[QUOTE=chunkymonkey;50876138]I live in Alberta too bub but your ridiculous exaggerating is just silly.
And saying I'm just drinking "the kool-aid" because I don't believe your tosh of gloom and doom just makes you look like a nutter.[/QUOTE]
Well by all means, tell me where the jobs are in Alberta because I sure as shit don't see them. I've accepted that I'm probably going to have to move to Calgary or Edmonton and take some low paying bullshit to just barely scrape by while I wait for the economy to pick back up, if ever, but even that's pretty hard to come by. I applied to a job at the Calgary airport that pays $16.60 an hour and even that seems like an excellent opportunity in this economy, even though with all my expenses I've estimated it would leave me with a grand total of $18 to take home at the end of the month.
[QUOTE=Taepodong-2;50876240]Well by all means, tell me where the jobs are in Alberta because I sure as shit don't see them. I've accepted that I'm probably going to have to move to Calgary or Edmonton and take some low paying bullshit to just barely scrape by while I wait for the economy to pick back up, if ever, but even that's pretty hard to come by. I applied to a job at the Calgary airport that pays $16.60 an hour and even that seems like an excellent opportunity in this economy, even though with all my expenses I've estimated it would leave me with a grand total of $18 to take home at the end of the month.[/QUOTE]
You're complaining about an entry level job paying more than my job, one I had to train for in an economy that's nigh unlivable.
Please get some perspective.
I mean I'd be laughing to the bank if I made as much as $16.60.
The last job I had promised me $13/hour and only paid me $12/hour and didn't give me my overtime pay.
Place I work at is $13/h with a ten cent pay rise per year :v:
I'd be glad to be making $16/h entry level, Christ.
[QUOTE=OmniConsUme;50875693]Question, Is this really true, or is china making up the fact to spite canada after talks of closing that loophole.[/QUOTE]
Housing has been a huge issue for a lot of families. Each year the cost of living rises but wages stay the same. It's becoming easier and cheaper to just rent, especially with the cost of Hydro being so ridiculously high despite the actual cost being cheaper than ever. Not to mention the increase in taxes just in general.
Short story, buying a house is far too expensive and too much of a hassle anymore.
Honestly, I doubt that I'll ever own a home let alone live in one ever again since we sold our house (for 2x the price we bought it back in 2003; duplex with a "side" yard next to the train yard) and moved into our grandfather's place in Abby. I haven't even finished school and know that I'll be paid nothing when I actually do start working, unless I decide to go work for CBSA which is a very real option at this point.
I don't understand why there's not more construction in Canada though. If there's such demand for housing, surely some businessmen would be building there? It's like the second biggest country on this planet and yet your housing prices sound like the Bay Area here in CA.
[QUOTE=Crazy Knife;50876979]I don't understand why there's not more construction in Canada though. If there's such demand for housing, surely some businessmen would be building there? It's like the second biggest country on this planet and yet your housing prices sound like the Bay Area here in CA.[/QUOTE]
Housing construction is a complicated topic. I can explain it from an Australia perspective and I would assume Canada follows similar lines.
Firstly is that rents haven't increased at the same rate as house prices, suggesting the housing values don't actually exist and they are instead in a housing bubble.
Secondly is the builders. The number of builders and tradesmen has remained relatively static and the number of homes each builder can build each year is also static. However the demand, as you said, for housing is high. The end result is builders and tradesmen can pretty much ask for any wage they want and still get a job.
Third is the builders and tradies unions. Normally when there is a massive shortage of a particular skill the government will issue working visa for that industry. This happens all the time for white collar jobs like engineers and for jobs like nursing and medicine. Unions however are nearly always isolationist and anti-migrant/anti-foreigner. Thus they put pressure on the government to stop it. Usually left governments will receive pressure from the unions who want to preserve wage prices while the right receives pressure from babyboomer home owners who want to preserve house values.
All of these factors feed into each other to make the bubble worse. This is on top of very low interest rates allowing (very stupid) people to borrow loads of money to buy houses. The entire housing market atm is based on buying a home with heaps of debt, waiting for house prices to increase, and then sell the house.
[QUOTE=Taepodong-2;50875846]Just keep drinking the kool-aid. Canada is going downhill and if you can't see it you're blind. Reaching Venezuela levels is probably an exaggeration, but we definitely have the potential to reach Greece levels. And did you ever stop to think that just maybe I live in Alberta, the hardest hit province right now, where if I even want a job at McDonald's I have to move to Calgary, but having a McDonald's job can't let you survive in Calgary. No shit I'm fucking frustrated and angry with the direction this country is going.[/QUOTE]
lol you are the one ''drinking the kool-aid''. it's not because shitshow Harper fucked Canada's economy with his poster-child Albertan Oil economic policies that the rest of Canada is having such a hard time. Don't worry, the equalisation payment will come your way soon.
So, say the housing market crashes tomorrow.
What are the immediate and longer-term effects of it? I'm not very business literate.
[QUOTE=Crazy Knife;50876979]I don't understand why there's not more construction in Canada though. If there's such demand for housing, surely some businessmen would be building there? It's like the second biggest country on this planet and yet your housing prices sound like the Bay Area here in CA.[/QUOTE]
That's the catch. It's not so much a demand for housing as it's a demand for land in desirable areas. There's more to it than that, but I'm speaking in general terms here.
That's why the prices are getting so out of sync with normal metrics. Rent is not keeping pace.
[QUOTE=Zephyrs;50878431]That's the catch. It's not so much a demand for housing as it's a demand for land in desirable areas. There's more to it than that, but I'm speaking in general terms here.
