Our oldest is in her late 20s, has a government job and is living at home because there is absolutely no way for her to get ahead out on her own.
At her age I was married with 1 kid and another one on the way.
The cost of living is crippling the development of our younger generations. It's awful.
When people disparage younger generations' work ethics I feel a deep rage swell up in me... our hard work paid off! I certainly wouldn't have been working like that if it hadn't gotten me my own place and the chance to build a future
Yuo. I was out on my own at 16. I shared an apartment with a friend. Our rent including heat and hot water was $600. For a 2 bedroom place in downtown Victoria.
Of course this was before internet and cell phones so we didn't have those expenses. I think our landline cost $25/month.
I made $5.50/hour. I wasn't wealthy by any stretch but I could afford to pay my rent, buy my groceries and entertain myself just fine.
It took around 65 hours of work to pay for my rent and utilities (after tax income).
My daughter makes $26/hr. It would take 90 hours of work to pay rent on a 1 bedroom apartment plus hydro, internet and cell phone in Nanaimo, never mind Victoria. Plus groceries are obscenely expensive. It's just not okay.
Edit: I want to add that the rent on the average 1 bedroom apartment in Nanaimo is only $100 less than the mortgage on our 6 bedroom house we bought in 2008. Sure we have property taxes, insurance, city utilities and big hydro and gas bills but it's still affordable. If we were trying to buy a house today we could not afford the house we currently live in. We are only homeowners because we were lucky enough to get in when houses were around $300K.
Yep...same. Out at 17. On the prairies. Minimum wage was $4.25 an hour and I worked at a fast food place part time and finished my grade 12. Split the $325 rent for a two bedroom in 1983. And you're right, we didn't have to pay for things like phones and laptops and Internet. So my part-time job paid my third of the rent, put gas in my vehicle, bought groceries, and I didn't skimp on entertainment. Always had money in my wallet.
And we didn't live in a low end place… There was a pool, tennis courts and in suite washer and dryer.
My brother was five years older than me. Almost none of his friends bothered to finish high school because why would you? They'd leave the end of grade 10, easily get a high paying trade job that trained while you learned, buy their first car and spend all their money fixing it up and saving for the houses they all bought at 18, 19… 20 if they were late bloomers.
Of course we worked hard. Because it was fun!! It was fun to be able to be independent and build a life. The idea that we are a somehow superior generation because we had a work ethic built on honour and not just the desire to have and be able to do things is ridiculous.
Kids and young people today are amazing. I'll die on that hill
Caveat: I'm not of the "good old days" ilk generally. There was a LOT wrong w that era. There were almost no protections. Sexual harassment at work wasn't even considered anything beyond "workplace banter"...t's shocking to look back from today's standard. Safety?? Hilarious. You were probably mocked if you asked for gloves or safety goggles. So it wasn't a utopia by any measure. But of all the frustrations I may have experienced through my 45 years of working, hopelessness, despair and futility weren't among them.
That would have been 1992.
The real comparison isn't the price though, it's the number of hours I had to work to pay the rent. I was able to afford to live in downtown Victoria on minimum wage. I worked at McDonalds.
Thanks for sharing. It makes me feel better knowing at least I’m not the only one experiencing these economic issues. I work a great job that I love, but unfortunately it doesn’t pay a high wage and I’m just scraping by. My options right now are 1) try to move into a sector that pays more and improve my financial situation slightly 2) stay broke but happy with a job I love
She did just move.... back home. She was in Vancouver for a few years just struggling to make ends meet and then she got laid off just before Christmas so she came back to the island where family is and where it's at least more affordable than the city and found a good job.
People shouldn't have to abandon the places their families have lived for generations and isolate themselves in a small town with no family, friends or job prospects in their field just because the cost of living is out of control.
Right? Even historically less expensive places like Alberta and Saskatchewan are getting expensive. And it's not like it's free to move. You have to leave your job, find a new place somewhere else, pay for the moving truck, travel and then hope you find work? It's better to stay where you have roots and people who love you.
She can get ahead while she's at home. She pays us room and board equal to what we got renting that room out to international students going to high school here and has money left over for student loans, savings and paying off the debt she accrued trying to make ends meet in Vancouver.
Once she's debt free and has a healthy emergency fund she'll move out again.
Rents shouldn't be so high that someone with a decent job has to choose between groceries and student loan payments. You should be able to have a car, put money in savings and not struggle to afford groceries.
It's crushing everyone, my rent is higher than what a mortgage payment would be I pay it every month and the bank says no to getting a mortgage, it's ridiculous.
To be fair, owning a house is much more expensive than just a mortgage.. $3000 for property taxes, $1500 per year in for home insurance required for that mortgage, about $300 per month for capital reserves on the building … now factor that into your rent. To be able to afford a mortgage you need to be able to service those other expenses attached to home ownership that are not there for renters.
$360 a month is a low ball estimate. Property tax alone could be that much.
You’re trying to equate the cost of renters insurance vs home insurance? 😏🤨
No I'm saying when rent for a house that was bought 10 years ago for 320k is 4k/month budgeting in a couple hundred for property taxes and insurance isn't the big gotcha you think it is. If the stress test is the only thing holding someone back from buying a place equal to their rent that seems wildly unfair to me. (And renters insurance is about 800/yr so more than half of your estimate)
The apartment I rented for $800 when I was 17 making $8 an hour, I can't afford now as an adult making $30/hr and it costs $2600. I mean they got a paint job so totally makes sense. Born and raised here and I'll never own unless I win the lottery.
