Editor:
Re: Even mediocre 68-year-old Burnaby houses are selling for 19% over the asking price, NOW Opinion
I just read a blog by your editor about house prices in Burnaby that included this passage: “The REBGV numbers show that the average price for a single-detached house jumped nearly 20% in the area of Burnaby South, which is the city’s priciest area for buy a house. The average detached house price across the entire city went from $1,574,000 to a whopping $2,062,000 in just one year.”
As someone who grew up in Burnaby, I read this with so much sadness because I’m going to have to move away from my hometown soon because I just can’t ever afford to live here.
My parents encouraged me to continually live at home in order to save my money for a down payment, but now I’m nearing the end of my 20s and despite saving as much as possible, it’s still not even going to come close to being enough to buy a home here.
It’s just too expensive and getting even more expensive every month. I can’t even really afford to rent in Burnaby. Anything decent is just grossly expensive. Anything that is affordable is dingy and disgusting.
So many of my friends have moved all the way into the Fraser Valley just to afford a rental. One managed to buy an apartment but he lives in Chilliwack and has to commute all the way to Surrey.
I get that house prices rise, but what is happening here is not normal. It’s forcing so many young people to leave the city and even the province to find affordable housing. And stop telling young people to just cut back on food items because it's insulting. Not going to a restaurant is not going to build the kind of down payment for a house in Burnaby.
Is this really the world we want for young people?
Connor Avery, Burnaby
