Tuesday, February 05, 2008

THE HOUSING SQUEEZE

We all know that wages & salaries have been stagnant for decades and that the price of housing is climbing well beyond the grasp of the average family.

The median price here in (click) WHATEVERPEG (pop. 700,000) is about $150,000. and the median family income is $59,400. This is the 7th largest city in Canada and it was rated as the 29th most affordable City on Demographia’s Annual Housing Affordability Review (click)
sorry, but it only includes
USA/UK/CANADA/AUSTRALIA &NEW ZEALAND.

The number that you see in front of the City/Market is multiplied by the median family income to equal the cost of purchasing the median house. For example the median home in Sydney costs 8 times the median income and Whateverpeg’s ratio is 2.7.

Three (3) times total income and under is considered affordable.
Anything over 5.1 X the median income is considered severely unaffordable.
Behold their list of the top 50 LEAST Affordable Markets, which I have arranged by Country.

Now there are Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics, so you can make up your own mind but here goes.


AUSTRALIA
beyond brutal!
9X Mandurah & Sunshine Coast
8X Gold Coast & Sydney
7X Perth/Melbourne/Rockingham/Bundaberg/Wollongong
6X Bunbury /Adelaide/Brisbane/Cairns/Geelong/Hobart/
Newcastle/Townsville/Mackay

UK
Bloody ‘ell! Off to the Countryside.
8X Bournemouth & Dorset/Belfast/Exeter & Devon
7X London (GLA) & Exurbs
6X Bristol-Bath/Northhampton/Newport

CANADA
The ‘Wet’ Coast has been crazy for years
8X Kelowna/Vancouver
7X Victoria


NEW ZEALAND
Ouch! Isn’t that every major city?
7X Tauranga
6X Auckland/Christchurch/Hamilton/Wellington

USA
Big Frickin Surprise
11X Los Angeles
10X Salinas/San Francisco/Honolulu/San Diego
9X San Jose/
8X Santa Rosa/Ventura County
7X Miami-WestPalmBeach/Riverside/SanBernadino/
Santa Barbara/New York/
6X Stockton/Vallejo/Boston/Fresno

Click here for the 50 MOST AFFORDABLE
AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND & UK sorry ZILCH!
You get a D-

There are so many factors that combine to create the demand for these markets and I wish that this survey covered the (click)
5o largest cities in the world.

The housing market in many of the US cities is starting to nosedive and will probably drag the Economy into a recession.. anyone notice the DOW drop 300 points today? A market correction is well underway over here in the Colonies, but demand for housing in other parts of the world remains strong.
I know that quite a few of you live in or near HUGE cities and that some of them were listed as least affordable cities.

Tell me about it?

26 comments:

  1. Yes, real estate prices are a bitch right now. Aidan and I were thinking of buying, but then we looked into the cost... fuuuuck that! Even a cheap propery is $300,000, and when you pay that back over 25 years with interest, you end up paying almost a million dollars. No way, I'd rather rent. Cheaper, AND more flexible :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do you really need to give the world another platform on which to discuss house prices?
    You'll be asking us to name our favourite route from Chippenham to Ongar next.
    Or which contestant we favoured on Celebrity Russian Roulette.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, we are all worried about a forthcoming US recession and its butterfly effect on the rest of the world but have you looked at commercial property prices? That's where the real story is and why city housing is so expensive.

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  4. Teachers, police persons, firefighters, nurses and nice people can't afford to buy a place round here now.
    Make me feel really safe ??.

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  5. I'm moving to Thunder Bay. Didn't Brooooce do a song about it?

    I first got a mortgage on our little house at three times my salary. Now my salary's doubled and I'd need a mortgage of four times my salary to start from scratch. It's crazy, I tell you, crazy!

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  6. Lard tunderin' jaysus! Tunder Bay it is.

    Or a "Sudbury Saturday Night" eh?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous11:10 am

    So basically, if you live in the south of England, you're screwed. You know why Devonian houses are so expensive? TOURISTS. Frickin' Londoners wanting a piece of the countryside for two frickin minutes a year, taking up our houses and driving the prices sky high blah blah blah. I blame Escape to the Country personally.

    Manchester is so much cheaper than back home it makes me wet myself with glee.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Interesting but seriously flawed study. What about taxation levels? And other demographics. Kelowna is less affordable than Vancouver!? That's only because of the median income figure: Kelowna is a city of retirees who paid off their mortgages in the dark ages. Vancouver is less affordable than London? Only because our top salaries/percentage of filthy rich can't compete with London's. Interesting nontheless. I'm moving to St John's Nfld.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I personally live in the only robust housing market in the contiguous US.
    HA
    HA
    HA!
    (oh cut me a break...now that the tits are beginning to head south i have to feel superior about SOMETHING.)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ok I'm gonna tag you. Check my blog for what to do :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yes, yes, I know, most people sneer at the thought of living in a "trailer", but this modular/manufactured house I live in, PLUS the whole acre of land it sits on, cost no where NEAR these outragous prices people are paying to live in their cookie-cutter/gated suburb/postage stamp lot houses. And will any of them want to grow old in these places? No, but we will.