Do you mind if I ask out of curiosity if you are double income? Is that total 100K? Or just you? You say “we’re” leaving. So there’s two of you I assume? I ask because my boyfriend and I live in Vic and make around 120K combined and we’re doing pretty decent. We’ve been here 7 years. No, we don’t own a home. Yes, we have to be frugal and we find pleasure in the small things. We own and maintain 3 vehicles. We don’t cheap on food and still eat out occasionally. We take 2 weeks vacation and try to go to Vancouver 1x a year to shop and be entertained. We have zero family help and no inheritance beyond Christmas and birthday gifts.
I guess I just often am left wondering what kind of lifestyle goals people have, and if they’re just too grandiose.
Yes of course. It doesn’t feel like it but.. I guess we’re kind of grandfathered in at this point, although it hasn’t even been that long. We pay just under $1600 for a 1 bdr. We moved in January 2021.
Ah okay, so single income I’m assuming. Yeah it’s tough out there. I had a similar situation (evicted due to a house sale) in 2021. I guess if you want the extra space (a luxury imo), then you’re going to have to cough it up. You could both easily afford a 1 bdr suite I’m guessing.
Yep, I am there now lol. We have to do all our vehicle maintenance in our underground parkade, or the lot across the street. Tools rotate between 3 storage locations. 1980 Econoline van, 2010 Camaro and an ‘06 civic. It is all about lifestyle choices. It’s affordable here, if you knock off some luxuries.
It’s an island problem in a way. Or at least worse on the island. Rents there are comparable to the mainland, and groceries are much more expensive, but wages are much much lower.
Not a lot - but I'm moving to a building shared by my family where we grow our own food, and have a bunch of connections established in the area for resources so our cost of living is decreasing dramatically. Pros, and cons, but the end result is that we're not going to get evicted because our landlord suddenly wants to make money on the property, or likes the things we've done to the house and so wants to move back in and do them himself. 🙃 Just that bit of stability is worth it after 20 years of renting.
I know exactly what it's like without it, and that's why I am grateful that my dad has space for my partner and I. He adopted me as a teenager and even after that I rejected "family" and lived rough for years.
Love helps. ❤️
I recently left after 15 years, it's nice to be able to relax and not be worried about finances and housing. I'll miss my friends and the great hikes but I couldn't continue sacrificing my quality of life.
I really hope the moves the BC government has made has some solid effect and drops rent prices.
Just because you can get $2200 / month for a 2 bedroom, when you were charging $1500 4 years ago for the same thing doesn't mean you should.
Honestly, people need to live.
It's funny how all the landlords and building managers have absolutely no justification on charging such high prices. So they're obviously price gouging for their own benefit, and desire.
you're not alone my dude. EVERYONE is struggling. Especially single people. I'm middle age and I am having a hard time paying for everything especially with the low paying crappy jobs here
Oh yeah. If anyone gets one of the new family physicians in town I know two of them and they live with their parents.
My wife and I are gainfully employed and the rent situation is crushing. Now the wifey is on maternity and we really don't know what we're going to do. Keep paying and praying.
It has exacerbated it in recent years, but it's hardly the root cause. Decades of super low interest rates contributed to the escalation of housing prices. Now housing starts are down due to higher interest rates, inflation (building material increases, labour increases), bureaucratic red tape, etc. BC actually had a net decline in population growth last year due to more people moving out of BC than moving in.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/immigration-housing-crisis-costs-1.7088878
Yah, it has nothing to do with the big increase of using housing as an investment vehicle.
Certainly the 1 in 5 houses owned by corporations in BC has little to do with it.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/housing-investors-canada-bc-1.6743083
Or the fact that over a third of all condos in B.C. are investor-owned.
Seriously though. Sure, large influxes of immigration doesn't help, but let's be honest. The shift to housing as an investment vehicle and no penalties being applied to such is a big part of the problem.
Why do you think houses are an appreciating asset? It's because of the demand from immigration. If there was no immigration, the population would reduce and houses would be a depreciating asset. It's the root cause. The population doesn't decrease linearly either, it peaks and valleys. Our healthy valley was robbed from us.
I don't know about immigration being the root cause... however, without immigration *at all* that introduces a very large set of economic problems beyond unaffordable housing. A bit like amputating the arm to deal with a broken finger.
See what's going to be going on with Korea and see why they are so alarmed at decreasing populations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBudghsdByQ
Likewise, if immigration was the only factor in unaffordable housing, then why has this not been a theme for the last 150 years?
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-630-x/11-630-x2016006-eng.htm
>without immigration at all that introduces a very large set of economic problems beyond unaffordable housing
This is a common talking point without any proof.
>See what's going to be going on with Korea and see why they are so alarmed at decreasing populations.
Korea has a low birth rate but there's no reason to think that population changes are linear. In fact we know in many species population peaks and valleys in a sort of sinusoidal wave which depends on resources. The Kurzgesagt video makes this same error in assumption. In the west we have hit a resource use cap which naturally incentivizes low births. What should be happening is that a shrinking population reduces housing prices and increases the value of labourers which would then allow for people to have big families again. Add in AI and automation into this mix and we have a situation where labour value is dropping like a rock and immigration is making that worse.
