Housing hell: How we got here and how we get out.
Summary
TLDRThe script highlights Canada's severe housing crisis, where skyrocketing costs have made homeownership unattainable for an entire generation of youth. It delves into the root causes, including excessive government spending, leading to inflationary deficits and interest rate hikes, as well as restrictive zoning laws and bureaucratic red tape that impede housing supply. The author proposes practical solutions, such as tying federal infrastructure funding to housing completion targets, selling surplus federal land for residential development, and incentivizing cities to streamline permitting processes. The overarching message is the urgent need to address this crisis and restore housing affordability for the middle class in Canada.
Takeaways
- 🏡 Canada is facing an unprecedented housing affordability crisis, with many Canadians, including students and the middle class, unable to afford homes or even rents.
- 📈 Housing costs in Canada have risen dramatically in recent years, doubling in just 8 years, outpacing income growth and making homeownership increasingly unattainable.
- 🌍 Canada's housing costs have risen faster and higher than almost any other country in the world, with cities like Toronto and Vancouver ranking among the most unaffordable globally.
- 💰 Government deficits, quantitative easing, and low interest rates have fueled housing inflation, with wealthy investors being able to access cheap mortgages.
- 📉 Canada's housing supply has not kept up with population growth, leading to a significant shortage of homes relative to demand.
- 🚧 Government regulations, permits, delays, and red tape add significant costs to home construction, acting as a barrier to building more affordable housing.
- 💸 The gap between the actual cost of building a home and its final sale price can be over $1 million, largely due to government fees, charges, and delays.
- 🏗️ Streamlining and incentivizing the housing approval process, and linking federal infrastructure funding to housing completions, could help increase housing supply.
- 🌆 Examples like the Squamish Nation development in Vancouver show that bypassing restrictive city rules can enable rapid construction of dense housing.
- 🔑 Addressing the housing crisis requires a multi-pronged approach, including fiscal responsibility, regulatory reform, and incentives for housing construction.
Q & A
What is the central issue discussed in the script?
-The script primarily discusses the housing affordability crisis in Canada, where housing costs have risen dramatically, making it increasingly difficult for the average Canadian, especially the younger generation, to afford a home.
What are some of the striking examples provided in the script to highlight the severity of the housing crisis?
-The script cites examples such as students living in their vehicles or homeless shelters, newlyweds paying $1,000 per month to rent a single room, 35-year-olds living in their parents' basements, and middle-class professionals like nurses and carpenters living in their vehicles due to high housing costs.
How does the script compare Canada's housing costs to other countries?
-The script states that Canada's housing costs have risen faster and higher than almost any other country on Earth. It mentions that Canadian homes in border towns are often 100% more expensive than their American counterparts, and cities like Vancouver and Toronto rank among the most unaffordable cities globally, even compared to places with higher population densities like Singapore.
What are the two main factors identified in the script as contributing to the high housing costs?
-The script identifies two main factors: 1) Government deficits and monetary policies leading to higher interest rates, and 2) Supply constraints and regulatory barriers that limit new home construction.
How does the script suggest addressing the issue of high interest rates?
-The script suggests cutting government waste, capping government spending with a "dollar-for-dollar" law that forces politicians to find savings for each new dollar of spending, and bringing down inflation and interest rates by moving towards a balanced budget.
What role does the script attribute to regulatory barriers and "gatekeepers" in the housing crisis?
-The script identifies regulatory barriers, permit delays, changing rules, costly consultants, lawyers' fees, charges, and taxes as significant contributors to high housing costs, labeling them as the "gatekeeper gap." It suggests these regulatory hurdles are blocking and delaying home construction.
What solution does the script propose to incentivize cities to permit more housing construction?
-The script proposes linking federal infrastructure funding to cities to the number of new homes completed, providing building bonuses to cities that exceed housing targets, and requiring high-density housing around federally funded transit stations.
What example of successful housing development does the script cite?
