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One chart towards the end mentions that in most cases, children earn more than their parents; it would be interesting to compare the affordability of housing ac
by jfim 9y ago
One chart towards the end mentions that in most cases, children earn more than their parents; it would be interesting to compare the affordability of housing across generations. It seems that even as if children earn more (in inflation-adjusted dollars), their dollars are worth less for housing due to housing prices increasing faster than inflation.
- microcolonel 9y agoIn spite of rising downtown housing costs, home ownership rates are outrageously high in Canada, probably even higher than the theoretical optimum.
- jfim 9y agoOut of curiosity, what makes it outrageously high? It seems to be around 67% [1], while our neighbors to the South have somewhat similar numbers (between 63 and 68% in the last decade) [2]. What would be the theoretical optimum? [1] http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a05?lang=eng&id=2030027 http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a05?lang=eng&id=2030027 look for "Owned dwelling" [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home-ownership_in_the_United_States#Historical https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home-ownership_in_the_United_S...
- refurb 9y agoConsidering the meteoric rise of housing prices in Canada, coupled with the increase in the percentage who own a home, that spells disaster if housing takes a downturn which appears to be happening in Vancouver and now Toronto. Your link to US data shows just how far home ownership fell during the financial crisis. Canada is close to the same peak as the US.
- problems 9y agoToronto and Vancouver have been known to be particularly bad markets though - using them as examples for all of Canada is probably a mistake.
- refurb 9y agoToronto (GTA) has ~6M people and Vancouver (GVA) of 2.5M. That's almost 25% of the entire population of Canada!
- CosmicShadow 9y agoYeah, but trying to say they represent Canada is a great way to get punched in the face from the rest of Canada! I grew up in North Western Ontario, the worst mobility region and where most people hate Toronto and if they end up moving to the "big city" it's to Winnipeg, which we can see also sucks for the most part. Living up there, yet being in the same province as Toronto and all the surrounding successful places in South Western Ontario (where I live now), makes for a bad time as everything done for the province is generally about South Western Ontario or Toronto. People live all over, it's a big and diverse country, but people only ever focus in on the big two that are practically their own worlds. Those places have insane, ridiculous housing costs. People keep moving farther and farther away, even commuting 1-2 hours just because of that, which then drives up housing costs in the next sets of cities and towns. Many other places are much more affordable.
- petraeus 9y agoTry Ottawa or Montreal, I work for a national delivery service and both those areas have higher volume than Winnipeg.
- randomdata 9y agoWhich says to me that the overwhelming majority of Canadians do not live in the GTA or the GVA. The average home price in Canada, as of May 2017, is $401,594 USD[1]. The average home price in the US, as of May 2017, is $406,400 USD[2]. Given that the latter has already gone through a correction, it seems like the current level is typical. [1] http://www.crea.ca/housing-market-stats/national-average-price-map/ http://www.crea.ca/housing-market-stats/national-average-pri... [2] https://www.census.gov/construction/nrs/pdf/uspricemon.pdf https://www.census.gov/construction/nrs/pdf/uspricemon.pdf
- IncRnd 9y agoEvery home is owned by somebody. So, saying that ownership rates are outrageously high is the same as saying that there are too few people. How does that make sense in the context of a discussion of home ownership? How would someone decide on a theoretical optimum home ownership rate?
- quickthrower 9y agoA landlord can own multiple homes. If one person owns all of the property, ownership rates would be pretty much 0%. Owner occupied rate would be a more interesting metric. There will be flaws. Not all homes are equal. People share ownership. Etc.
- IncRnd 9y agoHow does that apply to what I wrote? The discussion wasn't about low ownership rates but outrageously high home ownership rates and some amorphous optimum ownership rate.
- quickthrower 9y agoSorry I mean to say that rates can be high or low and that make a sense. But agreed: claiming something is outrageously high is silly. In the context of too much debt, if 99% of homes are purchased pre bubble there is not a problem. If 99% are purchased post bubble that's a problem. The ownership rate is irrelevant as you alude to.
- lawnchair_larry 9y agoThis generalization doesn't make a lot of sense. What does "Downtown Canada" even mean? We are talking about a vast country that is larger than the United States but has 10% of the population. I'd bet there are many downtowns that are not rising at all.
- uiri 9y agoIt means downtown Vancouver and downtown Toronto but not downtown Montreal nor any other "downtown" apparently (Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton, Quebec City, Saskatoon, Halifax, etc. come to mind) since Toronto and Vancouver are the two metro areas with outrageous housing prices.
- DKnoll 9y agoAlmost 18% of Canadians live in the Greater Toronto Area. He's referring to housing in dense urban areas, of which there are few here.