I feel pretty confidant that the ability to move somewhere for a couple years would be safe. Rental markets can be handled by multi-tenant housing (suites and laneway houses), shared living spaces, socialized student housing, and private second home rentals, and of course just buying a house for a couple years...

> Huge transaction fees and risks related to owning

When houses cost millions, yes this is true. But if we got house prices down to an actually affordable level, this would not be such a concern. If I decided today to move to winnipeg for a couple years, houses are so cheap (at least compared to what I'm used to) that I'd strongly consider just buying a house or a condo for the time I was there.