-The script cites the Squamish Nation's development in Vancouver, where they approved and began building 6,000 apartments and condos on just 10.4 acres of land, bypassing the city's regulatory hurdles.
How does the script frame the housing crisis beyond just the financial aspect?
-The script frames the housing crisis as a threat to people's lives, financial futures, security, and ability to raise families, arguing that a home is central to everything people do in their lives.
What is the script's overall message regarding the housing crisis and its potential resolution?
-The script's overall message is that the current housing affordability crisis in Canada is a recent phenomenon caused by government policies and regulatory barriers, and that it can be resolved by changing these policies, reining in government spending, and removing obstacles to new home construction.
Outlines
🏡 Canada's Unprecedented Housing Crisis
This paragraph highlights the severe housing crisis in Canada, where an entire generation of youth cannot afford homes. Housing costs have doubled in just 8 years, with rent, mortgage payments, and required down payments all doubling. The situation is worse than other countries, with Toronto and Vancouver ranking as some of the most unaffordable cities globally. It compares housing costs to income levels, showing how a significant portion of income goes towards housing expenses, leaving little for other necessities.
💰 Understanding the Root Causes: Government Deficits and Interest Rates
This paragraph examines the root causes of the housing crisis, primarily focusing on government deficits and their impact on interest rates. It explains how the Trudeau government's deficit spending and borrowing have contributed to inflation, forcing the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates, which in turn increases mortgage payments. The paragraph also touches on the Bank of Canada's quantitative easing policies and their effects on housing inflation, particularly for wealthy investors.
🚧 Government Gatekeeping and Barriers to Housing Supply
This paragraph explores the issue of government red tape and barriers to housing supply. It highlights the significant gap between the cost of building a home and its final sale price, attributing this difference to government permit delays, changing rules, consultants' fees, taxes, and other charges. The paragraph provides examples of cities blocking housing developments and advocates for incentivizing good behavior by tying federal infrastructure funding to housing completions. It also suggests selling off federal land and buildings suitable for housing development.
🏡 Conclusion: A Call for Action
This single-line paragraph serves as a concluding statement, emphasizing the importance of addressing the housing crisis and its far-reaching implications for people's lives, financial futures, and overall well-being.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Housing Bubble
💡Affordability
💡Down Payment
💡Mortgage Payments
💡Rent
💡Quantitative Easing
💡Supply and Demand
💡Gatekeeper Gap
💡Infrastructure Funding
💡Home Ownership
Highlights
Canada is sitting on probably one of the largest housing bubbles of all times, with an entire generation of youth saying they will never be able to afford a home.
It now takes 66% of the average monthly income to make payments on the average single detached Canadian house, leaving little for other necessities.
Housing costs have gone up more since 2015 than they had in all the years before that combined.
Canada's housing costs have risen faster and higher than almost any other country on Earth.
Vancouver is now the third and Toronto the 10th most unaffordable city on earth, worse than New York, London, and even Singapore.
A major global bank now lists Toronto as having the riskiest housing bubble in the world, with Vancouver sixth.
The Trudeau government has doubled Canada's debt, adding more debt than all prime ministers combined, contributing to inflation.
The Bank of Canada has started creating cash through quantitative easing, leading to more money bidding on fewer houses, resulting in higher prices.
Investors doubled the number of home purchases they made in just over a year, contributing to the housing inflation.
Canada built fewer homes last year than it built in 1972, despite having a larger population.
The most expensive thing that goes into a new house in Vancouver is the cost of government permit delays, changing rules, consultants, lawyers, fees, charges, and taxes.
The Ontario housing affordability task force report stated that minimum parking requirements can add as much as $165,000 to the cost of a new home.
The Trudeau government has encouraged gatekeeping by providing billions of dollars in new grants to the same city governments that block home building.
The solution proposed is to link the federal infrastructure money big city governments receive to the number of new homes completed.
