Quote:
Originally Posted by Tapioca
The predominant narrative that is thrown around is that as a result of high housing costs, young people would be leaving Metro Vancouver for other parts of Canada or the world. This census should have revealed a decrease in people under age 35 over the last 10 years if this was true.
We are seeing record rents and record prices in entry level homes, such as condos. These are related to what the census data are telling us.
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The numbers as presented are just numbers. It gives no indication of whether people are leaving the city or not.
As an extreme example, consider this. ABCDE are 5 people originally living in Vancouver. Because of the high housing costs, ABCD all left Metro Van, and only E is staying behind. But during this time, FGHIJKLMN are 9 additional people that came. So in total, the city's new population is EFGHIJKLMN for a total of 10, and we have a net population gain of 5 additional persons. But the numbers themselves do not show that 80% of the original residents have already left the city due to high housing costs.
Of course, I do not think the situation in Vancouver is as extreme as my example suggest. But it goes to illustrate that looking at numbers alone are rather meaningless.