So, here on the east coast of Canada, the province I live in was not following the trend of soaring home prices and my wife and I, being middle aged when we met, gave no serious consideration to buying a home in 2012.
But just three or four years ago it's like the speculators found this place or something (I blame AirBnB's but I have no proof of that). Prices began to take off exponentially. Check this out from the real estate industry website,
The average home price has doubled in 4 or 5 years. That's crazy.
So, you can imagine our predicament when we were suddenly evicted this summer since our condo was put up for sale on a Tuesday, viewed on Friday, and sold Saturday.
We found a house to buy and we ended up paying significantly over asking. It made no sense to continue to rent and face the same circumstances over and over with higher rents each time and we just went for it even though I felt we got soaked.
The newly-reelected federal government promised some new policies aimed at helping reduce the insane upward pressure on prices but the main issue is plain and simply very high demand and very low inventory.
You can see the clear correlation between the precipitous fall of inventory, starting in 2016, with the steep rise in prices as the average shot up over $200K for the first time, but I don't personally have any sure idea of which precipitated the other. We just plain need more places for people to live in so demand is not so insanely high, whether it is so-called low cost housing or not. Surprisingly, I learned recently zoning of all things is gravely holding back new home construction and more measures like this are needed:
On the state level, California Gov. Gavin Newsom approved a law on September 16 that outlaws single-family home zoning in the state, clearing the way for the building of duplexes on any single-family lots. The progressive measure immediately allows for the creation of 700,0000 more homes in existing neighborhoods. By comparison, California typically permits 100,000 new homes each year. By banning single-family zoning, the state reversed a century-old status quo that protected property values instead of providing denser and more affordable housing.
tl;dr We need better zoning laws and more places built. We paid over $250K for a place that was worth half that 5 years ago. If that sort of growth were to continue, people just starting out in the work place will hardly ever catch up if they want to own a home. Salaries aren't keeping up with that shit.
Paid 130k in 2011 now it's almost 400k on Zillow. I owe about 30k on it still.
Ah man, how did I not know about that site. That would have been a huge help to us. Oh well, we fumbled through anyway and it might come in handy some other time. Cool site.
Very well insulated and private, we never hear him.
Isn't it said, "It's always the quiet ones..."?
