Housing Affordability in Vancouver, Canada
Rants February 3rd. 2008, 10:53am
Recently, there was someone left a comment on my old posting, Three Reasons Why I don’t Like Living in Vancouver. He said that it’s better for me to leave the city. It doesn’t need people like me. In a way, the comment is correct. If I don’t like the city, why am I living here in the first place? The reason why I live in Vancouver was because I got a job in a big company back in 2005. That’s why, I decided to relocate from Singapore to Vancouver, Canada.
After living here for about 2 years; I realized that I hardly survive here (as I mentioned in my previous posting). The housing price is not affordable. There was a statement from RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) recently about housing’s affordability in Metro Vancouver:
RBC released its latest housing affordability index the day after a major report by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities warned that the unaffordability of housing is becoming an economic issue for Canadian cities, and Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan said too many families here are having to choose between buying food or making the mortgage.
This one is more even interesting:
By the bank’s measure, it would take 75 per cent of Metro Vancouver’s median income of $60,000 to afford an average two-storey home, which carried a $619,892 price tag.
Is it only me who feels very hard living in Vancouver? I copied some comments from Vancouver Sun readers below.
Housing costs have more than doubled in the past 7 years, with no end in sight. At this rate, it’s almost impossible for a young couple to afford a detached single family home and have any sort of life. (KarenL)
YVR is out of reach for people making less than $100K per year. Even for a family with $150K per year income it’s almost impossible to buy a house… (POLLO)
I’m a new physician, netted about 300k last year and still, I’m not prepared to buy a home in Vancouver. It is all the greedy investors who snatch up all the homes that drive up the prices. (JIM)
Why didn’t I leave Vancouver then? There was an unfortunate that I had 2 years contract with my company. If I leave the company before 2 years; then I had to pay some amount of money. 
What’s my next plan after 2 years? I have a plan in my mind already; but couldn’t disclose it now. I need to prepare everything first; because I don’t want to make the wrong decision.
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:34 pm
i don’t want to see you go
i am sure you will decide what’s best
anyways, if you decide to leave (or even if you don’t) lunch in richmond is on me (it would be ludicrous if we didn’t meet up since I live in East Van and you live in Richmond)
February 25th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
We are a double income ($250k/year) young professional couple leaving the city although we love it here because it’s unaffordable. Even if we could scrape together the mortgage payment, it’s absolutely STUPID to pay these prices for these tiny homes.
Yes, it’s a wonderful city. I would love to stay. With the increase in personal disposable income from moving away, I can fly back as many times as I can stand.
Wishing you luck. Yours is a sound financial decision. You will reap the benefits of it in the future.
April 26th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
We are a professional couple making a very decent living. We are exploring Ottawa cause we can’t afford to buy a house in here and the thought of paying $400K+ for a 1200 Sq.Ft. town house simply doesn’t make sense. We applaud your courage and we are quire surprised that the media , especially CBC, doesn’t talk about this chronic problem.