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No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

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Old Apr 19th 2016, 3:57 am
  #16  
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Default Re: No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

Originally Posted by Aviator
However you still miss the point that if ag land is used for development, there is less productive land to feed a rising global population. In addition, if ag land could be used for development, the cost of ag land would increase, making food more expensive and less affordable for low income.

Additionally, falling house prices will hurt those with equity in their homes. Seniors looking to retire, who will rely on home equity for retirement as they down size, could well become significantly worse off and eventually poverty stricken into old age, dependent on state aid, increasing the burden on tax payers.

The only way to solve the problem is to legislate percentages of new developments be social housing. Which will increase the cost of those sold at market price to pay for it, or to fund social housing with tax payer money, which will increase taxes, one way or another.

Any way you slice it, it will cost tax payers and consumers more.

Are we willing to pay for it?
The next generation is already paying for it as they can't afford to buy or rent a decent house. Driving living costs higher through artificial shortages reduces the standard of living of everyone except for the those who bought before house prices increased.

The demand for social housing would fall if rents and housing costs were reduced saving the taxpayers money. Reduced housing costs would increase discretionary spending boosting the economy and by not forcing people to live paycheque to paycheque maybe they could invest in education or a new business etc etc
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Old Apr 19th 2016, 4:51 am
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Default Re: No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

Originally Posted by Jsmth321
Finding is the easy part. Lol... Financing is the hard part and not looking too great. Neither credit union or the mortgage broker have high hopes.

Still waiting for final decision.
Crowd fund it on Facebook
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Old Apr 19th 2016, 5:17 am
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Default Re: No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

Put inheritance tax at 100% for those that die without dependants, use the proceeds that arises to fund social housing and then prevent everyone from selling a house for more than they paid for it - problem solved.
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Old Apr 19th 2016, 5:32 am
  #19  
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Default Re: No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

Originally Posted by dbd33
Or Canada and the UK could simply focus on getting Japanese immigrants as they're physically small and sleep in those pod thingies.
Or pygmies perhaps. But not with those nasty blowpipe thingies.
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Old Apr 19th 2016, 5:40 am
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Default Re: No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

Originally Posted by paw339
The next generation is already paying for it as they can't afford to buy or rent a decent house. Driving living costs higher through artificial shortages reduces the standard of living of everyone except for the those who bought before house prices increased.
House prices for the most part have risen less in the past 15 years than the preceding 15 years. Prices have always increased. My grandfather bought a house for £600 that just sold for £450,000.

The demand for social housing would fall if rents and housing costs were reduced saving the taxpayers money. Reduced housing costs would increase discretionary spending boosting the economy and by not forcing people to live paycheque to paycheque maybe they could invest in education or a new business etc etc
Other than govt funded (tax payer) social housing, private landlords would not bother if rents were too low, creating a further shortfall in rental accommodation.

How would you propose to reduce rents and living costs?
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Old Apr 19th 2016, 5:44 am
  #21  
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Default Re: No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

Originally Posted by dbd33
Or Canada and the UK could simply focus on getting Japanese immigrants as they're physically small and sleep in those pod thingies. A country can fit more Japanese people per developed square mile.
Back in the day Mrs T remarked that the Japanese were living in rabbit hutches. The irony is that if you look at the space in new non-luxury flats in London, they too have become rabbit friendly.
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Old Apr 19th 2016, 5:58 am
  #22  
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Default Re: No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

Originally Posted by BristolUK
Or pygmies perhaps. But not with those nasty blowpipe thingies.
I don't think you're taking this housing issue seriously. I thinking you're just ridiculing bigotry by making absurd proposals in the language of the playground.

Big Houses For Big Canadians, I say! They should each have 2500 sq. ft. wallpapered in plaid.
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Old Apr 19th 2016, 7:40 am
  #23  
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Default Re: No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

Originally Posted by Aviator
House prices for the most part have risen less in the past 15 years than the preceding 15 years. Prices have always increased. My grandfather bought a house for £600 that just sold for £450,000.


Other than govt funded (tax payer) social housing, private landlords would not bother if rents were too low, creating a further shortfall in rental accommodation.

How would you propose to reduce rents and living costs?
As a landlord what you are looking at is return on your money. If you can build or buy a house for less money you can afford to rent it at a lower price and still get the same % return. With low interest rates housing should be the most affordable in a generation as its so cheap to carry the cost of buying a house to rent or live in. Low house prices would increase the supply of rental property as the economics would be hugely more attractive.

