Re:SFU Prof: Why Toronto housing is becoming as unaffordable...
by franzen on Tuesday May 23, 2017 @01:21PM
(#14403093)
It's not supply. It's speculation.
>From 2000 to 2010, the population of New York increased by 2.1 percent while the US Census reported that the number of occupied housing units increased by more than twice that amount, 5.3 percent. . . . If we could build our way out of our affordability crisis, the ratio of housing costs to income should have gone down during this period. However, average rents and the share of income spent on rent both increased well above inflation over the same period. [0]
[0] https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/02/new-york-housing-gentrifi...
There is construction everywhere, with 40-story towers springing up like mushrooms, all across the metro area, creating mini-downtowns. On the edges, mountainsides are being clear-cut, and replaced with suburbs.
Almost none of the infrastructure to support it is paid for by the people who are benefiting from the housing crisis. Most provincial funds come from taxing people who contribute value, by doing useful work, instead of leeching off the system.