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The housing discourse has long since reached the point of satire: Canada will try absolutely anything to lower the price of housing except build more housing: h

The housing discourse has long since reached the point of satire: Canada will try absolutely anything to lower the price of housing except build more housing: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-will-do-anything-to-end-homelessness-except-build-more-homes https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-will-do-anything-to-en.... Meanwhile, https://www.worksinprogress.co/issue/the-housing-theory-of-everything/ https://www.worksinprogress.co/issue/the-housing-theory-of-e...

klyrs 5y ago
It's even worse than that. Developers are building huge skyscrapers full of housing. Problem is, it's all luxury housing, well above average prices for comparable square footage. Then, people who don't want that luxury will end up stretching their budgets to buy it due to a lack of options in their price range. Developers have huge influence on local politics, so I don't really see a way to escape this.
- gruez 5y ago
  > Problem is, it's all luxury housing, well above average prices for comparable square footage but that's fine right? The people rich people moving into the "luxury" apartments will free up the "nice" apartments for middle class people to move into, who will subsequently free up the "okay" apartments. Building $30k cars also doesn't help the college student/single parent who has a budget of <$3000, yet we don't try to outlaw those cars or mandate "affordable" cars because "people who don't want that luxury will end up stretching their budgets to buy it due to a lack of options in their price range".
- jseliger 5y ago
  "Luxury" housing helps low-income renters: https://fullstackeconomics.com/how-luxury-apartment-buildings-help-low-income-renters/ https://fullstackeconomics.com/how-luxury-apartment-building..., as one would expect from supply increases.
funksta 5y ago
> Canada will try absolutely anything to lower the price of housing This is absolutely not true. Canadian policymakers are willing to do almost nothing that could reduce housing prices– instead they try to induce prospective buyers to take on even more debt under the guise of "making housing affordable". Just look at every major party's housing platform in the current election– besides some very hand-wavy notions of bringing on more supply, and the LPC's plan to eliminate blind bidding, the "solutions" are almost universally focused on further stoking demand
- abandonliberty 5y ago
  A drop of property values would hurt a lot of voters and wealthy influential investors / campaign donors. Same thing for appropriately taxing seniors living in now multi-million dollar hovels.

klyrs 5y ago

It's even worse than that. Developers are building huge skyscrapers full of housing. Problem is, it's all luxury housing, well above average prices for comparable square footage. Then, people who don't want that luxury will end up stretching their budgets to buy it due to a lack of options in their price range. Developers have huge influence on local politics, so I don't really see a way to escape this.

gruez 5y ago
> Problem is, it's all luxury housing, well above average prices for comparable square footage but that's fine right? The people rich people moving into the "luxury" apartments will free up the "nice" apartments for middle class people to move into, who will subsequently free up the "okay" apartments. Building $30k cars also doesn't help the college student/single parent who has a budget of <$3000, yet we don't try to outlaw those cars or mandate "affordable" cars because "people who don't want that luxury will end up stretching their budgets to buy it due to a lack of options in their price range".
jseliger 5y ago
"Luxury" housing helps low-income renters: https://fullstackeconomics.com/how-luxury-apartment-buildings-help-low-income-renters/ https://fullstackeconomics.com/how-luxury-apartment-building..., as one would expect from supply increases.

funksta 5y ago

> Canada will try absolutely anything to lower the price of housing This is absolutely not true. Canadian policymakers are willing to do almost nothing that could reduce housing prices– instead they try to induce prospective buyers to take on even more debt under the guise of "making housing affordable". Just look at every major party's housing platform in the current election– besides some very hand-wavy notions of bringing on more supply, and the LPC's plan to eliminate blind bidding, the "solutions" are almost universally focused on further stoking demand

abandonliberty 5y ago
A drop of property values would hurt a lot of voters and wealthy influential investors / campaign donors. Same thing for appropriately taxing seniors living in now multi-million dollar hovels.