Ambitious people leaving Vancouver
The economy in this city is broken. I can no longer count on two hands the number of friends and coworkers who have left to find better opportunity elsewhere in the last few years. As Vancouver Magazine points out, it’s what young ambitious people are doing right now. Vancouver is squeezing the middle class out.
Around January 2002, the average price of a detached house in Metro Vancouver was $390,000. That has since nearly tripled to $1.1 million. For those who couldn’t or didn’t buy in—who were outbid, came late to the party, or sat it out waiting for a massive market correction—real estate has been a dismal science. This July, the MLS listed only 24 two-bedroom condos for sale under $300,000. That’s the maximum mortgage available to a household earning the median family income; Vancouver proper has about 30,000 renter households in that category. The story of real-estate affordability here can be told in that one stat: in a city of over 600,000 people, two dozen bottom-of-the-barrel starter condos available for sale to the middle class.
This post was submitted by Jackson.
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November 9th, 2011 at 2:22 am
People are always leaving wherever they are…and I personally know probably hundreds of very ambitious people who would never dream of leaving vancouver.
November 8th, 2011 at 7:28 pm
Hmmm, well I like it just fine and I’m renting and earning average wage.
I guess some folks just can’t see beyond home ownership as their goal in life. I’d love to own a house but renting in a place I like comes a close second.
November 7th, 2011 at 10:47 pm
I completely agree with the author of this post.
I left Vancouver to move to Edmonton and the amount of better paying jobs is day and night compared to Vancouver.But it seems that Vancouver has always really shitty employers who only want to pay you minimum wage.
November 3rd, 2011 at 11:00 pm
@patriotz: You may have left Vancouver, but don't leave this blog. We need the clarity you bring to these discussions…
November 3rd, 2011 at 7:46 pm
@DEFAULT NAME134282:
Being a victim of violent crime, in both Canada and the US, is almost entirely a function of your social group. That is, almost all victims of violent crime are from the underclass, are professional criminals, or live in violent family units.
That doesn't mean that YOU will be appreciably more likely to be a victim of violent crime if you move to a city with a higher rate, whether that be Regina (which has a higher rate due to its high aboriginal population), or Seattle.
Now it's true that a middle class person in the US has perhaps twice the likelihood of being killed by a stranger than one in Canada, but that likelihood is vastly lower than that of being killed by a car accident in either country.
Property crime, as we all know, does not distinguish among its victims by social group. THAT's the difference.
November 3rd, 2011 at 5:50 pm
I moved to Vancouver in 2005 convinced that I would stay forever. I made good money by working my buns off but my company sold us worker bees out and basically stole the money in the company and gave it to the executives….wonder why the 99% is so pissed. Anyways, I finally tossed in the towel and moved to San Francisco this summer where the jobs in my field are a dime a dozen and all pay 6 figures. SF used to be considered a very expensive city, but I guess all is relative as it seems positively cheap as compared to Vancouver. Sad. Heck, I even just bought a gorgeous home. This was an impossible dream in Vancouver…Sad to leave Vancouver but in the end my quality of life has already greatly improved.
November 3rd, 2011 at 3:01 pm
http://www.greaterfool.ca/2011/11/03/the-uncrisis…
Fuck, Turner has completely lost it. He just spent 3yrs telling us this wasn't possible, the untouchable bond markets would ultimately dictate. What a fucking idiot this man has become. It would also help if he didn't write in prose, he isn't a fucking Michael Ondaatje for christs sakes, and sometimes is too hard a read for the resultant simplistic message.
"What the fear brigade fails to understand is widespread financial meltdown is impossible so long as the elite fends it off. This is what the G20, the EU, the G8, the IMF, WB, ECB and the FSB (which Marc Carney will probably head by the weekend) are all about. These guys make the rules. They can nationalize banks, bail out countries, force taxes and austerity measures, recapitalize institutions, raise or lower interest rates, expand or contract the money supply, regulate or deregulate and in the course of it all, modify human behaviour. That means they can prevent a run on the banks, influence the bond market or make mortgages irresistibly cheap."
November 3rd, 2011 at 2:37 pm
Actually "Bum Arguing with Himself" would be an awesome name.