The Squamish Nation in Vancouver has been able to approve and begin building 6,000 apartments and condos on just 10.4 acres of land because they did not need to follow Vancouver City Hall rules.
Transcripts
something new and strange has happened
in Canada Canada is sitting on probably
one of the largest housing bubbles of
all times something we haven't seen
before an entire generation of Youth now
say they will never be able to afford a
home this is not normal for Canada we've
got students who are living in their
vehicles because they couldn't find a
place to live tens of thousands of
Canadians could default mosha on their
mortgages and are we looking at that
kind of nightmare scenario after
generations of a able and stable
Canadian home prices it now takes 66% of
the average monthly income to make
payments on the average single detached
Canadian house given that most of the
remaining 34% of the family paycheck is
taken up by taxes there's literally
nothing left for food and Recreation and
that all assumes that you have enough
for a down payment to get the mortgage
in the first place saving up for that
down payment in Toronto now takes an
average of 25 years not long ago you
paid off a mortgage in that time so
young people must rent but rent has
doubled in the last8 Years newlyweds now
pay $1,000 per month to rent a single
room in a townhouse that they share with
two other couples 35-year olds live in
their parents' basement rents are so
high in Toronto that students live in
homeless shelters others sleep in their
cars or even under bridges just to
afford to go to university one
grandmother posted signs on hydro poles
trying to find a place to live middle
class people like nurse and Carpenters
now live in their vehicles tent cities
are popping up in almost every major
city and many small towns in Canada
mostly in places that never had them
before and because homeless shelters are
overflowing with people new refugees are
now told to live on the streets and
under bridges like all countries we've
always had problems throughout Canada's
past though almost anyone who got a job
could save up and buy a home by their
mids when did all that change
years
ago it's crazy to think but in a little
under a decade Canada's housing costs
have basically doubled the rent has
doubled mortgage payments doubled the
needed down payment on an average home
doubled Double Trouble think about that
housing costs have gone up more since
2015 than they had in all the years
before that combined 8 years years ago
the average one-bedroom rent was about
970 bucks the average today
$1,871 the average needed down payment
about
$23,000 today 51 Grand 8 years ago the
average mortgage payment was about
$1,400 now it's over
$3,500 8 years ago payments on an
average single detach home cost roughly
4 % of median family income now that
number is
66% meaning that paychecks have not
caught up with the cost of housing and
we can't blame the rest of the world
Canada's housing costs have risen faster
and higher than almost any other country
on Earth depending on how and when you
measure it Canada's housing costs are on
average 45 to 75% higher than in the
United States in Border towns it's even
more homes on the Canadian side are
often 100% more expensive than their
American counterparts look at this home
in Niagara Canada versus this home in
Niagara New York only about a half an
hour apart from one another Vancouver is
now the third and Toronto the 10th most
unaffordable city on earth worse than
New York London England and even
Singapore a wealthy island with 2,000
times more people per square kilometer
than Canada all these places have more
money and people and less land yet they
are more affordable UBS a major global
bank now lists Toronto as having the
riskiest housing bubble in the world
with Vancouver sixth according to UBS
home prices in Toronto and Vancouver
have gone from Fair valued to overvalued
to Bubble risk all in only 10 years this
two-bedroom property in Toronto's
Kensington neighborhood cost the same as
a 20-bedroom castle situated on 5 acres
of land in Scotland
this shouldn't be a problem in Canada
based on our supply demand Dynamics
think about it with our massive
geography meaning lots of supply and our
small population meaning limited demand
housing should be cheap here in Canada
we have the most land per person of any
G7 country that includes much land close
to big cities where people need to live
to work so why is it so expensive
well let's break it down a mortgage
payment has two parts interest and
principle interest rates are set by the
Bank of Canada but heavily influenced by
the federal government you'll forgive me
if I don't think about monetary policy
uh when the government borrows and
spends it bids up the goods we buy and
