Quote:
Originally Posted by Hawrylyshyn
You couldn't be more wrong with this. Housing is unaffordable because the demand is greatly outweighing the supply.
There are not "plenty of places to live", which results in prices skyrocketing. If we increase the supply (eg. more units available) there will be less competition to purchase and prices should decrease.
If 1000 people are looking for housing, and there's only 100 houses, the houses will be worth way more (hence unaffordable) than if there were 900 houses available on the market.
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What are you talking about?? We have literally built THOUSANDS of new units downtown in just the past few years - The issue is that apartment owners simply keep jacking the rent higher and higher and higher and costs keep going up and NEVER go down - they look at "market price" across the city and aim for that, regardless of what is actually needed. When I first moved into my apartment 15 years ago the average price for a 2 bedroom was under 700 dollars - its now close to 2000 - for WHAT? There is no amt of improvement needed that requires a cost hike THAT big. It's JUST greed.
And the houses are NOT worth more because there is more demand and less houses, the houses are worth more because people from places like the richer areas of the golden horseshoe comes here and they ask 2-3 times the price that people are asking for their houses, because as much as they are paying for them its still far cheaper than the richer cities closer to toronto! We are building TONS of new housing.. the areas up on the escarpment keep expanding further and further out as farmowners sell their acres and entire neighbourhoods pop up in their place.. I work for the cable company - I see the subdivision plans they are building - there is no shortage of places being built.
we are literally mowing down entire acres of farmland to build giant subdivisions and building giant skyscrapers downtown - there is not a shortage of places to live. They simply are just much too expensive.
I can guarantee you if we build more units the cost will not go down because simply MORE people will scoop them up - the demand never goes down and the greed of the people who sell them never goes away, especially when people from say toronto are coming in and asking more for houses than is being offered, and when apartments can take an apartment, refurbish it and then ask way more for the price of it, or simply ask giant prices if its new, and people will pay it! And I can speak from personal experience - the price of rent is going up faster than the wages being paid for peoples jobs are, squeezing those who are already paying rent, and making it far harder for someone who is just starting out to afford a new place.
It's not gonna go down man, the prices NEVER go down anymore, esp. apartment rent, it will just go up, and up, and up.. and as it gets more expensive people start to move out to the more outlying areas, build those up, and then make THOSE expensive.
Also we may have more places for people here if we stop bringing every tom dick and harry into our city and instead focus on the disparity that already exists here. Work on maintaining our population instead of always having to grow. I get the aging population is going to leave a vacuum but we're still taxing things in the meantime - they're not all dead yet!
Anyways I have said my peace - I have a good idea where this conversation is going and this is not the place to have a back and forth.
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