R I C H

I'm in Kamloops, house prices are a little lower, but basic daily cost of living is the same. My take on your figures are:

I have no mortgage or other debt, and find c$70k is a comfortable level for the 2 of us to enjoy ourselves, own/run some toys and not be to restricted by income.

brizzle

According to this article on housing affordability in Vancouver (or unaffordability), the median household income in Vancouver is $63,100, so those figures will put you well ahead of most I suspect.

http://www.vancouversun.com/business...484/story.html

Glam

Thanks for all you help folks. Reassuring to hear other peop's opinions and experience.

Cheers,

Gav.

Glam

Victoria's average price of $430,000 was 7.1 times the median household income of $60,900, resulting in a ranking of 309th out of 325. Abbotsford's $402,000 average price made it 6.5 times the median household income of $62,300 and 297th in the rankings. And Kelowna finished 283rd with a median income of $57,500 that was 5.9 times the median price of $338,000.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business...#ixzz1CphPGXvD

How the hell do people manage??

R I C H

There was a news piece a few days ago concerning the affordability of Kelowna. Earnings figures for the city are heavily skewed due to the high % of the population that are retirees living on fixed incomes. Nonetheless, many companies are struggling to fill job vacancies as earnings don't match housing costs. It's not a cheap place to live.

How do people manage? - You listed close to $2,000 of discretionary expenditure each month (savings, entertainment, cell phones, second vehicle etc) plus some items an employer might cover. Perhaps you need to be more realistic about those items.

Alan2005

Credit.

ExKiwilass

THey buy houses with friends/family or buy a cheaper condo. or both work and pay big mortgage. or they have lots of equity from previous condo/home.

JonboyE

Frightening as they are, they are just averages. I suspect that the Vancouver figures are skewed because there is some seriously expensive real estate owned by seriously wealthy people who have very little income.

I read somewhere recently that in the back end of 2010 there was a month where were 1,300 sales of single family homes for a combined sale price of $1.35B. That is more than $1,000,000 each on average. Despite that, ordinary Joes were still buying homes. Maybe condos or town homes in the City, or single family homes in the suburbs.

The thing is, if sufficient people were not prepared to pay these prices then the prices would fall. So, it is either rich overseas investors, illicit money, or (as Alan2005 and Kiwilass suggest) people just do find a way to manage.

brizzle

Median figures for household income and house prices - Not averages, so they won't overly skewed by some uber-expensive real estate. So out of all of the different real estate sales in Vancouver (condos, houses etc) the 'middle of the pack' figure is $600k. Average figures for single family homes in Vancouver is around $1m as you say. Incidentally, the median of Greater London prices was 300k pounds.

It is quite mad. There has got to be a lot of overseas money fuelling this. If interest rates ever get back up to historical norms then it could be interesting??

dbd33

I suppose this is proof that there's no pub culture in Vancouver and that the police are out of touch with the public they police. In the pub there's always a collection of some sort for a local person who's fallen ill or been injured, in the office there's always a fund to pay the medical bills of some needy local family, companies demonstrate their commitment to the locality by funding such medical bills. Canadians hold their healthcare in high regard because it's better than the worst cases in the US, nonetheless, Canada is a nation of the working poor; people one illness away from losing their houses.

JonboyE

Yes, medians make more sense. Bang goes that theory!


I agree that there is a lot of overseas money and I think this is part of the reason the ratio of prices to earnings is so high. Overseas investors don't need mortgages so are not constrained by the bank's debt service ratio requirements.

I also agree that quite a few people are mortgaged to the limit and an increase in two or three points in the interest rate will have, as you say, interesting consequences for the prices of first time and first family homes.

JonboyE

I have to agree with dboy. I can't recall ever having been asked to contribute to anyone's medical bills. Maybe it's on Ontario thing.

Tangram

Happens here too. Cancer normally.

Flogger

Also common in NS

AmyDavid

Uber common. Usually at least 3 nights a month at the local pub are collections/auctions for people who are ill or have lost everything in a house fire and did not have insurance.