the interest we pay the Trudeau
government has doubled Canada's debt
adding more debt than all prime
ministers combined our finance minister
has conceded that this deficit spending
pours fuel on the inflationary fire and
I'm going to start with what we
shouldn't do I think that it is very
important not to make the problem worse
I am very mindful of the importance of
not pouring fiscal fuel on the Flames of
inflation and then a few weeks later she
poured $69 billion of new fuel on that
fire for governments to run huge
deficits or borrow money they sell bonds
to investors in recent years the trudo
government spending has exploded and
they've been boring more than lenders
will lend so the Bank of Canada has
started creating the cash the money
supply has therefore grown eight times
faster than the economy over the last 3
years more money bidding on fewer Goods
including fewer houses equals higher
prices but the central bank doesn't just
send a Brinks truck to the prime
minister office rather they use a
complicated set of transactions that
they call quantitative easing I always
be suspicious when you hear a
complicated word that makes no sense to
anyone except those benefiting from it
here's how it goes first the government
sells bonds to financial institutions
then the Bank of Canada buys those bonds
right back at higher prices Financial
corporations love it because they're
guaranteed a big profit but the
consequence is not only that the
government gets more easy money to spend
but the financial system overflows with
cash which often is Lent out at ultra
low rates in super large mortgages
particularly for wealthy investors whose
banking connections get them to the
front of the line so as you can see in
this chart from the Bank of Canada
itself investors doubled the number of
Home purchases they made in just over a
year the black line well it shows when
the quantitative easing began cause
money printing effect housing inflation
so the government deficits forc the Bank
of Canada to boost interest rates to
push inflation back down former liberal
Finance Minister John Manley put it this
way it appears that fiscal monetary
policy are not aligned and the
importance of that alignment is is key
we're still running very large fiscal
deficits um the government still talks
about how much they're going to they're
going to continue to spend and uh this
is a bit like driving your car with one
foot on the gas and the other on the
break Common Sense solution stop the
inflationary deficits so the bank
doesn't have to raise the rates that
means cutting government waste and
capping government spending with a
dollar Ford dooll law that forces
politicians to find a Dollar of savings
for each new dollar of spending by
getting back towards a balance budget
will bring down inflation and interest
rates on your mortgage payment so that
helps address the interest cost of the
mortgage payment what about the
principle which is determined by the
home price Canadian prices which are so
much higher than in other countries are
determined by supply and demand we have
the fewest houses per capita in the G7
even though we have the most land to
build on we have fewer houses per capita
today than we did 8 years ago as
population has outgrown Home Building
Canada built fewer homes last year than
it built in 1972 50 years ago consider
this in 1972 Canada's population was 22
million and we built about 230,000 homes
in 2022 Canada's population was 39
million and we built about 220,000 homes
in other words far more people far less
home build
and the shortfall is only growing
Canada's housing agency the cmhc
predicts a 32% drop in home building
this year as higher interest rates and
red tape are blocking construction the
agency projects that we will be 3.5
million homes short by the year 2030
based on our current estimates of
building and population growth where
will those 3.5 million families live
live more importantly why can't we build
homes to house them what do you think is
the most expensive thing that goes into
a new house and say Vancouver is it
labor Lumber land nope government a CD
house study added up all the costs of
labor materials land and profit needed
to build a home and compared it to the
final sale price in Vancouver the Gap
was nearly 1.3
million that Gap or as I call it the
gatekeeper Gap is the cost of government
permit delays changing rules pricey
Consultants lawyers fees charges taxes
Etc another study showed Montreal City
Government blocked 24,000 homes the city
of Winnipeg meanwhile just lost a
lawsuit because it tried to block the
construction of nearly 2,000 homes right
next to a newly built Transit System as
an example of the Mindless red tape
costs the Ontario housing affordability
task force report stated that quote