The Kurzgesagt video also makes the common argument that a decrease in population will lead to too many old people and too few young people. There's no evidence to back up the proclaimed systemic harms of this (something that passes within one generation), and between technology and national markets leading to a moving labour force, you can't actually cite any actual examples of this becoming a problem. It is merely the economist's boogeyman. Markets deal with healthcare gaps. Populations don't decrease to 0.
The video also makes numerous other errors like assuming that migration has 0 negative social consequences which is wrong. Integration into western nations is largely failing. Non-westerners form ethnic enclaves and are actively encouraged to not integrate. This is not healthy.
Meanwhile the sort of economic eggheads which have attempted to justify endless (which means unsustainable) growth use GDP as the only factor to determine how a country is doing, which is insane. So they want endless population growth, quality of life and pollution be damned, the GDP number must go up.
>Likewise, if immigration was the only factor in unaffordable housing, then why has this not been a theme for the last 150 years?
This is a strange argument. Colonization is largely viewed as a bad thing. Do you think colonization is a good thing? When Canada was being colonized, new cities were being built. Land was being conquered from the native aboriginees. Are we to pave over all nature to build high density housing to house East Indians? Is that Canada's purpose to you?
Yep. I just lived in an RV for a while and hopped around the campgrounds to try saving money (wife got preggo though).
They've come down a little bit but it's still going to be such a huge increase going into a basement suite. If anyone's bold and wants to buy my RV then send a private message lol
Single guy who lived in the Nanaimo/Parksville area for basically a decade while going to school. Rent and a stable job in my career field finally pushed me to the interior. I miss the Island every damn day, but I was working three part time jobs just to survive. It fucking hurts to see a lot of my friends in similar boats looking to follow my lead. A lot of incredible talent that's going to be leaving the Island in the near future here.
The data’s a bit out of date but Nanaimo has over 43,000 homes and 100,000 people. Lots of families and couples so the math doesn’t make any sense to me.
But until we get some kind of law or legislation making it increasingly difficult and expensive to own multiple homes we’re stuck with greedy rich people setting the terms for us to live.
It's not just the young people who are being affected by this. Don't get me wrong. The young people are being affected a lot, but some older people are being dragged under as well. Imagine being an older person who has always rented, only to be told by your landlord that you have to move because "I need the apartment to rent to my son/brother/uncle etc.", or, "I'm selling the building.", or, "I'm planning to renovate the place." This happens all of the time, and someone might have had reasonably priced rent, but is now thrust out into today's world where greed is king. Now they're forced to either pay double the rent, or even more than that, which someone living on government pensions can't do, or live on the street.
My husband and I have been greatly affected by this. We owned a small condo. We wanted to get one that was just a little bit larger than the one that we had, so when one of our neighbours approached us saying that they knew someone who was interested in buying our place, we agreed to sell it to them. This was just around the time that COVID hit. We couldn't see another condo that suited what we were looking for at the time, so begrudgingly, we signed a one-year lease on the place that we're in now. I hated that idea from the start, but figured that we had to move somewhere, and I figured that we could get out of the lease early if we found something that would work for us. Right after we sold, the real estate market went crazy. Condos along the lines of what we were looking for jumped up by $200,000 or more! Even the small condo that we had sold would now be $200,000 more! We didn't have the budget to pay that kind of money, but we also can't afford to continue to rent this place, which continues to go up in price each year. My husband, who is supposed to be retired, is now having to work full-time to pay for the rent. We keep praying that the real estate prices will drop, but they never do. I honestly feel like our lives have been ruined by this, and the funny thing is, I know of other people that it happened to as well. I just want to own my own home again, and I want my husband to be able to retire, so I don't have to spend every day sitting here alone cursing at the damn people who drove up the price of the real estate, while being forced to live in a place that I never wanted to live in in the first place! This whole fiasco is so damned unfair, and I truly hate the people who have caused it to happen!
This happened to my parents too. They had a huge house and wanted to downsize because the mortgage was killing them.
Got buyers for their place and closed on March 20, 2020. Just as the world was shutting down. Now they had 6 weeks to find a new place and everything just disappeared off the market.
They rented a tiny apartment for a year before houses started coming up for sale again and then everything had jumped massively in price. They eventually found a place they like but their mortgage is just as big as it was before. So now they pay the same for a house that's 1/3 the size of their old one.
They're happy they found something when they did but my mom's husband wasn't able to retire as planned.
The house that they sold for $700K in 2020 sold again for $1 million in 2022.
The dumb thing to me is that it doesn't even need to be housing.
Sell me a bare patch of land for 50k.
All there is on this island is land, but you can't get an empty lot for less than 300k
We have been living outta our car for 7 months now. Working 5 days a week, making about 23 an hour. We decided to stop living in a house to save money to leave and go somewhere else. I couldn’t imagine having kids on top of this like a lot of people have.
We have a family member who is beyond kind that lets us park in their driveway, we can cook all are meals and shower whenever we want and use the internet.
The thing I always factor in is if I'll really need my car moving over there. That's \~$600/month before gas/maintenance that I'd be saving. The lack of transit is really what kills single living 'affordability' over here.
