| Tapioca | 11-25-2017 11:12 PM |
This article from the Vancouver Sun touches on a lot of things that have been discussed over the last few pages: low rental vacancies, multi-generational households, housing costs that are not in line with housing costs, and lingering job vacancies.
On the point of job vacancies, older millennials (33-37) who have housing security are probably in a really good position right now: 10-15 years of experience in their industries, multiple degrees and certifications under their belt with no lingering student debt, and the reduced income of maternity leave(s) are in the rear view mirror. Considering the job market right now (shortages of mid to senior management), there are lots of opportunities to move around. This is certainly what I'm seeing as several of my friends are concluding their baby-making years and are moving into senior roles with healthy 6-figure salaries to match. Quote:
Married with children and living at home: Lower Mainland's multi-generational households on rise
Randy Shore
Published on: November 25, 2017 | Last Updated: November 25, 2017 4:39 PM PST
Tess Strong’s adult son, his wife and their twins live in the ground-level suite and that suits her just fine.
“Some of us have begun to realize that we aren’t going to live forever,” she said. “If you need help to live at home, what better way than to have your family with you?”
Strong and her husband Roger — both retired — live upstairs in an Abbotsford home, which allows her son Anton to home-school his six-year-old children and work part-time.
“Anton and his wife Samantha had moved down from Squamish and were living in an apartment, but they didn’t have the income to buy a house,” Strong said. “We had already been looking after our grandkids a couple of days a week, so in a lot of ways it made sense to share a home.”
They are not alone. Ben and Stacey Panlilio and their boys — now five and 10 — live in a suite in his mother’s house in Richmond.
“When we moved back here we knew it would be long-term, but now we think we will be here forever,” said Stacey. “Maybe 30 years from now we will be living upstairs and one of the boys will start a family down here.”
Friends in their neighbourhood recently took out a mortgage — not to buy a house — but to raise and expand his mother’s home and then moved in.
“They are doing the exact same thing we are,” she said.
In fact, multi-generational households are the fastest-growing household type in Canada, according to the most recent federal census. The number of households with at least three generations under the same roof grew by 37.5 per cent between 2001 and 2016.
Multi-gen homes are still strongly associated with immigrants but appear to be gaining popularity, said Nathan Lauster, a sociologist at the University of B.C.
The metropolitan areas of Toronto, Vancouver and the Fraser Valley have a larger than average share of multi-generational households, “related to housing needs and the high cost of living in some regions of the country,” according to the census report.
Hardly surprising given the financial pressure on Metro Vancouverites. The median price of a detached home is over $1 million, which would require a monthly mortgage payment of more than $4,500, according to the National Bank of Canada affordability report.
Betterdwelling.com estimates that it would take an ordinary family about 29 years to save for a down payment in this market, while the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver has topped $2,000.
And that is the situation the Panlilios find themselves in. Both have government jobs. Both work full-time. But when it comes to buying a home, they can’t get the math to work unless they’re willing to take on a monster commute.
“With no assets to start with and raising two boys, it’s just not possible for us,” said Stacey. “It was a big dream of mine to own a house and I had put pressure on myself to get there, so that realization was kind of a crappy feeling.”
Now, they live close to work, pay below-market rent and have time and money to put the boys in sports and take a vacation every other year.
“It’s not about pride, it’s about quality of life,” said Stacey. “It’s a huge relief to let go of that pressure.”
The lack of affordability is having ripple effects throughout the economy.
Soaring rents and real estate prices have made it difficult for businesses to find workers in Metro, where some owners have been forced to shut down their businesses due to the lack of skilled labour.
“I have a friend who recently graduated in pharmacy who has job offers, but when he does the numbers it just doesn’t work,” said Gordon Price, an urban planner and former Vancouver city councillor. “So this isn’t just a phenomenon of entry-level workers, it covers the spectrum through to upper-middle-class workers.”
The ability of governments to address real estate values and low vacancy rates is limited, though the City of Vancouver is giving it a try with its Empty Homes Tax, short-term rental regulations and modular housing for homeless people.
Changing the forms of housing available in the market is painfully slow and happens over decades, even centuries, said Price.
“What will change — and we’ve seen this before — is the way people use the existing forms,” he said.
Mansions will turn into apartment buildings, young workers will pack themselves into apartments and shared houses, and people who want to stay in the city to launch their careers will simply stay where they are, in their parents’ homes.
“The phenomenon of stay-at-home kids is very much a reality,” said Price. “Those basement suites aren’t being rented out, they are occupied by grown children.”
Exacerbating the problem is that Vancouver and surrounding municipalities are preserving single-family neighbourhoods at the expense of densification, said Lauster.
“People can double-up and they can share and get roommates while we wait for developers to do their thing, which is changing the housing stock,” he said.
The notion that ownership of a detached home is out of reach is relatively new for us, while older, more mature cities have already been through this pain.
“It really does affect people,” said Lauster. “They are feeling like they’ve done everything right, got an education and a job, and now they feel like they should be in a house and they’re not.”
rshore@postmedia.com
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