This isn’t just some overvalued tulip in need of a correction. People need homes and can’t afford to exit the housing market entirely. If people can’t afford housing, that means they can’t really afford anything. Expect the economy to have collapsed. Wages and employment will be down. Home ownership will decline.
Only those with capital to ride out a bumpy economy will be able to snatch up the cheap housing.
The solution to our housing crisis is not to tank the economy. The solution is to tackle the supply of housing, income inequality, and corporate equity in residential real estate.
The current economic state isn’t exactly great for the average person either. Especially young people trying to start careers and leave their parent’s house.
Regular people already can’t afford housing. Almost anyone owning a house is a millionaire, or has borrowed a million from the bank as a mortgage.
The former will survive just fine. The latter took a tremendous risk by borrowing a million dollars to buy properly in an overheated market. If it works out then they can enjoy the fruits of their high risk play. If it doesn’t work out, then they should suffer the consequences. That’s how all risks work.
If the housing bubble bursts regular people won’t have a job to buy a house. So much better 👍
I’m very very far from a millionaire and I’m an owner, it’s the same thing for the vast majority of home owners in Canada.
Heck, our cottage was for sale for months before we bought it for 50k, I’ve now sold my condo for a price low enough that with 10k you could have bought it including all the paperwork (and I still had trouble selling it!) and I’m looking to buy a house for about 250k close enough to the city that I can still commute and I still have multiple choices… And I’m not talking about bum fuck nowhere, it’s a city of over 200k with two hospitals and two universities!
Maybe people should start moving outside of Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver… but what do I know? Oh, that’s right, that you’re quick to point the finger and say home owners should deal with the consequences of their choices, but you are unable to point to others who absolutely want to live in the most expensive parts of the country and complain that they’ll never be able to afford anything while housing in more rural location just doesn’t sell.
I talk to a lot of people wanting to buy their first house and all of them want at least a bungalow, none of them even wants to consider that buying a condo or even a semi detached to start might be a good option… So what do they do? They continue living at their parents’ or in an apartment and complain.
Imma burst your bubble. Home ownership in cities is an anomaly in our history, it became prevalent after WW2 and scarcity of urban land means it’s not sustainable to expect to see the population increase and have everyone become an owner.
You think people are able to live if they lose their job because the whole economy crashes?
The only housing I own is a 3 season cottage that we paid 50k back in 2020 at the peak of demand for cottages (that gives you an idea how much of a piece of shit we bought), I don’t have too much to lose, I just realize the consequences of the bubble bursting and these consequences will most definitely hurt those who are already suffering a lot more than the status quo.
Finance is not the economy. And housing should not be a free market. That’s the whole problem with it today. When you make housing a finance product, you get what we have today. It’s fucked up and it needs to be collapsed and redone.
Agreed. We should regulate it. First, we should zone areas of land as only being for certain types of homes. This will ensure that the detached mansion you always dreamed of will not be usurped by some developer wanting to build condos. Next, we should regulate the structures so that someone doesn’t try to build a small/tiny home where you want your glorious mansion. Third, we enforce only one structure per property. Your mansion needs a sizeable backyard for your pool! I have more ideas, but think that’s a good start.
I’ll be the first to vote in favor of a non profit crown corporation taking control over anything that has more than 6 units and to require being registered as a company to own 4 to 6 units!
Not the same at all. The previous housing bubble was a result of widespread fraud by the banks. Now, people know very well to look out for that exact thing happening, and it isn’t.
If there is a bubble right now, which there probably is, it is a speculative bubble. People believe that housing will forever quickly grow in price, so they are willing to pay above reasonable price to not miss out on the opportunity. Which in turn increases the prices further. It’s a self-sustaining cycle, but at some point there won’t be enough capital to sustain it any longer. Can happen in a year, can happen in a decade, can happen tomorrow.
Yes, I am ready for that. I don’t buy this “but the economy” line. It smacks of “too big to fail”, and I think that occasional failure is necessary and healthy.
You haven’t lived through enough cycles then… Even 2008 saw a million people in Canada lose their jobs. The one in the early 90s was probably double that.
Besides, nobody understands what the real numbers would even be. Do you know how much of an implosion is required to return Vancouver or Toronto to “affordable” levels? Prices would need to drop something around 80-85%. That’s absolutely massive, and would wipe out the life savings of 10 million Canadians, who are now going to need more government support to make it through retirement.
There are ways to fix this problem, but they need to be gradual to not end up causing more problems than they fix.
The last time a housing bubble popped, so did the entire economy.
You sure you’re ready for that?
One hundred percent.
This isn’t just some overvalued tulip in need of a correction. People need homes and can’t afford to exit the housing market entirely. If people can’t afford housing, that means they can’t really afford anything. Expect the economy to have collapsed. Wages and employment will be down. Home ownership will decline.