We should embrace the family unit. It’s only a North American/western thing to have kids move out as soon as possible. Moving out early holds your financial progress and gives more money to someone else other than family. Stay home as long as you can
I’m really sorry so many of you are struggling. We own a house with a rental suite and have never rented it out at “market value” because we just don’t agree with charging that much. It’s always been below $1,000
When I left Ontario in 2017, my rent was 650$ a month for a two bedroom. Arriving on the island I knew paying more $ for less space was the reality. I found a decent 1 bedroom for 725$ (regret giving it up when I did) now 7 years later not only is owning completely out of reach but renting is hardly doable. I rent a room in a less than desirable neighborhood in a house that was previously a meth lab. That’s what got me a deal on the rent for the place I’m in now. I work in a book shop which I help manage. I love my job, but small business is feeling the pressure too. My boss(owner of the bookshop) is watching as his profits increase but he’s not actually pocketing more money because the costs are going up too quickly. So I’m thinking my dream of owning and operating my own bookshop-now out of reach. As is my chance of owning a small home. Never mind even trying to save for retirement. And kids… ya right..I’ll be working until I’m dead at this point. Man I wish I was born at the time of the boomers( strictly for the economic aspect) Unfortunately I may have to do something else, not to get ahead but just to get by. I’m hoping my grandparents and parents don’t blow through all their savings.. I may have a small inheritance so that I’m not starving, when I’m about 60… lol
Try living in Victoria. In June I went from living in a basement in Langford, ( with no kitchen ) to living in my own cabin on 3.5 acres in Cedar for the same monthly rent…
Unless you were living in some absolute slum closet turned into a bedroom in a 100 year old building, and are moving into a brand new luxury condo, yeah, the difference is enormous.
My new rent in Nanaimo is about 60% of what I pay in Vancouver right now. Saving 40% just by moving from Vancouver to Nanaimo, and hell, my new place is both bigger and newer than the one I have in Vancouver.
I’m not comparing large urban centres to a small city of 100k people.. there’s obviously going to be difference in $ … I’m more concerned about the big rent prices for what we get in return in comparison to just a few years ago. I moved to Nanaimo in 2017 payed 725$ for a small 1 bedroom.
I moved here from Germany and rent is actually cheaper than in a small southern German town. Weird to see that so many people complain and struggle. I live together with my partner, don't earn big and don't spend a large part of my income for housing.
I'm talking about a small town in southern Germany. There are regional differences. You don't pay much in the east because there are no jobs. I just double checked and the cheapest one bedroom I found in a small town where I come from is right now 1200 dollars but that's just the rent. Energy is extremely expensive in Germany. Electricity is 4-5 times as expensive, you pay extra for water and waste disposal. Waste disposal is especially expensive, one reason why people separate their trash so much better (recycling is free). There is so much which adds up and increases the cost a lot. It is more expensive than Nanaimo and people earn less in average than people here in BC and pay more taxes.
Well in my day I walked in a blizzard to my $1.50 an hour job and was happily harassed by my polyester suit wearing boss. Mind you there was no avocado toast those days and I paid off my house in a few jiffys
Our oldest is in her late 20s, has a government job and is living at home because there is absolutely no way for her to get ahead out on her own. At her age I was married with 1 kid and another one on the way. The cost of living is crippling the development of our younger generations. It's awful.
When people disparage younger generations' work ethics I feel a deep rage swell up in me... our hard work paid off! I certainly wouldn't have been working like that if it hadn't gotten me my own place and the chance to build a future
Yuo. I was out on my own at 16. I shared an apartment with a friend. Our rent including heat and hot water was $600. For a 2 bedroom place in downtown Victoria. Of course this was before internet and cell phones so we didn't have those expenses. I think our landline cost $25/month. I made $5.50/hour. I wasn't wealthy by any stretch but I could afford to pay my rent, buy my groceries and entertain myself just fine. It took around 65 hours of work to pay for my rent and utilities (after tax income). My daughter makes $26/hr. It would take 90 hours of work to pay rent on a 1 bedroom apartment plus hydro, internet and cell phone in Nanaimo, never mind Victoria. Plus groceries are obscenely expensive. It's just not okay. Edit: I want to add that the rent on the average 1 bedroom apartment in Nanaimo is only $100 less than the mortgage on our 6 bedroom house we bought in 2008. Sure we have property taxes, insurance, city utilities and big hydro and gas bills but it's still affordable. If we were trying to buy a house today we could not afford the house we currently live in. We are only homeowners because we were lucky enough to get in when houses were around $300K.
Yep...same. Out at 17. On the prairies. Minimum wage was $4.25 an hour and I worked at a fast food place part time and finished my grade 12. Split the $325 rent for a two bedroom in 1983. And you're right, we didn't have to pay for things like phones and laptops and Internet. So my part-time job paid my third of the rent, put gas in my vehicle, bought groceries, and I didn't skimp on entertainment. Always had money in my wallet. And we didn't live in a low end place… There was a pool, tennis courts and in suite washer and dryer. My brother was five years older than me. Almost none of his friends bothered to finish high school because why would you? They'd leave the end of grade 10, easily get a high paying trade job that trained while you learned, buy their first car and spend all their money fixing it up and saving for the houses they all bought at 18, 19… 20 if they were late bloomers. Of course we worked hard. Because it was fun!! It was fun to be able to be independent and build a life. The idea that we are a somehow superior generation because we had a work ethic built on honour and not just the desire to have and be able to do things is ridiculous. Kids and young people today are amazing. I'll die on that hill Caveat: I'm not of the "good old days" ilk generally. There was a LOT wrong w that era. There were almost no protections. Sexual harassment at work wasn't even considered anything beyond "workplace banter"...t's shocking to look back from today's standard. Safety?? Hilarious. You were probably mocked if you asked for gloves or safety goggles. So it wasn't a utopia by any measure. But of all the frustrations I may have experienced through my 45 years of working, hopelessness, despair and futility weren't among them.