That's why the prices are getting so out of sync with normal metrics. Rent is not keeping pace.[/QUOTE]
Rent and housing prices soar while the average wage falls or remains static.
BC is in a really, really bad place.
Is there a general sentiment to have households packed tight around urban areas in Canada?
It would make sense for construction companies and local administration to make an urbanization plan with high density apartment blocks surrounded by large area low density neighborhoods, and good road connections to the core of the city. Is living in family houses smack dab in city center so high in demand that apartment blocks are infeasible, or is it just nigh impossible for construction firms to buy up the property and replace it with high density, cheap households?
[QUOTE=croguy;50879173]Is there a general sentiment to have households packed tight around urban areas in Canada?
It would make sense for construction companies and local administration to make an urbanization plan with high density apartment blocks surrounded by large area low density neighborhoods, and good road connections to the core of the city. Is living in family houses smack dab in city center so high in demand that apartment blocks are infeasible, or is it just nigh impossible for construction firms to buy up the property and replace it with high density, cheap households?[/QUOTE]
In Vancouver at least, the problem we're suffering from now comes from over 30 years ago at decisions made pre 1986 Expo as to how the area would expand. We went with a very spread out suburban approach rather than the typical high rises and density. Due to how much this area is desired, it's driven up the costs on the limited supply due to everything being residential rather than an apartment or whatever, which is causing a huge problem in terms of cost, shortages aren't the biggest issue so much as that we have a almost non existent vacancy rate.
[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;50879201]In Vancouver at least, the problem we're suffering from now comes from over 30 years ago at decisions made pre 1986 Expo as to how the area would expand. We went with a very spread out suburban approach rather than the typical high rises and density. Due to how much this area is desired, it's driven up the costs on the limited supply due to everything being residential rather than an apartment or whatever, which is causing a huge problem in terms of cost, shortages aren't the biggest issue so much as that we have a almost non existent vacancy rate.[/QUOTE]
Added to that buildings are limited on how tall they can be. We have this thing called the "View Cone" and it basically boils down to rich people in the west end don't want skyscrapers obscuring their view of the mountains, hence why the downtown core is filled with so many towers that are nearly all the same height and only five or six notable exceptions, four of which built before the new bylaw was imposed.
[t]http://www.thegoldenscope.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/stanleypark-2d.jpg[/t]
There are some taller buildings coming up along Boundary, Metrotown and the River District but they are all being built over low density housing and older apartments. There's been a couple of cases where developers bought entire blocks for redevelopment and because you didn't agree to the payout but your neighbors did you're forced to move.
Yeah, it feels as if you guys really screwed the pooch with the long-term urban plan.
Personally I'd say The New Zagreb model would work out great for Vancouver and the metro. A large area on a moderate distance from the City Center would be occupied by numerous 5-15 floor elongated flats and several 15-30 floor flats built to house from several hundred to several thousand people at once. They'd be spaced out enough to provide enough parks/green areas and small economic sectors for the local consumers. A major road network and business/administration/cultural facilities would intersect the area and allow easy road access to the center and business districts, as well as an out of town connection(eg. New Zagreb was built around the old highway entrance). You'd be able to stuff some 60 to 80 thousand people in an area of 20 square kilometers. Perhaps even 100 thousand depending on how high you could feasibly get.
...howeverrrrrrr that plan came to fruition after large swathes of low density house boroughs and Metro settlements got completely destroyed by a massive flood, and the government at the time was legally allowed to relocate anyone in the country, I'd wager that Vancouver's, and by extension Canada's hands are considerably more boxed in when it comes to this problem. And there's also more mountains around Vancouver, it seems.
[QUOTE=Taepodong-2;50875706]Canada is literally turning into a 3rd world country before our very eyes and we're doing nothing about it. Collapse of the oil industry, unemployment crisis with over 100k jobs lost in the past two months, the same problems young people have in the States, and now according to the Chinese, a looming debt crisis and housing market collapse. I'm honestly completely terrified for the future of this country and I legitimately fear us becoming just as bad as Venezuela.
But hey who cares Trudeau looks good without a shirt so we have nothing to worry about.[/QUOTE]
Canada needs to focus on getting kids into programming and software, technology and the internet is the only way out because it has no limits. Heard some stat that there are 3 million comp sci jobs in NA in 2016 but only 600K people to fill those spots.
[QUOTE=bull3tmagn3t;50879482]Canada needs to focus on getting kids into programming and software, technology and the internet is the only way out because it has no limits. Heard some stat that there are 3 million comp sci jobs in NA in 2016 but only 600K people to fill those spots.[/QUOTE]
This is definitely a trend I'm noticing when I'm looking for jobs in Alberta. Lots of tech jobs have openings, but there's nobody here who can fill them because the expected path in Alberta upon graduating high school was to go into oil or a trade. So I see lots of IT jobs in Calgary get reposted twice a month at least because there's nobody in Alberta to fill them.
Unfortunately I had no interest in oil or trades and I was bad at and absolutely hated math and science, so I'm stuck with a useless degree and can't afford to go back and attempt to do comp sci, knowing that I'd probably flunk out anyway because I'm not scientifically minded. I had the foresight when I was first starting high school to know the oil industry would probably collapse in my lifetime, but I didn't have the foresight to try to force myself to do well in math and science so it's basically my fault I'm in this situation. But then again, not everyone is capable of doing well in math and science. Some people just can't wrap their head around it. But I definitely agree that something needs to be done to get kids interested in STEM because those fields are the only way to not get totally fucked with the way the economy is going.
[QUOTE=OmniConsUme;50875693]Question, Is this really true, or is china making up the fact to spite canada after talks of closing that loophole.[/QUOTE]
It's true to anyone that has been looking at the Vancouver housing market
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