Image of the day: poll on why housing is so expensive

Prices reflect scarcity

What do Canadians believe is slowing down the construction of new housing? Eddie Shepard, Abacus Data, June 2024.

Mario Polese, The Wealth and Poverty of Regions (2009):

As in medicine, the essential first step to a cure is an accurate diagnosis. And as in medicine, a proper diagnosis requires combining an understanding of general laws with an understanding of the patient’s particular circumstances.

[My own view:

• “Municipal bylaws and policies” is the big problem on the supply side. We have people who want to live and work in Metro Vancouver, and we have other people who want to build housing for them, but we make it really hard to get permission: “It’s easier to elect a pope.” We regulate new housing like it’s a nuclear power plant, and we tax it like it’s a gold mine.

• And the two recent shocks on the demand side are “Changes in housing demand due to remote work” when Covid hit, and “Increased immigration to Canada” in the form of the post-Covid international student boom, especially at Ontario colleges.]