minimum parking requirements add as much
as
$165,000 to the cost of a new home even
as demand for parking spaces is falling
and that one of the strongest signs that
our approval process is not working of
35 oecd countries only the Slovak
Republic takes longer than Canada to
approve a building project the UK and
the US approve projects three times
faster without sacrificing quality or
safety government development charges in
Ontario can be as much as
$135,000 per home and some have
increased as much as
900% in less than 20 years and those
charges don't include governmental costs
like taxes delays and uncertainty worst
of all the trudo government has
encouraged this gatekeeping with
billions of dollars in new grants to the
same city governments that block Home
Building he is literally funding the
hiring of more Gatekeepers to stand in
the way of building homes so you lose
two ways you pay more in taxes so that
you can pay more for a home so what if
we incentivized good behavior rather
than reinforcing the bad here's how we
can the federal government spends about
$4.5 billion on direct and continuous
Municipal infrastructure transfers big
city politicians care about getting that
money more than anything else they'll
only permit more Home Building faster if
their Federal money depends on it my
Common Sense plan One require big cities
to complete 15% more Home Building per
year as a condition of getting Federal
infrastructure Money Two give building
bonuses to cities that exceed the 15%
Target dollars should be based on
housing completions not promises three
require federally funded Transit
stations be permitted for high density
Apartments all around it and withhold
Federal Transit grants until the
apartments are built and occupied four
sell off 15% of federal buildings and
thousands of Acres of surplus federal
land suitable for housing instead of
funding promises the federal government
should fund results it should link the
number of federal dollars big city
governments get for infrastructure to
the number of new homes completed money
should flow after the keys are indoors
pay for promises get more promises pay
for results get results the good news is
we have examples of success look at the
Squamish nation and their development in
Vancouver they've approved and begun
building on 6,000 apartments and condos
on just 10.4 acres of land that's nearly
600 homes per acre now they could do
this because being a reserve they did
not need to follow Vancouver City Hall
rules that means 6,000 hardworking local
residents will get a place to live
because there were no City Gatekeepers
standing in the way but let's bring this
back this isn't just about the price of
a home it is not just about numbers this
is people's lives if we don't fix this
we could have hundreds of thousands of
middleclass people living on the street
in Canada a home is your financial
future a home is the place you're secure
a home is where you raise a family a
home is at the center of everything you
do in your life if the government stands
in the way of you getting a home it
stands in the way of your entire life
going forward the good news is housing
costs were not like this before Justin
Trudeau and they won't be like this
after he's gone we can borrow less and
build more we have all the natural
advantages abundant land labor and
lumber the best Carpenters plumbers
framers and electricians and
homebuilders we just need to get The
Gatekeepers out of their way and yours
so that we can bring it
home
Просмотреть больше связанных видео
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tNkjFaCV_nM/hq720.jpg)
Here's How We Fix the Housing Crisis
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MIz4TkEVJ0Q/hq720.jpg)
Shadow City: Homelessness in New York | Fault Lines
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5kcpboFM8Lw/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEXCJADEOABSFryq4qpAwkIARUAAIhCGAE=&rs=AOn4CLAQNMNwq25muMv5oRONNAG1nr0VbA)
Why are so many seniors in San Diego aging without a home? | NBC 7 San Diego
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/V4P91j8Xihk/hq720.jpg)
Tax Cuts Will BOOST Borrowing Power by $$$
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/K-fOHlCxCtw/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEXCJADEOABSFryq4qpAwkIARUAAIhCGAE=&rs=AOn4CLCQv7x0XHvGAOu8M-3pYgSURqR2bg)
2024 AQA GCSE GEOGRAPHY PRE-RELEASE BOOKLET - ENGLAND'S HOUSING CHALLENGE - TUDELEY VILLAGE
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GynWyS9xPYI/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCIAKENAF8quKqQMa8AEB-AH-CYAC0AWKAgwIABABGFggXyhlMA8=&rs=AOn4CLDjiKkOrw6abCXj4jlpUUMhfP4anw)
РУБЛЁВКА в Северной столице и другие ЛУЧШИЕ локации для жизни на севере Питера
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)