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  12. The average house in my neighborhood is 250,000 and this is a middleclass neighorhood. Just three streets away is Heritage Hills and those house are in the 500,00 to over a million a piece range. The sad thing about it is that the people that owned them have chopped them up, made them into apartments, and are now charging 700 a month for one bedroom and only after destroying them, in my mind anyway, do they sell them for a million bucks. Who designed that sick twisted joke. Course the market it horrid here. But then I say that thinking it is nothing compared to Detroit. What was it? Nearly half have been sold back to the bank. (Banks are evil) But then I think that of any company that is doing so very well, but cannot give the little man a break.

    No wonder there are 50,000 homeless in Michigan (thats right in the good old US of A) in one state alone, there are 50,000 homeless. who can afford to pay rent, buy a house, or eat at these prices considering that Michigan has the highest rate of unemployment in the Nation. It is even higher than the national average.

    Ahh, but you didn't want to know this did you HE love. I am sorry for my rambling.

    All this is amazing and truly sad as well.

    My apologies HE love.

    Soft love,
    T

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous11:24 pm

    My son and his wife are house hunting at the moment.All I could tell them was GOOD LUCK!

    ReplyDelete
  14. stace,
    I knew that Australia was expensive but @#%&!
    It has a relatively small population and it is close to many countries whose people are attracted by the quality of life, so offshore money inflates the market much like it does here.

    The whole housing market went out of whack when the first Boomers entered the fray and demand outstripped supply. Since our political mindset is totally based on endless growth, our government has done anything to keep it going.

    vicus,
    I am truly despondent over my decision to post about such mundane matters and I promise to begin my shame spiral as soon as I am done here.

    spentrails,
    I once assembled Office Market data for National Surveys in my Realtor days and I was always amazed at the cost of space in other parts of the world.
    London's West End still rules @$300 psf!
    Hong Kong $200 Mumbai, Moscow, Tokyo $180?
    I would love to write about it because it is unbelievable.

    kaz,
    Your point is taken. The costs of owning a home are central to the health of a city...now that the market is open to outside forces and fancy financing can only go so far (as they are discovering in the USA) where is it going to end?

    geoff,
    Isn't that scary? If this continues they are going to to need to invent 500 year mortgages that will be handed down for generations.

    mj,
    I have been to 'Tunder' Bay several times and it is not without it's merits. The Canadian Shield scenery is quite beautiful and what the hell I do look good in sweat pants and a lumberjack shirt so who knows?

    fathorse,
    Bloody Tourists!
    I don't like Manchester..
    Oh No!
    I Love it-ah!
    You do know 10cc eh?

    andrea,
    You're right, the average person in Kelowna is three days older than kerosene! I know that money from the East has been wreaking havoc for decades but what happens when the inevitable Tsunami/Quake levels Vancouver and flushes Victoria into the Sea?
    Like Tokyo...we all know that it is going to disappear but when you only have about 15 acres of land to build on what are you gonna do?

    first nations,
    As the aging population congregates along the seashores it is being set up for the sea levels to swallow up all of the most expensive properties here and around the world. Great timing.

    stace,
    The page 123 tag? I just did it..if you want I can use a different book because I had the End Of Faith by Sam Harris and the excerpt sounded quite inflammatory.

    The michael,
    Once all of the equity gets washed away in the new recession you are free to snicker at your leisure.

    tara,
    WOW! The glory days of those Auto Executive Enclaves is past it's best before date...they had a good run...and so did the workers, once upon a time.
    I am mortified at the thought of those beautiful homes being turned into apartments.
    ((shivers))

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  15. Sydney has become one of the MOST expensive cities to live! I hate it now. I wanna leave this place and go live free of killer rent/mortgage and that means in the woods!

    Keshi.

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  16. besides, I think the Interest Rates went up for the millionth time in a year just yday!

    Keshi.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous6:23 am

    I have no idea bout how median proce houses here,. but I do know it's a much saner market than many other parts of the country. Lower salaries, too, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous9:11 am

    As in the band 10cc? When I was little I thought they were called LOCC. Very confusing.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous10:56 am

    Mumbai has no space left for housing. Prices are incredibly high. Bangalore is the Silicon City of India, so you can imagine the prices. Delhi is not far behind. It will skyrocket as before Commonwealth Games.

    I am damn glad I invested in property.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Good grief all those people in Tokyo! I thought it was a volcano or on a fault line or something, and way past wobble time - are they mad?!

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  21. NOW you know why I drink......

    ReplyDelete
  22. Last year I drove through a newly developed residential neighbourhood no more than 2 kms from my home. I saw a house I liked and it was for sale! I called the agent. They were asking $535,000 for it.

    I keep telling my husband we should move to Ottawa. I think I'll show him this post of yours to further my argument.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Fat Horse - I live right on the southcoast of England, Im not screwed but me 4 sons are.... a tiny 1 bed flat where we live is £179,00 ($360,00) and a shitty little house in a rough part of town is for a first time buyer £130,00 ($260,00)... they are the generation that is well and truely screwed....

    I thinks I wanna move to america and sell this little cottage and get so much more for me money.... my little house is only worth £260,000 ($520.00) which is buttons here compared to some of me maties houses....

    sorry, just rambling here lol

    x

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  24. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  25. Anonymous10:32 am

    My house is bigger and it has a better view.

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  26. to put it very bluntly- i will never in my life be able to buy myself a house on my salary alone. never.

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