… He told me that as the numbers had become clear, he had increasingly despaired for younger Canadians who were “trying to get a home, get started with a family and trying to make it.”
The position of the federal government and most provinces is that by stimulating the construction of new housing, Canada can have affordable homes without lowering the value of current homes.
While Mr. St-Arnaud agrees that building more houses will help with affordability, he is skeptical that it will be enough to make homes truly affordable. And he noted that few, if any, politicians would have any interest in withstanding the political backlash that would come from doing anything that would push down the value of many Canadians’ most valuable asset, perhaps substantially.
“There are a lot of homeowners right now whose house is their only asset,” he said. “All their money goes to their house. They don’t have any pension fund or savings. Their house is everything. So if it’s no longer appreciating, it might put some financial strains on some of them.”
While offering some useful if distressing numbers this is yet another article on the housing crisis that fails to mention the impact mass immigration has had on demand.
