dbd33

Why you pay for lunch? $75*260*8 = 156k. That's a living wage, for what you bring him bagels?

scrubbedexpat091

That chart should have compared boomers with Gen X and MIllenials, anyhow I am probably more millenial than Gen X even thought I am apparently technically Gen X, but eh I certainly have no wealth, but its okay, I don't mind taxes offsetting the rent, if I can get a wage that matches the cost of living, eh taxes need to be used to offset rent for those at the bottom to prevent homelessness for getting out of control.

JamesM

There's no shortage of supply so building more wouldn't do much. There's no shortage of land either in "greenbelted" Toronto.

It doesn't matter who sets interest rates. Increasing them would bring affordability back into play and the wrong demographics would hold less of them parking in other asset classes.

The only thing left driving the market in Toronto is the belief that one buys a house because someone will come along and pay more after them.

Rational fundamentals, basic economic theories and common sense left a while ago.

JamesM

The side note is a humble brag rather than any meaningful point.

Mordko

1. There is shortage of supply. Or so say people who know what they are talking about. https://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/abo...-12-2021-.html


2. On greenbelt https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...ticle21689009/

3. It does matter who sets up interest rates if you want to be accurate. You said ”successive governments”. It has nothing to do with them.

Interest rates going up will impact demand. Its a basic economic theory. When real interest rates are below zero and buying safe assets like low risk bonds guarantees a loss in real terms then houses become more attractive as an investment. Its completely rational. On top of that, its the only asset without capital gains. And then the government is going to give under 40s massive subsidies to buy houses. Thats an incentive which will mitigate interest rate rises.

The same is happening across the world. People are acting rationally. They might well lose money but any investment carries risks. The easiest way to suppress demand is to tax primary residences. Reducing immigration would be another way.

In general, I prefer to have a bigger pie to share rather than redistribute pieces.

Not sure which demographic is “wrong”. Suspect said demographic does not think there is anything wrong with it.

Mordko

Always good when a homegrown Canadian success story talks about homegrown Canadian success stories. I am guilty though. Use Google. Don’t use Shopify. So I mentioned a company founded by an immigrant in another country which I am hoping will expand in Canada to bring more good jobs here. Shopify isn’t a competitor to Google. Different business, different league.

Moses2013

OK but have you actually tried different Keywords and do you have the open to work button active with all locations? If you reorder the skills and change top skills every few weeks, this often helps.

dbd33

Oh, I know. Well, I've just entered into a verbal agreement for a year of someone at $202.50 (contractors can probably guess where the $2.50 comes into it). It's not my money but I still want him to bring me bagels and tell me how powerful I am.

Mordko

The $75 per hour plus per diem is special because he is without a degree and rightfully claims that he is doing me a favour. Specialist contractors get a lot more but its the most I hired a technician for. He is trying to buy me a dinner. But if its over $200 we wouldn’t typically use full time for extended periods. Guess software is a different world.

dbd33

Mr. $200 isn't primarily a software person but, yes, it's different, not least in that I don't typically know whether or not people billed at $100-$125/hr have degrees. I do know that a colleague is a biologist by trade and was once Canada's expert on some furry thing that burrows in northern Manitoba and that Mr. $200 was once a dentist. I expect dentistry involved having degrees. The relationship between education and business skills is tenuous at best so degrees tend not to be mentioned.

Rete

I like this comparison

JamesM

Why? It has nothing to do with house prices in Canada?

JamesM

Your economic theory is basic.

The notion that immigration drives house prices in Toronto is a long dispelled myth. Only 40,000 people arrive in the city every year and the majority don't have $200,000 deposits.

Relying on a bank with a vested interest in property to support your argument is browsing Google with bias rather than producing anything meaningful.

The housing market in Toronto and all of the "rational" arguments you point to are broken down and eliminated here. There is nothing rational about a $1 million house price in a city where the average salary is circa $60k.

​​​​​​https://financialpost.com/opinion/ge...supply-squeeze

The correction will come.

scrubbedexpat091

It should also say "Never look down on any worker ever" doesn't matter what job someone is doing, its unacceptable to ever look down on someone because of the job they do.

Mordko

Let's say Toronto sells 100 thousand units of real estate per year. 40K immigrants looking for somewhere to live isn't an insignificant number in terms of impacting the balance of supply and demand. A 5% change one way or another has a huge impact.

I am an immigrant. I own a house. In Toronto 47% of population are immigrants. Whether they own right away or rent is irrelevant. Renters create a market for landlords, which incentivizes purchases by the latter. Dare I say the theory that cutting immigration won't impact prices in Toronto is very interesting and potentially worthy of a Nobel.

The opinion piece you referenced has an interesting argument. Basically it says that the number of new properties was similar to the number of new families living in Toronto. This begs the question "so"? This is always the case, unless huge number of people starts living in tents or under bridges. The real question is how many new people are trying to find a dwelling in Toronto vs number of dwellings being added. That's not addressed in any way. But it could be. To put it in simple terms, if you have 10K listings and 15K potential buyers in October 2021 then the prices will be pushed up. If you provide more inventory you would change this balance.

And to put it in even simpler terms, Canada has fewer housing units per person than other developed countries. That's why we have a shortage. https://thehub.ca/2021-05-20/canadas...getting-worse/

So, what is the "wrong" demographic that shouldn't live in a house or apartment?

P.S. Thank you for opening my eyes that a Chief Economist from a bank can't be trusted. Going forward I will get all my facts on economics, epidemiology and nuclear physics exclusively from the British Expats forum.