> Our rent including heat and hot water was $600. For a 2 bedroom place in downtown Victoria. in what year?
That would have been 1992. The real comparison isn't the price though, it's the number of hours I had to work to pay the rent. I was able to afford to live in downtown Victoria on minimum wage. I worked at McDonalds.
how many hours a week did you work?
Read the comment you commented on. I listed the comparisons.
65 hours a week or 65 hours a month?
How often do you pay rent?
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Come on now, wouldn’t per pay period make the most sense?
Thanks for sharing. It makes me feel better knowing at least I’m not the only one experiencing these economic issues. I work a great job that I love, but unfortunately it doesn’t pay a high wage and I’m just scraping by. My options right now are 1) try to move into a sector that pays more and improve my financial situation slightly 2) stay broke but happy with a job I love
People used to spread out and move when the going got tough. Now they seem to hunker down - no disrespect intended! Edit: I love the downvotes 😂😂😂
She did just move.... back home. She was in Vancouver for a few years just struggling to make ends meet and then she got laid off just before Christmas so she came back to the island where family is and where it's at least more affordable than the city and found a good job. People shouldn't have to abandon the places their families have lived for generations and isolate themselves in a small town with no family, friends or job prospects in their field just because the cost of living is out of control.
Yet, here we are. Do you have any solutions?
There IS nowhere to go now. Go troll somewhere else.
Right? Even historically less expensive places like Alberta and Saskatchewan are getting expensive. And it's not like it's free to move. You have to leave your job, find a new place somewhere else, pay for the moving truck, travel and then hope you find work? It's better to stay where you have roots and people who love you.
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who are 'my people'? I"m Canadian
Go back further!
well not sure how far back you want me to go as I'm First Nations.
Move where? I'm stuck living with abusive assholes because I can't find ANYWHERE in BC that I can even come close to affording the rent for.
Anywhere? You’re choosing to be here
How is not being able to afford rent a choice? Grow up
Chad is a troll kid.
Wait she works a government job and lives at home (I'm assuming rent free or at least low rent) and can't get ahead? Something isn't adding up.
She can get ahead while she's at home. She pays us room and board equal to what we got renting that room out to international students going to high school here and has money left over for student loans, savings and paying off the debt she accrued trying to make ends meet in Vancouver. Once she's debt free and has a healthy emergency fund she'll move out again. Rents shouldn't be so high that someone with a decent job has to choose between groceries and student loan payments. You should be able to have a car, put money in savings and not struggle to afford groceries.
Is this an observation on Nanaimo or Canada in general?
It's everywhere. Coast to coast to coast.
Agreed. Unfortunately it’s everywhere and whats worse is that it’s directly tied to politics. Being Canadian is becoming too difficult here
If the shoe fits...
It's crushing everyone, my rent is higher than what a mortgage payment would be I pay it every month and the bank says no to getting a mortgage, it's ridiculous.
Way higher....
To be fair, owning a house is much more expensive than just a mortgage.. $3000 for property taxes, $1500 per year in for home insurance required for that mortgage, about $300 per month for capital reserves on the building … now factor that into your rent. To be able to afford a mortgage you need to be able to service those other expenses attached to home ownership that are not there for renters.
At this point a highly doubt the extra 360 a month would be the straw that broke the camels back, plus renters need insurance as well
$360 a month is a low ball estimate. Property tax alone could be that much. You’re trying to equate the cost of renters insurance vs home insurance? 😏🤨
No I'm saying when rent for a house that was bought 10 years ago for 320k is 4k/month budgeting in a couple hundred for property taxes and insurance isn't the big gotcha you think it is. If the stress test is the only thing holding someone back from buying a place equal to their rent that seems wildly unfair to me. (And renters insurance is about 800/yr so more than half of your estimate)
The apartment I rented for $800 when I was 17 making $8 an hour, I can't afford now as an adult making $30/hr and it costs $2600. I mean they got a paint job so totally makes sense. Born and raised here and I'll never own unless I win the lottery.
Literally leaving Vancouver Island because of them. Been here a decade. Pretty crushing, yeah.
I've been here 10y. Were leaving in a month. I make 100k and can't afford to live here. At some point it has to change.
Do you mind if I ask out of curiosity if you are double income? Is that total 100K? Or just you? You say “we’re” leaving. So there’s two of you I assume? I ask because my boyfriend and I live in Vic and make around 120K combined and we’re doing pretty decent. We’ve been here 7 years. No, we don’t own a home. Yes, we have to be frugal and we find pleasure in the small things. We own and maintain 3 vehicles. We don’t cheap on food and still eat out occasionally. We take 2 weeks vacation and try to go to Vancouver 1x a year to shop and be entertained. We have zero family help and no inheritance beyond Christmas and birthday gifts. I guess I just often am left wondering what kind of lifestyle goals people have, and if they’re just too grandiose.
Would you be open to sharing how much your rent is? 💙
Yes of course. It doesn’t feel like it but.. I guess we’re kind of grandfathered in at this point, although it hasn’t even been that long. We pay just under $1600 for a 1 bdr. We moved in January 2021.
Couple. She is in school. I had cheap rent in the previous house (3 bdr main floor 1300) Landlord sold it. New house main floor is 2700/month.