Only those with capital to ride out a bumpy economy will be able to snatch up the cheap housing.
The solution to our housing crisis is not to tank the economy. The solution is to tackle the supply of housing, income inequality, and corporate equity in residential real estate.
Ok, so you’re not ready for the bubble to pop then.
No one is ready for a depression. We need it tho. We can’t keep doing this.
It’s either depression or severe dystopia. Pick one.
The longer we put it off, the worse its going to be
Ok but I am
I don’t think you realise the consequences on regular people.
The current economic state isn’t exactly great for the average person either. Especially young people trying to start careers and leave their parent’s house.
Much better than not having a place to live because businesses are closing and unemployment is through the roof and you don’t have a job.
Regular people already can’t afford housing. Almost anyone owning a house is a millionaire, or has borrowed a million from the bank as a mortgage.
The former will survive just fine. The latter took a tremendous risk by borrowing a million dollars to buy properly in an overheated market. If it works out then they can enjoy the fruits of their high risk play. If it doesn’t work out, then they should suffer the consequences. That’s how all risks work.
If the housing bubble bursts regular people won’t have a job to buy a house. So much better 👍
I’m very very far from a millionaire and I’m an owner, it’s the same thing for the vast majority of home owners in Canada.
Heck, our cottage was for sale for months before we bought it for 50k, I’ve now sold my condo for a price low enough that with 10k you could have bought it including all the paperwork (and I still had trouble selling it!) and I’m looking to buy a house for about 250k close enough to the city that I can still commute and I still have multiple choices… And I’m not talking about bum fuck nowhere, it’s a city of over 200k with two hospitals and two universities!
Maybe people should start moving outside of Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver… but what do I know? Oh, that’s right, that you’re quick to point the finger and say home owners should deal with the consequences of their choices, but you are unable to point to others who absolutely want to live in the most expensive parts of the country and complain that they’ll never be able to afford anything while housing in more rural location just doesn’t sell.
I talk to a lot of people wanting to buy their first house and all of them want at least a bungalow, none of them even wants to consider that buying a condo or even a semi detached to start might be a good option… So what do they do? They continue living at their parents’ or in an apartment and complain.
Imma burst your bubble. Home ownership in cities is an anomaly in our history, it became prevalent after WW2 and scarcity of urban land means it’s not sustainable to expect to see the population increase and have everyone become an owner.
I’m starting to think you have too much to lose to care for people not being able to live because houses are too expensive.
You think people are able to live if they lose their job because the whole economy crashes?
The only housing I own is a 3 season cottage that we paid 50k back in 2020 at the peak of demand for cottages (that gives you an idea how much of a piece of shit we bought), I don’t have too much to lose, I just realize the consequences of the bubble bursting and these consequences will most definitely hurt those who are already suffering a lot more than the status quo.
Finance is not the economy. And housing should not be a free market. That’s the whole problem with it today. When you make housing a finance product, you get what we have today. It’s fucked up and it needs to be collapsed and redone.
Agreed. We should regulate it. First, we should zone areas of land as only being for certain types of homes. This will ensure that the detached mansion you always dreamed of will not be usurped by some developer wanting to build condos. Next, we should regulate the structures so that someone doesn’t try to build a small/tiny home where you want your glorious mansion. Third, we enforce only one structure per property. Your mansion needs a sizeable backyard for your pool! I have more ideas, but think that’s a good start.
Oh wait.
I’ll be the first to vote in favor of a non profit crown corporation taking control over anything that has more than 6 units and to require being registered as a company to own 4 to 6 units!
Not the same at all. The previous housing bubble was a result of widespread fraud by the banks. Now, people know very well to look out for that exact thing happening, and it isn’t.
If there is a bubble right now, which there probably is, it is a speculative bubble. People believe that housing will forever quickly grow in price, so they are willing to pay above reasonable price to not miss out on the opportunity. Which in turn increases the prices further. It’s a self-sustaining cycle, but at some point there won’t be enough capital to sustain it any longer. Can happen in a year, can happen in a decade, can happen tomorrow.
Yes, I am ready for that. I don’t buy this “but the economy” line. It smacks of “too big to fail”, and I think that occasional failure is necessary and healthy.
You haven’t lived through enough cycles then… Even 2008 saw a million people in Canada lose their jobs. The one in the early 90s was probably double that.
Besides, nobody understands what the real numbers would even be. Do you know how much of an implosion is required to return Vancouver or Toronto to “affordable” levels? Prices would need to drop something around 80-85%. That’s absolutely massive, and would wipe out the life savings of 10 million Canadians, who are now going to need more government support to make it through retirement.
There are ways to fix this problem, but they need to be gradual to not end up causing more problems than they fix.