At last, someone from the world of politics is being honest about a pervasive and harmful trade-off. When home prices rise faster than earnings, owners like me gain wealth, while non-owners lose because their incomes fall further behind housing costs.

Honesty is saying that home prices have to fall. But this is progress.

The Generation Squeeze folks have recommendations.

  • TemporaryBoyfriend
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    1 year ago

    You deal with that by flattening the upward trend (or even reversing it a little) by adding more inventory. Corporate ownership of residential housing is a big thing, as is owning second and third homes as investment properties. My upstairs neighbour with a middle-management job and a stay at home wife owns the largest suite in my building, plus two rental condos. It’s way, way more common than you think.

    • BlameThePeacock
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      1 year ago

      Corporate/multi-unit ownership isn’t higher today than it was 20 years ago, it’s actually 5-6% lower than it was 50 years ago. https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/as-sa/99-014-x/2011002/c-g/c-g01-eng.cfm

      People love easy scapegoats they can point at instead of themselves, it’s so nice to point out the evil corporations and multi-home owners and don’t get me wrong they aren’t helping, but they are not the driving force behind our problems.

      • TemporaryBoyfriend
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        1 year ago

        Go check AirBnB for your nearest large city. Every one of those could be a home for someone.

        • BlameThePeacock
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          1 year ago

          What does that have to do with anything I said? Airbnb is a small fraction of all units and counted in my ownership as not owner occupied. We build more new units per year than airbnb units exist in total.