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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 plac

by 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.

by teg4n_ 3y ago

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.