<story><title>The Canadian Housing Boom Fueled by China’s Billionaires</title><url>http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-vancouver-real-estate-market/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lpaone</author><text>What isn&amp;#x27;t talked about in this article is the effect this is having on the other industries in the city aside from real estate.&lt;p&gt;I believe that Vancouver has potential to be THE tech hub in Canada. Unfortunately, wages are very low compared to the cost of housing, and so the cost of living is super high. Combine that with extremely low vacancy rates, and it is very hard to attract talent from out of town. In fact, many young, smart and talented people just head south to Seattle or the valley because the wages are so much higher, and the economics of staying in Vancouver just don&amp;#x27;t make sense.&lt;p&gt;The other industries that could be thriving and building up a real economy in city are some of the biggest casualties in this whole mess. Unfortunately, all of the politicians from municipal to provincial are in bed with the real estate industry, so nothing truly effective and meaningful will be done.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jlos</author><text>&amp;gt;&amp;gt; In fact, many young, smart and talented people just head south to Seattle or the valley because the wages are so much higher, and the economics of staying in Vancouver just don&amp;#x27;t make sense.&lt;p&gt;Your claim is especially true if those people have families. 60% of Families said they planned on leaving the city in the next year due to the problems surrounding housing. Rental rates are also a problem with only a 0.6% vacancy rates and of those available only 16% are 2 bedroom and less than 1% are three bedroom.(1)&lt;p&gt;(1) &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theglobeandmail.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;british-columbia&amp;#x2F;families-particularly-vulnerable-to-vancouvers-tight-rentalmarket&amp;#x2F;article31222332&amp;#x2F;?service=mobile&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theglobeandmail.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;british-columbia&amp;#x2F;familie...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>The Canadian Housing Boom Fueled by China’s Billionaires</title><url>http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-vancouver-real-estate-market/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lpaone</author><text>What isn&amp;#x27;t talked about in this article is the effect this is having on the other industries in the city aside from real estate.&lt;p&gt;I believe that Vancouver has potential to be THE tech hub in Canada. Unfortunately, wages are very low compared to the cost of housing, and so the cost of living is super high. Combine that with extremely low vacancy rates, and it is very hard to attract talent from out of town. In fact, many young, smart and talented people just head south to Seattle or the valley because the wages are so much higher, and the economics of staying in Vancouver just don&amp;#x27;t make sense.&lt;p&gt;The other industries that could be thriving and building up a real economy in city are some of the biggest casualties in this whole mess. Unfortunately, all of the politicians from municipal to provincial are in bed with the real estate industry, so nothing truly effective and meaningful will be done.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rz2k</author><text>Introduction of a gradual increase in property taxes, as well as a gradual decease in income taxes, even lower than zero if appropriate, would be the naïve, straightforward economic policy recommendation if the problem has been accurately described. Some details yo resolve would be the numerous people who were using their primary residence as their main investment for retirement, and deciding how to handle people who were improving properties in order to make a living.</text></comment>