So do people never want Real Estate to go up in price?

So let's crash the market and then make a law that a house can never cost more than $50,000?

9 Comments

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People who...

Aug 15, 2018 at 3:26pm

... want to hurt the RE market don't understand the fundamentals of our economy. They don't understand national/international banking policy, except in the grossest sense of "it takes advantage of the poor! It's EVIL!!"

Bank of Canada's long-term monetary policy is 2% inflation a year---more or less this means that if RE isn't inflating by 2% a year, it is losing value, even if the price "stays the same." People who want RE to _cost less_ want to basically upend our economy on the premise that they "know better" that "things should cost this much."

They tried it in the Channel Islands in Jersey

Aug 15, 2018 at 5:39pm

Back in the 70's they imposed a "resale price limit " on all residences because all the tax dodgers were buying homes or farms to get residential status
Guess what?
The houses sold for the legislated price and then the buyer paid a million dollars for the rusty old tractor or the broken wheelbarrow in the back of the property.
No matter what you do the lawyers will find a way around it.

16 6Rating: +10

Don Beaulieu

Aug 15, 2018 at 6:44pm

The answer to that is. There has been a market trend for over 50 years whereas the value of real estate has virtually doubled ever ten years. This means that if it doesn't change in the near future, a typical downtown house will be worth $10 - 20 Million dollars by the mid 2050. Imagine what rent would be.

What planet are you from?

Aug 15, 2018 at 8:50pm

I don't think any reasonable person would suggest that housing prices should be regulated and not be allowed to rise in value. However, I also think that any reasonable person would realize that what has occurred in the lower mainland housing market during the course of the last decade is far from normal or desirable. I think the foreign buyers and their huge wealth have skewed the market so greatly that it has lead many local home owners to think that the situation was perfectly normal. The huge sums of money that locals were raking in from extremely wealthy foreign buyers distorted their views to the harm that it was doing to so many people in the community.
One can only hope that the market is slowly returning to a more balanced cycle over the course of the coming years. If not, I can't see a very bright future for many people who are currently struggling just to survive in Vancouver.

19 7Rating: +12

Greed

Aug 16, 2018 at 7:19am

What has been allowed to take place in BC has nothing to do with a normal market where the cost of real estate rises along with other cost-of-living items. What we’re dealing with is the result of unadulterated greed, illegal activity, and a complete unwillingness to take corrective actions by our government before the damage was done. We have been completely sold out to the highest bidder. The whiners who keep saying that our market is a normal one are obviously the same ones who fully expect to enjoy ridiculous profits from selling a place that they purchased long before the market became virtually impossible for so many others who weren’t able to even get a toehold in because of the artificially inflated prices. It’s absolutely time for a major correction to allow for normal people to enjoy a normal lifestyle in their own hometown.

17 8Rating: +9

And the fallout results in

Aug 16, 2018 at 8:23am

Most young people I know are leaving the lower mainland for the interior or elsewhere. Many companies are having a hard time finding employees because no one can afford to live here. People will sacrifice a comfortable apartment if they are getting something in return ie: 7 people in a whistler one bedroom condo- but Vancouver just doesn't offer that.

15 9Rating: +6

Anonymous

Aug 16, 2018 at 11:23am

Channel Islands guy makes a good point. I think a better way to de-commodify housing would be a take a substantial portion of the housing stock out of the market and make it owned by the government instead (i.e. social housing).

10 9Rating: +1

to @anonymous

Aug 16, 2018 at 6:13pm

I agree but then when I think of the bureaucracy that would grow around it I shudder. There would be psychologists, nutritionists, ecology advisers, recreational consultants, dog catchers, you name it and they will have to have one.
Vancouver is quite unique in having individual owners within the city, as properties in a lot of other city cores are owned by a few wealthy families ( especially in Europe) .
Their operations are in turn regulated by housing departments within those cities to stop them from gouging the tenants ( and good luck with that ). The idea of actually owning a downtown city residence is quite beyond most people's thinking, you rent 'til you die.

7 2Rating: +5

HELP!

Aug 17, 2018 at 1:10pm

Everyone wants my condo

11 7Rating: +4

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