Quote:
Originally Posted by opendoor
Maybe, but how much latent capacity is there really in the construction industry right now? Canada is already building at about the fastest rate in the industrialized world, with nearly 7 housing starts per 1,000 people. The US by comparison is only at about 4 units per 1,000 people.
And it's not like high construction levels prevented prices increases in the past. The first bubble on that chart I posted came after a decade where the housing stock increased by 35% (vs. a population increase of only 14%). Conversely, what many people now view as a golden age of affordability (90s and early '00s) coincided with a huge drop in housing construction.
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The labor shortage is a real problem that will drive all capital costs to construct up in the country. Higher cost to construct raises the price of the new housing being built.
You're right, it's an interesting conundrum. Really the demand does need to fall. Or maybe it just needs to shift. I am really interested in pushing this idea that we still need immigrants, we just need them to go not in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, or basically anywhere (else) in Ontario. How we can reasonably enforce that I am not sure, but I think we need to consider this a lot more.
Firebot, I appreciate your arguments and agree that it does seem pretty futile to vote liberal again and expect anything to ameliorate. Indeed, voting for these obviously corrupt ignoramuses does feel really immoral. But to me, it feels substantially more immoral to support a grandstanding snake oil salesman with a known regressive social agenda. I have a trans friend who I don't want to see effected by backwards ass social policy. I value their safety and mental health higher than some of these things (not in vacuum per se, but with knowledge that there are myriad others like them who are also in jeopardy if PP and ilk come to power.)
That is why i am interested in attacking PPs policies right now when not even in power. Because I hope that I can show enough people he's a charlatan and offering insubstantial bull#### policy to placate the masses while also turning to placate his robust social base with policies like parental rights.