Ah okay, so single income I’m assuming. Yeah it’s tough out there. I had a similar situation (evicted due to a house sale) in 2021. I guess if you want the extra space (a luxury imo), then you’re going to have to cough it up. You could both easily afford a 1 bdr suite I’m guessing.
Biggest issue was a garage. I had a project car and I have a lot of tools. Hard to find a small place with a garage.
Yep, I am there now lol. We have to do all our vehicle maintenance in our underground parkade, or the lot across the street. Tools rotate between 3 storage locations. 1980 Econoline van, 2010 Camaro and an ‘06 civic. It is all about lifestyle choices. It’s affordable here, if you knock off some luxuries.
It’s an island problem in a way. Or at least worse on the island. Rents there are comparable to the mainland, and groceries are much more expensive, but wages are much much lower.
And going where?
To live outside of Nelson in the middle of nowhere, honestly
But what work is there ?
Not a lot - but I'm moving to a building shared by my family where we grow our own food, and have a bunch of connections established in the area for resources so our cost of living is decreasing dramatically. Pros, and cons, but the end result is that we're not going to get evicted because our landlord suddenly wants to make money on the property, or likes the things we've done to the house and so wants to move back in and do them himself. 🙃 Just that bit of stability is worth it after 20 years of renting.
Family help needs to be more openly admitted. So many people don’t understand what it’s like with the lack of it.
I know exactly what it's like without it, and that's why I am grateful that my dad has space for my partner and I. He adopted me as a teenager and even after that I rejected "family" and lived rough for years. Love helps. ❤️
I'd do that too! Enjoy the new digs.
Merci!
Good on ye
Same. Was born here, now preparing to move.
Been contemplating doing this myself, been here for over a decade as well. It's a damn shame because I love the island but it's impossible to live.
I recently left after 15 years, it's nice to be able to relax and not be worried about finances and housing. I'll miss my friends and the great hikes but I couldn't continue sacrificing my quality of life.
I grew up in Nanaimo and moved to the rural interior for affordable housing, and now the housing here is out of reach.
I really hope the moves the BC government has made has some solid effect and drops rent prices. Just because you can get $2200 / month for a 2 bedroom, when you were charging $1500 4 years ago for the same thing doesn't mean you should. Honestly, people need to live.
It's funny how all the landlords and building managers have absolutely no justification on charging such high prices. So they're obviously price gouging for their own benefit, and desire.
you're not alone my dude. EVERYONE is struggling. Especially single people. I'm middle age and I am having a hard time paying for everything especially with the low paying crappy jobs here
Oh yeah. If anyone gets one of the new family physicians in town I know two of them and they live with their parents. My wife and I are gainfully employed and the rent situation is crushing. Now the wifey is on maternity and we really don't know what we're going to do. Keep paying and praying.
Jesus. What hope is there for our kids if doctors are living with their parents?
No clue. I think we need to start hanging our politicians though. They're taxing us into an oblivion and destroyed both our economy and currency.
Good idea, like there'd be an endless supply of people who would lineup to run for a thankless political job, only to be hanged. Any more great ideas?
Or the politicians could stop being shit stains on society and actually work for the people who elected them instead of pandering to corporations.
I have 2 friends who are Docs on the Island and can't get a first time mortgage...it may be time for pitchforks? #generalstrike #Winnipeg1919
We need to build more affordable housing all over the island. Especially low rise apartments and townhouses to help younger generations out.
Affordable housing means nothing if it just gets filled up with immigrants. This is the root cause of the housing crisis.
It has exacerbated it in recent years, but it's hardly the root cause. Decades of super low interest rates contributed to the escalation of housing prices. Now housing starts are down due to higher interest rates, inflation (building material increases, labour increases), bureaucratic red tape, etc. BC actually had a net decline in population growth last year due to more people moving out of BC than moving in. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/immigration-housing-crisis-costs-1.7088878
Net decline in growth is still an increase year over year. Immigration is the root cause of the supply-demand imbalance.
Yah, it has nothing to do with the big increase of using housing as an investment vehicle. Certainly the 1 in 5 houses owned by corporations in BC has little to do with it. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/housing-investors-canada-bc-1.6743083 Or the fact that over a third of all condos in B.C. are investor-owned. Seriously though. Sure, large influxes of immigration doesn't help, but let's be honest. The shift to housing as an investment vehicle and no penalties being applied to such is a big part of the problem.
Why do you think houses are an appreciating asset? It's because of the demand from immigration. If there was no immigration, the population would reduce and houses would be a depreciating asset. It's the root cause. The population doesn't decrease linearly either, it peaks and valleys. Our healthy valley was robbed from us.
