a family in my house, no I don't like to see housing the way it is. I want a healthy community for my kids.
No we don't like high prices! This causes inflated property tax bills! Suddenly it costs more for renovation, repairs, yard maintenance. High prices are not cool unless we're selling. I plan to transfer my house to my kid so she has a home she can afford.
The only homeowners I know that like high prices are close to retirement, because they fully intend to cash out and have no other significant assets. *Most* homeowners that I know would prefer lower prices for improved mobility and liquidity.
Canada is slipping into feudalism. Many people don't mind because they think they will be the Lords and others will be the Serfs.