Quote:
Originally Posted by meme405
That was a big stab. Mostly to get a laugh, but there is some truth to be said about it. The fact is this, people like to claim that housing is not an investment and that everyone deserves a place to live. Absolutely, there is nobody in this world that can deny that everyone deserves a place to call home and part of that definition of "home" involves having a roof over your head.
Unfortunately nobody said that anyone is entitled to afford a roof in Vancouver.
There are plenty of places in BC which people can move to and can afford reasonable housing costs.
The next point most people will point out would be well what if they have to be in vancouver for their jobs. Well the then those individuals will likely have to enjoy a crappy commute, the fact is that this problem exists in dozens of other markets, New York coming to mind, since I have friends who can't afford to live in NY and therefore have to commute from NJ.
I don't proclaim to know the solution to our little dilemma here, but I just find it laughable that people would willingly support the government in actively driving down prices in our RE market.
It seems ass backward, our governments job is to create an atmosphere where individuals can prosper and create wealth, and creating a major hurdle for our economy, seems completely a step in the wrong direction in this regard. I mean it would take one of the only major parts of our current economy which is actually doing well and completely decimate it.
I don't know this was just a stumbling of my own thoughts, I think the tax on foreign buyers is a step in the right direction, I absolutely believe that someone who isn't a resident or citizen who comes here and buys a house needs to pay a big piece of tax on that purchase. However I am terrified at how far others are willing to take this idea of slowing down RE prices. I have friends who are willingly wanting the government to seize back houses from all non-residents and sell them on the open market. I am sorry but that's ridiculous.
With all of the above written diarrhea out of the way. I'd be interested in seeing a couple things:
1. The number of owners to non-owners posting here.
2. Which side of the fence those people land on: Government intervening or Let the market do what it does.
3. If you are for the government doing something do you believe the current path they have taken (15% on foreign purchases) is an adequate one.
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Good points.
Even in my 20's when I lived in Vancouver before the massive boom I had no expectation that I could afford a SFH in Vancouver or it's immediate suburbs (Richmond, Burnaby, North Van). I fully expected to be moving into a condo or commuting out to PoCo or something like that.
I'm supportive of the government taking small steps to level off the market a bit, back to historical yearly increases, not this crazy 30% a year bullshit. But I'm very against forced downward pressure on prices.