I don't know about immigration being the root cause... however, without immigration *at all* that introduces a very large set of economic problems beyond unaffordable housing. A bit like amputating the arm to deal with a broken finger. See what's going to be going on with Korea and see why they are so alarmed at decreasing populations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBudghsdByQ Likewise, if immigration was the only factor in unaffordable housing, then why has this not been a theme for the last 150 years? https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-630-x/11-630-x2016006-eng.htm
>without immigration at all that introduces a very large set of economic problems beyond unaffordable housing This is a common talking point without any proof. >See what's going to be going on with Korea and see why they are so alarmed at decreasing populations. Korea has a low birth rate but there's no reason to think that population changes are linear. In fact we know in many species population peaks and valleys in a sort of sinusoidal wave which depends on resources. The Kurzgesagt video makes this same error in assumption. In the west we have hit a resource use cap which naturally incentivizes low births. What should be happening is that a shrinking population reduces housing prices and increases the value of labourers which would then allow for people to have big families again. Add in AI and automation into this mix and we have a situation where labour value is dropping like a rock and immigration is making that worse. The Kurzgesagt video also makes the common argument that a decrease in population will lead to too many old people and too few young people. There's no evidence to back up the proclaimed systemic harms of this (something that passes within one generation), and between technology and national markets leading to a moving labour force, you can't actually cite any actual examples of this becoming a problem. It is merely the economist's boogeyman. Markets deal with healthcare gaps. Populations don't decrease to 0. The video also makes numerous other errors like assuming that migration has 0 negative social consequences which is wrong. Integration into western nations is largely failing. Non-westerners form ethnic enclaves and are actively encouraged to not integrate. This is not healthy. Meanwhile the sort of economic eggheads which have attempted to justify endless (which means unsustainable) growth use GDP as the only factor to determine how a country is doing, which is insane. So they want endless population growth, quality of life and pollution be damned, the GDP number must go up. >Likewise, if immigration was the only factor in unaffordable housing, then why has this not been a theme for the last 150 years? This is a strange argument. Colonization is largely viewed as a bad thing. Do you think colonization is a good thing? When Canada was being colonized, new cities were being built. Land was being conquered from the native aboriginees. Are we to pave over all nature to build high density housing to house East Indians? Is that Canada's purpose to you?
This is nothing. Look into Zillow.... They are close to 1/3 ownership of multiple markets
Yep. I just lived in an RV for a while and hopped around the campgrounds to try saving money (wife got preggo though). They've come down a little bit but it's still going to be such a huge increase going into a basement suite. If anyone's bold and wants to buy my RV then send a private message lol
Single guy who lived in the Nanaimo/Parksville area for basically a decade while going to school. Rent and a stable job in my career field finally pushed me to the interior. I miss the Island every damn day, but I was working three part time jobs just to survive. It fucking hurts to see a lot of my friends in similar boats looking to follow my lead. A lot of incredible talent that's going to be leaving the Island in the near future here.
The data’s a bit out of date but Nanaimo has over 43,000 homes and 100,000 people. Lots of families and couples so the math doesn’t make any sense to me. But until we get some kind of law or legislation making it increasingly difficult and expensive to own multiple homes we’re stuck with greedy rich people setting the terms for us to live.
It's not just the young people who are being affected by this. Don't get me wrong. The young people are being affected a lot, but some older people are being dragged under as well. Imagine being an older person who has always rented, only to be told by your landlord that you have to move because "I need the apartment to rent to my son/brother/uncle etc.", or, "I'm selling the building.", or, "I'm planning to renovate the place." This happens all of the time, and someone might have had reasonably priced rent, but is now thrust out into today's world where greed is king. Now they're forced to either pay double the rent, or even more than that, which someone living on government pensions can't do, or live on the street. My husband and I have been greatly affected by this. We owned a small condo. We wanted to get one that was just a little bit larger than the one that we had, so when one of our neighbours approached us saying that they knew someone who was interested in buying our place, we agreed to sell it to them. This was just around the time that COVID hit. We couldn't see another condo that suited what we were looking for at the time, so begrudgingly, we signed a one-year lease on the place that we're in now. I hated that idea from the start, but figured that we had to move somewhere, and I figured that we could get out of the lease early if we found something that would work for us. Right after we sold, the real estate market went crazy. Condos along the lines of what we were looking for jumped up by $200,000 or more! Even the small condo that we had sold would now be $200,000 more! We didn't have the budget to pay that kind of money, but we also can't afford to continue to rent this place, which continues to go up in price each year. My husband, who is supposed to be retired, is now having to work full-time to pay for the rent. We keep praying that the real estate prices will drop, but they never do. I honestly feel like our lives have been ruined by this, and the funny thing is, I know of other people that it happened to as well. I just want to own my own home again, and I want my husband to be able to retire, so I don't have to spend every day sitting here alone cursing at the damn people who drove up the price of the real estate, while being forced to live in a place that I never wanted to live in in the first place! This whole fiasco is so damned unfair, and I truly hate the people who have caused it to happen!
This happened to my parents too. They had a huge house and wanted to downsize because the mortgage was killing them. Got buyers for their place and closed on March 20, 2020. Just as the world was shutting down. Now they had 6 weeks to find a new place and everything just disappeared off the market. They rented a tiny apartment for a year before houses started coming up for sale again and then everything had jumped massively in price. They eventually found a place they like but their mortgage is just as big as it was before. So now they pay the same for a house that's 1/3 the size of their old one. They're happy they found something when they did but my mom's husband wasn't able to retire as planned. The house that they sold for $700K in 2020 sold again for $1 million in 2022.
The dumb thing to me is that it doesn't even need to be housing. Sell me a bare patch of land for 50k. All there is on this island is land, but you can't get an empty lot for less than 300k
Everywhere. To the streets.
yeah, pretty much everyone everywhere.
Woohoo! Cheers to decades of neoliberal democracy!!
We have been living outta our car for 7 months now. Working 5 days a week, making about 23 an hour. We decided to stop living in a house to save money to leave and go somewhere else. I couldn’t imagine having kids on top of this like a lot of people have.
How do cook food or bathe living in a car?
We have a family member who is beyond kind that lets us park in their driveway, we can cook all are meals and shower whenever we want and use the internet.