Last edited by paw339; Apr 19th 2016 at 8:13 am.
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Old Apr 19th 2016, 9:15 am
  #24  
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Default Re: No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

Originally Posted by paw339
As a landlord what you are looking at is return on your money. If you can build or buy a house for less money you can afford to rent it at a lower price and still get the same % return. With low interest rates housing should be the most affordable in a generation as its so cheap to carry the cost of buying a house to rent or live in. Low house prices would increase the supply of rental property as the economics would be hugely more attractive.
If the returns on rentals gets too low, then investors will not invest in housing and will just invest elsewhere.

If there is an oversupply in the rental market leading to larger vacancy rates this will also discourage investors.

I agree that the current situation is less than ideal but I don't think the answer is to allow unrestricted sprawl.
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Old Apr 19th 2016, 9:44 am
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Default Re: No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

Originally Posted by bc2015
I don't think the answer is to allow unrestricted sprawl.
I agree with you there, it's not a question of unrestricted sprawl its a question of releasing enough land so there is sufficient supply so land and house prices don't rise due to shortage. Once the land supply is sufficient the development rate will be limited by demand not price.

Housing starts in Canada are currently running at about 200k a year which is 30% less than they were in the late 70's when the population of Canada was far lower than today. Is it a surprise that house prices are rising to unaffordable levels with such relatively low housing start figures?
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Old Apr 19th 2016, 10:35 am
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Default Re: No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

Originally Posted by paw339
As a landlord what you are looking at is return on your money. If you can build or buy a house for less money you can afford to rent it at a lower price and still get the same % return.
If you ignore the ongoing costs yes.

Certainly when I bought a duplex I was attracted by the likely annual return in comparison to what I'd expect if the money was sitting in a high interest account. And there the comparison ended with the cost of buying the place having zero influence on the rent charged thereafter.
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Old Apr 19th 2016, 10:41 am
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Default Re: No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

Originally Posted by paw339
A friend of mine who lives in rural Alberta (no shortage of land) build last year a 2 bedroom bungalow for $85k (services were already available). Housing doesn't have to be expensive.
The house part seems to be the least expensive part of the price of a house...

MIL's house is land value only (she didn't do maintenance on the house in the last 40 years.) but the land could sell today for 850,000 based on going rates for sub-dividable lots in the area.

She unfortunately reversed mortgaged so she can't really benefit from it now.

I am a bit amazed how fast housing market both rental and buying can change. When we moved in January and were looking in December we had many options rent wise, fast forward to now and there isn't a whole lot out there, and rents have gone up quite a lot.

Add in those who have pets, and they might not find any housing at all at this point.


If we had to move today, not even sure where we would go, we appear to be priced out of the Fraser Valley now as well and based on posts online in various local groups, seems there are a lot of people in the same boat.
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Old Apr 19th 2016, 10:43 am
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Default Re: No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

Originally Posted by paw339
As a landlord what you are looking at is return on your money. If you can build or buy a house for less money you can afford to rent it at a lower price and still get the same % return.
But why would one as a landlord, it is also an opportunity to increase ones return.

If land prices fell, hoses got cheaper, landlords would be making capital losses on property they own, they would have to recover that and therefore rents would be higher to recover the book loss

It would help those wanting to buy property though.
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Old Apr 19th 2016, 10:51 am
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Default Re: No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

Originally Posted by magnumpi
How is the mobile home search going JS ? :@)
Originally Posted by Jsmth321
Finding is the easy part. Lol... Financing is the hard part and not looking too great. Neither credit union or the mortgage broker have high hopes.

Still waiting for final decision.
Originally Posted by magnumpi
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I had a quick look (Google) at cheap properties in JS' area. I could probably buy one, & do a "rent to own"/owner-financed mortgage type deal for someone like JS, for way less than he's currently paying in rent.

Would I actually do that? No.
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Old Apr 19th 2016, 10:51 am
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Default Re: No Surprise. Housing costs hurt low income the most.

We looked at this duplex... And believe it or not this sort of island living appeals to us.

Only issue is, there isn't really any employment on these islands, so gotta be self employed or independently wealthy....

Its been on the market since last year, has come down in price 9,000 since then, apparently there is a rental market on that island, mostly BC Ferry workers who need a place to crash for the early morning ferry departure.

https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/S...itish-Columbia








Originally Posted by BristolUK
If you ignore the ongoing costs yes.

Certainly when I bought a duplex I was attracted by the likely annual return in comparison to what I'd expect if the money was sitting in a high interest account. And there the comparison ended with the cost of buying the place having zero influence on the rent charged thereafter.
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