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I wonder quite often how this will unfold. You’re right. And thanks for saying it because a lot of Canadians don’t seem to see it this way; they don’t appreciat

I wonder quite often how this will unfold. You’re right. And thanks for saying it because a lot of Canadians don’t seem to see it this way; they don’t appreciate the history of our economy nor the ongoing trajectories, and seem to soldier on through the madness. Perhaps because the madness is still fairly comfortable. But we have large numbers of immigrants coming here, and I don’t know how they’ll fare given that most immigrants aren’t initially big earners or afforded nearly as many opportunities as their non-immigrant counterparts. What will happen to them? Then the young ones without generational wealth… Where will they go? How will they succeed? We don’t seem to have a great strategy in place. Or any strategy I’m aware of. Our government seems fairly out of touch with what’s happening to them, too. They focus more on current voters I guess, in slightly more influential and older demographics. I wonder if that will seriously backfire and lead to a lot of disillusioned people in their 20s and 30s in a decade. It could be a good thing, but I can’t imagine these people believing any current party gives nor ever gave a shit about them. I’m not trying to be doomsday about this. I know people are resourceful and resilient. Canadians, maybe not as much as we should have been for the last 60 years, but here we are. The kids are alright and they’re going to find a way. I just wonder what the hell it is. My kids living in my city (Victoria) seems laughable too. The rental market is so expensive and volatile, I’d almost hope they don’t stay for their sakes. Yet I’d be sad as hell if they left. Maybe that would be my cue to leave. I’m not going to sit around here if I have grandkids somewhere else. Even if that’s in the boonies somewhere. All the better. Strange times for sure. I’ve been very cognizant of this descent for the last 15 years or so, and I keep checking with myself: am I imagining it? Surely Canada can do better than this? But we keep sliding down.

alephnerd 3y ago
> kids living in my city (Victoria) seems laughable too. The rental market is so expensive and volatile The rental market on Vancouver Island has always been hellish. I remember when we first immigrated in the early 2000s, we were a family of 4 living in a single bedroom that we were renting out for several hundred dollars (can't remember exact numbers because I was in Primary), and jobs were hard to come by despite both my parents having STEM educations. My family ended up succeeding, but we moved to the US, and bear a persistent grudge against Canada to this day. Having visited again recently, it seems the same issues persist. One of our family friends who were working as doctors in Oman are now in Victoria living in a dingy basement, but are fine with that sacrifice so they could ensure their kids could attend UVic. The kids will probably try to emigrate to the US as well once their Canadian PR converts into Citizenship.
teg4n_ 3y ago
I was recently visiting a friend in Victoria and it’s such a nice place. It also seemed like there was construction of new apartment buildings all over the place. At least y’all seem like you are trying to address the housing issues. Where I live (Western, WA) you barely see any construction like that and if you do it’s a McMansion development in the middle of nowhere.
- alephnerd 3y ago
  That construction is for condos priced at around CAD$600K-1mil. Victoria is Canada's Florida (where Canadians go to retire). Most of the property built there is being built for investment purposes and doesn't impact affordability. At least in Western WA you can move to Vancouver WA, Olympia, Spokane, or Boise. When you're priced out or Vancouver Island, depending on your education you might not find any real options for employment outside of the oil fields in Alberta, especially because all the factories ended up shutting down in the 90s and 2000s
  - phatskat 3y ago
    The same thing appears to be happening in Kitchener, ON. When I visit my friend there and we see all the apartments under construction, she laments that they’re all going to be high-price units. She and her husband are probably immigrating Eastern Europe at some point because finding housing has been a nightmare.
- steve_adams_86 3y ago
  As alephnerd described, the new real estate is out of reach for the majority of the population's incomes. It's not really meant to address the problem directly and is more like "business as usual"; the usual business that has lead to our current situation. Very small amounts of units are built for lower income families, but when you put it into perspective, it's kind of a laughable attempt to put a bandage on a shotgun wound. I'm glad it's improving, though. The bandage is slightly larger than in previous years. I'm personally looking at a $5300/mth mortgage for the cheapest home I could find that reasonably fit my family of 5, without needing extensive renovation or being far from work/school/famiy/friends/etc. It's wild. It's not even that big, either. The step down for even tighter accommodation in a much worse/older build was around $4500/mth. That's wild. That's close to what most households in the city net in a month (median income after tax in 2021 was about $60k, and while that has presumably increased, it seems unlikely to be significantly higher). This is the lowest of the low end for families our size.

alephnerd 3y ago

> kids living in my city (Victoria) seems laughable too. The rental market is so expensive and volatile The rental market on Vancouver Island has always been hellish. I remember when we first immigrated in the early 2000s, we were a family of 4 living in a single bedroom that we were renting out for several hundred dollars (can't remember exact numbers because I was in Primary), and jobs were hard to come by despite both my parents having STEM educations. My family ended up succeeding, but we moved to the US, and bear a persistent grudge against Canada to this day. Having visited again recently, it seems the same issues persist. One of our family friends who were working as doctors in Oman are now in Victoria living in a dingy basement, but are fine with that sacrifice so they could ensure their kids could attend UVic. The kids will probably try to emigrate to the US as well once their Canadian PR converts into Citizenship.

teg4n_ 3y ago

I was recently visiting a friend in Victoria and it’s such a nice place. It also seemed like there was construction of new apartment buildings all over the place. At least y’all seem like you are trying to address the housing issues. Where I live (Western, WA) you barely see any construction like that and if you do it’s a McMansion development in the middle of nowhere.

alephnerd 3y ago
That construction is for condos priced at around CAD$600K-1mil. Victoria is Canada's Florida (where Canadians go to retire). Most of the property built there is being built for investment purposes and doesn't impact affordability. At least in Western WA you can move to Vancouver WA, Olympia, Spokane, or Boise. When you're priced out or Vancouver Island, depending on your education you might not find any real options for employment outside of the oil fields in Alberta, especially because all the factories ended up shutting down in the 90s and 2000s
- phatskat 3y ago
  The same thing appears to be happening in Kitchener, ON. When I visit my friend there and we see all the apartments under construction, she laments that they’re all going to be high-price units. She and her husband are probably immigrating Eastern Europe at some point because finding housing has been a nightmare.
steve_adams_86 3y ago
As alephnerd described, the new real estate is out of reach for the majority of the population's incomes. It's not really meant to address the problem directly and is more like "business as usual"; the usual business that has lead to our current situation. Very small amounts of units are built for lower income families, but when you put it into perspective, it's kind of a laughable attempt to put a bandage on a shotgun wound. I'm glad it's improving, though. The bandage is slightly larger than in previous years. I'm personally looking at a $5300/mth mortgage for the cheapest home I could find that reasonably fit my family of 5, without needing extensive renovation or being far from work/school/famiy/friends/etc. It's wild. It's not even that big, either. The step down for even tighter accommodation in a much worse/older build was around $4500/mth. That's wild. That's close to what most households in the city net in a month (median income after tax in 2021 was about $60k, and while that has presumably increased, it seems unlikely to be significantly higher). This is the lowest of the low end for families our size.