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Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

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Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#161

Post by atwebb »

vanthrow wrote: post #72

I'm a millennial immigrant to Vancouver (came with my family when I was 10). I'm a software developer by trade. The problems are real, but the outcome is greatly exaggerated. The fact is MOST millennials outside the most lucrative STEM/Law/Finance fields are in no position to be buying real estate anywhere in North America. And the Vancouver rental market is actually not half bad. You can get a basement suite for und…

>buying real estate anywhere in North America

Maybe major major cities, but it's not unreasonable to get a 3-4k sq ft house for less than $1400-1500 a month all in in "B" cities or outlying areas of major cities.

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#162

Post by vehementi »

daemin wrote: post #37
raverbashing wrote: post #23

The Chinese are parking their money there, that's what's happening Hence people paying millions of dollars for a house that's falling apart But I'm glad to hear about Victoria.

That's been a common theme among people talking about the rising house prices in Australia as well. That Chinese people just buy property to park their money overseas. But when someone looked at the numbers the number of houses that were bought by Chinese people were in the low single digit percentages. While this could create some upward pressure on prices it cannot be the only factor. For instance in Australia most…

The data has been notoriously unavailable - when did someone figure out the numbers?

But yeah as siblings said, even a small minority can move the market like that. Just hearing of these huge (successful) prices makes people list higher, etc.

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#163

Post by GnarlyWhale »

Apocryphon wrote: post #5

"The vacancy rate of 0.8 percent is one of the lowest in the country, and the average monthly rent of C$937 for a bachelor suite is tied at highest with the cost in Toronto, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp." Montreal? Calgary? Edmonton? Halifax? St. John's?

The job market is getting quite tight in Alberta, though Calgary's tech industry seems slightly less oil-centric, and is accordingly better insulated.

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#165

Post by hmsimha »

sterl wrote: post #124
bvanvugt wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are actually some really interesting (and young!) startups in Victoria. We have an office there and our team maintains a city-wide startup listing + job board: https://github.com/sendwithus/vic-startup-jobs

Very cool page, it's lacking salaries however that would improve the posts quite a lot. Have you heard of AngelList? Their best feature is likely the public salary data. In BC, 'competitive salary' ranges from 40-160K for the same role :)

There are some ballparks on their page at angel.co: https://angel.co/sendwithus

Having interviewed with them a couple of years ago, I can attest that their team is incredibly nice, and the product is interesting also.

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#166

Post by branchless »

mtviewdave wrote: post #155
branchless wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are treating it as a big brain. It's split many ways. There are many banks, they don't behave as a mass. Some will lend because they want / need the income. Secondly most lending decisions are made by employees. Their interests are not aligned with the long-term health of the bank. They want their bonus. Who cares if it blows up in 10 years time? We've seen this in 2008. Banks behaved insanely. Finally if banks w…

>We've seen this in 2008. Banks behaved insanely. It's not 2008 anymore. Things have changed substantially. Banks became much more risk-adverse in the wake of the burst of the housing bubble and subsequent economic crisis. The era in which loan officers are incentivized to skip risk evaluation has passed. My point was not that there's some grand conspiracy among banks. Merely that any loan that uses real estate as co…

I agree there is a -ve feedback loop in there.

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#167

Post by mimurchison »

mcmatterson wrote: post #141
tallanvor wrote: post #47

I see this as a problem all over the world. - San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Vancouver, London, Oslo... Really the list could go on for quite a while. So many of these cities feel like they have to retain their "identity" or the "feel" of the town, so they set restrictions that make it very hard to develop properties that can hold more people. The result is always the same: continually increasing prices in the cen…

It's telling that Toronto isn't on that list. It's taken me a decade of living here to really understand what makes this place tick, and one thing that's become clear is that a near universal friendliness to newcomers in both word and deed is a huge part of Toronto's identity. I've said it before in many conversations on the topic, but I think that this pervasive openness is going to do nothing but help Toronto's pla…

Agreed. It would be nice to see Toronto build more of it's identity around this inclusiveness and openness. Surely the fact that Toronto is now the most diverse city in the world is worth trumpeting a little bit.

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#168

Post by mcmatterson »

gyardley wrote: post #153
mcmatterson wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's telling that Toronto isn't on that list. It's taken me a decade of living here to really understand what makes this place tick, and one thing that's become clear is that a near universal friendliness to newcomers in both word and deed is a huge part of Toronto's identity. I've said it before in many conversations on the topic, but I think that this pervasive openness is going to do nothing but help Toronto's pla…

I suspect Toronto's the most multicultural, international city on earth, and it's high on my list of places I'd live if I wasn't married to someone with zero tolerance for snow. Unfortunately, Toronto still manages to suffer from a god-awful housing market made worse by insane NIMBYism in the most affluent and attractive neighborhoods. I think "I got mine, time to dig a moat around it" is a pretty universal phenomeno…

The snow really isn't a factor at all anymore. If you live right (near the subway & in a neighbourhood where you can get everything you may need in a pinch locally) you don't even notice it. I can probably count on one hand the number of days that I've been impacted by snow in the past few years.

In terms of NIMBYism, I don't think there's much more here than in similar cities. To my eye it's more about people being indifferent to the effects of gentrification on marginal populations, and a growing danger of homogeneity in many 'hoods.

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#169

Post by toyg »

raverbashing wrote: post #100
tomp wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that Brits feel poor when they come to the US, whereas Americans feel rich when they come to the UK. Sure, PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) comparisions are important (e.g. it's easier to live in Thailand with $1000 per months than in NYC), but absolute values matter as well.

> The difference is that Brits feel poor when they come to the US, whereas Americans feel rich when they come to the UK. Are you sure about that? For a start, converting USD to GBP will make their money go not as further Might be just general British negativity, they probably feel miserable at Disneyland.

I live in one of the most "miserabilist" parts of the UK (where Morrissey grew up, just to mention one celeb), and everyone goes crazy for Disneyland. We don't have direct flights to SF but we get dailies to Vegas and Florida. 'nuff said.
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