Nice rant.

also thanks for clearing up that bit about the ownership %. I too was confused.

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@88 Steevee – let me use an example.

For the $150K+ household income group, there are about 72000 households, StatsCan says about 65000 of these households are owners, so the owernship % is almost 90%? Similarly for other household income groups with income of $80K and above, the ownership % is very high indicating most of the people who has the money to borrow has already borrowed and bought a place. In my view not too many local prime borrowers left for housing.

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http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/van/apa/1423985…

Two seconds of looking and I found a basement suite for $700 (utilities included) at Victoria Drive and 49th. So much for ranging from $900 to $2500.

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It says this in the story: "In Vancouver, suite rents can range from under $900 to $2,500 or more depending on the suite’s size, age and quality."

No way, $1500 is the high end (as you indicate) not the average. The story is all lies.

OK maybe, just maybe, if the "owning" family lived in a Kits basement and rented out the main part of the house, they could get more. But that's not really renting out "the suite"…and what a way to live while carrying a million dollar mortgage.

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I'm not sure exactly what you were trying to say in your second paragraph but otherwise well said, I enjoyed your rant. I too refuse to believe the the highlight of my working life should be the prospect of owning a house in Vancouver. I get closer and closer to leaving this city every day.

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I did a quick look in the afternoon and it seems the % of high income households (> 80K) is extremely high, maybe even 80%+? The ownership level for those above the median household income is also quite high.

So unless a LOT of those households below the median income households are rich asians, Europeans, US, Albertans households who don't have to work anymore….seems like the pool of potential buyers who can afford Vancouver is pretty low.

Now I'm Chinese and read the Chinese forums and websites on occassion and apparently Canada, and Vancouver in particular, are well known among the rich Chinese and is a popular destination for moving their family or kids here. Something about if you bring lots of $$$$ here, Canada wouldn't extradite you back to China for corruption trials due to concerns about human rights, death penalty, fair trial, Falong Gong practices, whatever else an immigration lawyer can come up with. So the bulls might have hopes yet! Corruption is a thousand years plus tradition in Chinese bureaucratic system and you can't change that in a few decades. Question is how many can slip past the Chinese authority and make it here. Lai Changxing(?) and others have taught the central government some very important lessons about letting too many "rich tourists" or "exchange students" coming to Canada.

Personally I believe housing prices in most places are ultimatedly determined by the disposable income of people who live and work there. Now I know couples who are in top 10% if not top 5% of household income in BC, and if they find that they can't afford a proper 25% downpayment and living comfortable with a mortgage for a house in the Fairview area in Vancouver then something is definitely wrong with our housing market here! I don't think you can call them losers who don't deserve to be in Vancouver!

For me, I doubt I will make more than $1.6M after tax income (in 2009 $) over the next 35 years of my working life. Borrowing say $600K to buy a crappy house in an unsafe area and pay a total of $1M+ in principle and interests over the life of the mortgage just doesn't appeal to me at all. I mean add in family, children costs, parents care, property taxes, food, clothing, where the hell am I going to get $$ for retirement? Is buying a house the epitomy of my life? Wow I owned a house in Vancouver, yah, that's the best possible goal I can possibly strive for and achive in my life? Sheesh…

Lastly, I don't see many people commenting on this…but in my view high housing prices are extremely bad for the economy over the long run! Why? Because capitals are sucked into a non-productive depreciating asset. House provide shelters but that's it, doesn't make your life better or easier after that. Also houses get old, worn out, needing repairs, and let's face it they just aren't build to last anymore, that's not the definition of an appreciating asset. Anyways, high housing prices sucks huge amount of money out of the economy, money that can't go into R&D to create new business & industries, can't go into improving existing products and quality of life, can't go into improving infrastructure, etc, etc, etc because everyone will be too busy paying their mortgage! So what happens? We will end up with a stagant economy with no innovation, no new sources of jobs and wealth creation, and deteroriating infrastructure cuz there probably isn't enough $$ left to maintain them never mind upgrade. When you don't go forward, you are slipping behind because other people are moving ahead! That's not a good prospect for Vancouver and BC. I mean just think what a real 200KM/hr passenger train network like they have in Japan, Europe and even China(!) can do for lower mainland!? That itself could potentially solve a lot of the road/highway congestions, cut commute time, traffic fatalities, decrease air pollution, CO2 emission, cut gas prices, etc, etc….and I'm not even talking about the state of the art like the 350Km/hr line that China is building around the country in the next decade!

Ok really long rant and got some stuff off my chest….I used to love Vancouver and say I don't want to leave for US/China/etc even with the big one we are overdue for. But now I'm thinking more and more of moving out of here….

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I thought there were only rich Asians or are these rich ones hoarding there money allowing for increased wealth. Saving on a lunch and dinner here and there.

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