You’re being downvoted because this is the attitude that got us into, and is keeping us in, this mess. Let us be precise with terms: housing is not a speculative investment. You don’t buy a house because you presume it will appreciate 100-1000% by the time you sell it. That attitude leads to the paradox that the government is unable to stop: you either build/allow affordable housing, lowering prices and crashing people’s speculative investment, or you restrict new home building through restrictive zoning and NIMBYism run wild, letting houses appreciate to the point of unaffordability.
You buy a house to live in long term: to buy it back from the bank and own it all to yourself. You have right to sell it for an equal or roughly price tracking rate with inflation. That’s a good investment. Every Canadian has the right to buy affordable housing. Saying affordable housing is affordable renting is not only reductive but downright prejudicial: people don’t rent because they’re poor. They rent because they want the freedom to move without selling a house. They rent because they are building lives as students or young families or their careers. They rent because they choose to invest their money in something other than house equity. And all the real, concrete policies which help new homeowners (ie building more housing) help renters: these two groups are not at odds with each other.
You don’t buy a house because you presume it will appreciate 100-1000% by the time you sell it.
Do people buy homes expecting that they will *lose * value over time?
Yes, I do think people BUY homes (as opposed to renting one) because it WILL gain value over the life of ownership. Someone living in a house for 50 year should be able to sell it and live off the earnings until they are dead. Why not?
Every Canadian has the right to buy affordable housing.
I agree, but not every Canadian understands the expectation of what “affordable housing” really means.
It’s generally recognized that “affordable housing” means housing that does not exceed 30% of a HOUSEHOLD income before tax.
Stats Can says that people with mortgages allocated 1/3 of their goods and services spending to shelter costs ($30,000 / year) with $17,000 going towards mortgages.
By comparison, renters only spend 25% of their spending towards rental payments ($12,200).
Both would still be considered “affordable housing”, yet it’s clear that someone making a median income would realistically be able to afford rental housing, and not homeownership.
Saying affordable housing is affordable renting is not only reductive but downright prejudicial: people don’t rent because they’re poor. They rent because they want the freedom to move without selling a house. They rent because they are building lives as students or young families or their careers. They rent because they choose to invest their money in something other than house equity.
Yes! I completely agree! Renting is not a downgrade from homeownership, but it is distinctly different. That’s why I’d argue that owning a house is an investment, while renting is not (although, renting allows you to invest in other areas).
We need more affordable rental space, so that every Canadian who earns an income can afford a place to live.
I simply think it’s unrealistic to believe that every Canadian could ever be able to afford to buy a house with an individual income below the median ($32,000).
