Editor:
Re: You can afford a house in Burnaby if you work as hard as we did, NOW Letters
For context, I am a 27-year-old male who has a visual impairment. I have lived with my parents my entire life and they have greatly assisted with my university tuition. I have no student debt and have invested since I was 18 (most is inaccessible due to being locked into an RDSP which has huge penalties for early withdrawal).
I net $2.800 a month, so I am well above minimum wage. I have over $50K in liquid investments and current expenses are minimal due to living at home ($1k a month rent, $25 cell bill and perhaps $150 in unnecessary spending, no car or related expenses as I have a public transit pass form the government).
With the above understood, despite being "well ahead" of other people my age financially, I cannot afford a home in Burnaby. Even with mortgage rates so low, based on the mortgage calculators online I might be able to get $300,000 with a mortgage of about $1,800 (60% of total income), which I believe might be manageable ($1,000 for food, utilities and other fixed costs, pretty tight...).
I am blessed to have such opportunities. Despite these opportunities and having far fewer expenses (no student debt, no car) than my peers, I still cannot afford to even start paying down a mortgage alone.
I am not discrediting these "boomers" and the work and sacrifices they made to afford their own place. However, they do not realize that the cost of housing has risen exponentially compared to median wage.
My parents bought a house in Maple Ridge in 2002/2003 (where prices were already inflated) and it has since increased in value by 300%. We are not really in a "desirable" area, though it is nice.
In terms of my prospects for buying a house, it is simply not possible. I am not going to be able to enter unless the housing market literally crashes like in 2008 and I manage to pull my investments beforehand. Otherwise, I will have to wait until my parents pass and I inherit the family assets, or I somehow find a group of like-minded individuals to purchase a shared home.
Even if the average house has doubled in price in 20 years, I can promise you that wages have not. The goalpost to be able to afford a house keeps on moving farther and farther ahead, it is simply not possible for a single person under 40 to enter the market without a lot of help from family or without going so far into debt that they are net negative until they are 80 (excluding appreciation of the house).
Chazz Young
