UsVille
I've gotta hand it to Mr. Mason of the Globe (andnolongerempire) Mail.
Because he has just written a piece in which states clearly and unequivocally that he is in favour of the slow real estate bubble popping that our current provinicial government has initiated despite the fact that it is causing him and his a little 'pain' in the form of a paper cut.
Here is his lede:
Given what houses are currently going for in my neighbourhood, it would appear I’ve lost a couple hundred thousand dollars or so in recent months. I couldn’t be happier.
After spending the past few years lamenting the affordability crisis in Metro Vancouver (and elsewhere), bemoaning the complicity of the real estate industry in it all and heaping anger and scorn at provincial and municipal governments too gutless and conflicted to do anything about the situation, I can hardly cry over the fact that I’m not as rich, on paper, as I once was. I never earned that wealth anyway.
Prices for detached homes are down across Metro Vancouver and in Toronto, too. It would seem that policies brought in by governments in both provinces aimed at cooling the market are beginning to have the desired effect. This is what people were calling for, remember? The condo market still remains relatively hot, in B.C. at least, and hopefully the province will do something about the speculating and other nefarious practices revealed to have also infested that sector of the housing market.
Unsurprisingly, we are already beginning to hear the cries of outrage from people, rich by any definition, who have been impacted by some of the tax measures the NDP government in Victoria has introduced to deal with a housing mess that developed under the previous Liberal administration. People seem to be particularly incensed with the 0.2-per-cent rate increase in the province’s school tax, applied to that portion of a property assessed above $3-million. (So, for a home valued at $3.5-million, for instance, the extra tax would amount to $1,000.)...
As for the 'albeit a little late' bit in the header, above?
Well, it turns out that this very subject is something that we've bandied about a bunch of times round here, including this post written back in the fall of 2017:
...My wife and I, despite the fact that we were a little late to the Vancouver Real Estate bubble party-party, we are very, very lucky to be a part of a group of folks, who are mostly of a certain age (or older) in Vancouver.
Because after trying like heckfire to help get two co-ops started, one of which was killed by GordCo at the last minute, we bit the bullet and bought our bungalow on the near Eastside back in 2005, which means we paid (the then crazy/astronomical amount of) $440K for it (and the 33' X 120' chunk of dirt).
That chunk of dirt (not the bungalow itself) is now 'worth' about $1.6 million on some paper ledger thingy somewhere.
Which is all fine and good if we could cash in and move away tomorrow (which we can't).
But, much more to the point, what are my bike guy and his partner, who works for the big credit union in town, going to do when they're evicted by the assembyists?
Or my kids?
Or all those teachers that we need to hire?
Or just about anyone of our fellow citizens who actually does real things in this town?
****
Now.
I don't want anybody who came to the party even later than us (who is not a speculator) to go seriously under water but I'm really starting to wonder if the only way we are going to hold on to our city (and, most importantly, the young people in it) is if we do some wilful bubble popping.
Of course, if we do this in any serious way that it actually makes a real difference, there is no way there won't be some short term economic pain also.
But seriously, what is the alternative?...
Not that we would ever suggest that Ron is stealing our stuff or anything.
OK?
______
All snarkolepsy and joking aside, kudos to Mr. Mason for taking a real stand on a thing that actually matters to British Columbians...In this case his entire piece is worth a read (and a wurlitzering)...
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