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Home galleries are hiding in plain sight across Canada

cbc.ca

21–30 of 53 posts

Re: Home galleries are hiding in plain sight across Canada

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if this idea could help overturn the negative incentives behind NIMBYism: 1. Homeowners in functional local democracies block new construction because it reduces the prices of their homes in exchange for no benefit to them, but... 2. When new, higher-density homes are constructed the total value of all houses increases much more than the total decline in the price of all old houses. This implies... 3. There…

For those motivated purely by fear of their home no longer increasing in value, faster than inflation, a scheme like this might help soften their opposition. Unfortunately, the coalition of people who oppose housing is not purely financially motivated. There our groups of people for whom low density living is all about status and excluding others, and there is no amount of money that would compensate them for loss of…

Has anyone ever tried answering the objections you listed with some form of compensation? My understanding of human nature is that people don't like to trust strangers and take what are for them risks if there's nothing to be gained from it and some (even if unlikely) potential loss.

Just imagine going to one of those meetings and asking everyone in the room to do a trust fall exercise. Even if the thought that you wouldn't catch them is totally unfounded, I bet you wouldn't be able to get a plurality. :-)

Re: Home galleries are hiding in plain sight across Canada

#22
CBC has had a few articles related to art and artists recently, I noticed something about cross border tariffs affecting art shows and exhibits.

But I don't understand how art and art galleries aren't just the perfect vehicle for money laundering in certain cases?

I also have a hard time with it, surely a portion of artists are in the trust fund class, I get the vibe that the really successful ones have massive amounts of connections with wealthy groups and can afford to fail. It's hard to relate to some complaints coming from the artist quarter, ie my gallery is getting shut down, my exhibits are getting held at the border.

Surely, there is still the true starving artist. But if you were true low income, lower class, you wouldn't have gone through art school, you'd be trying to survive and working.

Money laundering. It's perfect, anonymous buyer, all of a sudden you have a bunch of money/assets that can get funneled to whoever at your leisure. And famous high status artists are also high status, highly trusted members of society with important connections. I don't have any proof. Does this ever happen?

Re: Home galleries are hiding in plain sight across Canada

#23
post #18
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with this is most parts of large cities are substantially less dense than incredibly livible neighborhoods such as the plateau area of Montreal. It is illegal to build such a neighborhood in 99% of Canada. People love it here, people start families here, tourists visit, it's quite, lots of parks and shops. And it's 3-4 as dense as most areas of most major cities. But we've made it illegal to build. For zoni…

> It is illegal to build such a neighborhood in 99% of Canada. And that is good. It's making Canada liveable and keeps the prices from skyrocketing EVEN HIGHER.

The claim that increasing housing supply would increase prices probably requires some argument.

Re: Home galleries are hiding in plain sight across Canada

#24

Please donate to https://savethecbc2025.ca/ we need your money Americans to support our amazing Olympics coverage thanks!

On the other hand, the news coverage by the CBC is hampering efforts by the Murdoch empire and Post Media to align Canadian sentiments with MAGA, and that is obviously unacceptable.

Re: Home galleries are hiding in plain sight across Canada

#25
post #23
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is illegal to build such a neighborhood in 99% of Canada. And that is good. It's making Canada liveable and keeps the prices from skyrocketing EVEN HIGHER.

The claim that increasing housing supply would increase prices probably requires some argument.

As long as foreign wealth can continue to buy up properties as they are built, the actual housing supply doesn't really increase

That's a pretty large part of the problem

Re: Home galleries are hiding in plain sight across Canada

#26
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada's housing crisis goes well beyond just the large cities. It extends into small towns as far as the Yukon. It may be a somewhat different situation compared with the US.

Smaller town in Canada don't really have skyrocketing prices. For example, in Whitehorse in Yukon the average house was $420k (or $550k inflation adjusted to 2024) in 2015, and $660k in 2024. So less than 20% growth after inflation within the last decade. During that time, Vancouver BC went from $640k ($820k after inflation) to $1300k. The average square footage also went down in BC, but stayed stable in YK.

> For example, in Whitehorse in Yukon the average house was $420k (or $550k inflation adjusted to 2024) in 2015, and $660k in 2024. So less than 20% growth after inflation within the last decade.

These are already insanely high prices for such small, remote, and undesirable cities

Re: Home galleries are hiding in plain sight across Canada

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if this idea could help overturn the negative incentives behind NIMBYism: 1. Homeowners in functional local democracies block new construction because it reduces the prices of their homes in exchange for no benefit to them, but... 2. When new, higher-density homes are constructed the total value of all houses increases much more than the total decline in the price of all old houses. This implies... 3. There…

For those motivated purely by fear of their home no longer increasing in value, faster than inflation, a scheme like this might help soften their opposition. Unfortunately, the coalition of people who oppose housing is not purely financially motivated. There our groups of people for whom low density living is all about status and excluding others, and there is no amount of money that would compensate them for loss of…

> Some have never lived in anything other than a single-family home, and their understanding of multifamily buildings comes from news media and cultural stereotypes. They believe that as soon as you have a multi family structure, it’s automatically a ghetto of some sort

I grew up in single family homes and when I moved out on my own I lived in apartments

Hearing my neighbours screaming through the walls and floors did a lot to convince me that multi-family housing only works when either the homes are very soundproofed, or the culture is a lot more respectful of shared space

I bought a detached home as soon as I could and got the hell out of dense housing, it sucks to live like that

Re: Home galleries are hiding in plain sight across Canada

#28
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The claim that increasing housing supply would increase prices probably requires some argument.

As long as foreign wealth can continue to buy up properties as they are built, the actual housing supply doesn't really increase That's a pretty large part of the problem

The actual housing supply also doesn't increase if you prevent building houses...

Re: Home galleries are hiding in plain sight across Canada

#29
post #23
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is illegal to build such a neighborhood in 99% of Canada. And that is good. It's making Canada liveable and keeps the prices from skyrocketing EVEN HIGHER.

The claim that increasing housing supply would increase prices probably requires some argument.

Preventing increase in _density_ leads to better outcomes long-term.

It sounds crazy, right? Supply/demand, and all of that.

But it's an example of one of the things in economics where the effects end up being different because of collective actions. As a result, no large growing city within the US within the last 30 years managed to lower down housing prices by increasing density. I checked that using the Census statistics database.

And no, Austin (TX) doesn't count. It decreased prices by decreasing the _population_.

Re: Home galleries are hiding in plain sight across Canada

#30
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smaller town in Canada don't really have skyrocketing prices. For example, in Whitehorse in Yukon the average house was $420k (or $550k inflation adjusted to 2024) in 2015, and $660k in 2024. So less than 20% growth after inflation within the last decade. During that time, Vancouver BC went from $640k ($820k after inflation) to $1300k. The average square footage also went down in BC, but stayed stable in YK.

> For example, in Whitehorse in Yukon the average house was $420k (or $550k inflation adjusted to 2024) in 2015, and $660k in 2024. So less than 20% growth after inflation within the last decade. These are already insanely high prices for such small, remote, and undesirable cities

Whitehorse is not undesirable, it's located in a beautiful valley and has a fairly mild climate. And I specifically took the worst case of price growth in YK. If you look at Watson Lake, the price there has not grown at all.

My point is that smaller cities in Canada are not experiencing runaway price growth.

This should make it clear that it's not a housing shortage problem. Otherwise, it'd be experienced equally across the board.

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