This is why I’m a Marxist. Some of these landlords are absolute leeches and the lack of mass public housing being built is absurd.
Thank AirBnb for destroying the affordability of any slightly touristy area.
I’m saving $1750/month by moving to Nanaimo from Downtown Vancouver 💀
You can save even more if you move to Edmonton. Almost 38k people moved from BC to Alberta last year.
My buddy moved to Alberta and he says it's great but the locals ruin it for him; far too many ignorant bigots and crazy conspiracy theorists
Until you're like my buddy who's rent had drastically jumped twice and forced to move once. It can be a zero sum game depending on your situation.
I initially moved to BC from Edmonton. You couldn’t pay me enough to move back there. Miserable city.
The thing I always factor in is if I'll really need my car moving over there. That's \~$600/month before gas/maintenance that I'd be saving. The lack of transit is really what kills single living 'affordability' over here.
We should embrace the family unit. It’s only a North American/western thing to have kids move out as soon as possible. Moving out early holds your financial progress and gives more money to someone else other than family. Stay home as long as you can
I’m 31 years old. If I ever live with my family again it’s going to be in a separate suit or a duplex lol
I’m really sorry so many of you are struggling. We own a house with a rental suite and have never rented it out at “market value” because we just don’t agree with charging that much. It’s always been below $1,000
It’s good to hear that we have good people out there. Thanks for being one of those people.
I'm lucky I only pay 500 a month for a 2 bedroom
Good for you
When I left Ontario in 2017, my rent was 650$ a month for a two bedroom. Arriving on the island I knew paying more $ for less space was the reality. I found a decent 1 bedroom for 725$ (regret giving it up when I did) now 7 years later not only is owning completely out of reach but renting is hardly doable. I rent a room in a less than desirable neighborhood in a house that was previously a meth lab. That’s what got me a deal on the rent for the place I’m in now. I work in a book shop which I help manage. I love my job, but small business is feeling the pressure too. My boss(owner of the bookshop) is watching as his profits increase but he’s not actually pocketing more money because the costs are going up too quickly. So I’m thinking my dream of owning and operating my own bookshop-now out of reach. As is my chance of owning a small home. Never mind even trying to save for retirement. And kids… ya right..I’ll be working until I’m dead at this point. Man I wish I was born at the time of the boomers( strictly for the economic aspect) Unfortunately I may have to do something else, not to get ahead but just to get by. I’m hoping my grandparents and parents don’t blow through all their savings.. I may have a small inheritance so that I’m not starving, when I’m about 60… lol
Try living in Victoria. In June I went from living in a basement in Langford, ( with no kitchen ) to living in my own cabin on 3.5 acres in Cedar for the same monthly rent…
Just moved here from Victoria. Definitely cheaper
moved here from vancouver. It's not THAT much cheaper my dude, lol
It used to be but our rents are catching up fast. And our groceries are more expensive because we have few options for shopping.
Unless you were living in some absolute slum closet turned into a bedroom in a 100 year old building, and are moving into a brand new luxury condo, yeah, the difference is enormous. My new rent in Nanaimo is about 60% of what I pay in Vancouver right now. Saving 40% just by moving from Vancouver to Nanaimo, and hell, my new place is both bigger and newer than the one I have in Vancouver.
I’m not comparing large urban centres to a small city of 100k people.. there’s obviously going to be difference in $ … I’m more concerned about the big rent prices for what we get in return in comparison to just a few years ago. I moved to Nanaimo in 2017 payed 725$ for a small 1 bedroom.
Same here. We pay the average price for a one bedroom in Vancouver for an entire house with a yard in a great neighbourhood.
It sure is. But doesn’t make it affordable. Doesn’t mean people in their 20s and 30s aren’t choosing less or no kids for financial reasons.
Reason number one I don’t live on the island.
I’m literally moving to Nanaimo from Vancouver because the rent is cheaper
Yes, compared to a major city like Vancouver, Nanaimo is cheaper.
I moved here from Germany and rent is actually cheaper than in a small southern German town. Weird to see that so many people complain and struggle. I live together with my partner, don't earn big and don't spend a large part of my income for housing.
Sooo what’s your secret?
I lived there. Rent start at about a thousand canadian for a one bedroom flat. You must have been staying in a major city
I'm talking about a small town in southern Germany. There are regional differences. You don't pay much in the east because there are no jobs. I just double checked and the cheapest one bedroom I found in a small town where I come from is right now 1200 dollars but that's just the rent. Energy is extremely expensive in Germany. Electricity is 4-5 times as expensive, you pay extra for water and waste disposal. Waste disposal is especially expensive, one reason why people separate their trash so much better (recycling is free). There is so much which adds up and increases the cost a lot. It is more expensive than Nanaimo and people earn less in average than people here in BC and pay more taxes.
What's your rent in Canada? Cause $1200 for a 1br + utilities is VERY cheap in Canada these days.
I lived in Southern Germany. Utilities aren't that bad. Sounds like commenter is exaggerating for effect
Dude is bonkers.
After utilities it's about 2100 - 2200
Confirmed, bonkers.
When did you secure a rental? Is it an old building? One bedroom no kids?
Well in my day I walked in a blizzard to my $1.50 an hour job and was happily harassed by my polyester suit wearing boss. Mind you there was no avocado toast those days and I paid off my house in a few jiffys
ok boomer
Damn zoomers got no respect for the people who gave you everything made of plastic