Dear Editor,
Re: How government policies are ruining Canadian cities, July 24
I fully agree with this article except for one statement: “Housing in Canada is a complex issue rooted in years of misguided policies and over regulation." To say the policies were "misguided" is to conclude politicians don't know what they are doing.
Land values and the cost of land driving up housing prices is Economics 101. Given the resources (tax revenue) available at every level of government, one assumes someone inside the system or outside as a consultant knows something about demand and supply theory. Politicians with conflict of interest in the land development business are anything but rare.
Houses, like cars, depreciate from the time you buy new until they are torn or burn down. The only thing that goes up in value is the land beneath them.
There are/was plenty of affordable houses in urban areas near you. A drive around the older areas of town shows streets populated with homes built post-war and earlier that have run their course, almost.
When I was younger, those were starter homes. Few thought or could afford to go new. Young people wishing to set up shop could buy those older homes at a reasonable price and fix them up when they had the money.
What happens is agricultural land is rezoned for rural residential or even park development. The value of that land skyrockets. When the County puts a moratorium on new subdivisions, the value of the established ones goes into overdrive.
How about older single-detached home neighbourhoods? What if they are rezoned for duplex development or even apartment multi-family development? The value of that land goes through the roof.
Will rezoning single family neighbourhoods reduce the cost of affordable housing? Maybe, if speculators go on a building binge never seen before and go broke in the process, perhaps. More than likely, the rezoning will make existing housing mindlessly more expensive than it is worth.
This cause and effect is hardly new to any of our political leaders. If you like conspiracy theories, then one could only believe that the drive to densification in a city like Calgary (where there are no natural limits to development) is motivated at least in part by greed.
Canmore, where land is scarce, has new 400-square-foot bachelor suites coming online for an eyebrow-raising "affordable" price of $500,000. The Town is looking to the future with everyone going "green and sustainable" through building code regulation. That might add another $75,000 per unit.
Why worry about monthly payments when you can buy all or most of your heat and light up front and put the cost on your variable rate or five-year maximum term mortgage? Solar and wind need backup so you can pay for both green infrastructure and monthly fossil fuel consumption.
Monkey with interest rates and down payments along with flooding the streets with new Canadians and guess what? Life as we know it may not be affordable or sustainable.
That fixer upper post-war simple "Cape Codder" with a big yard and garden will be out of reach if not torn down and replaced with a collection of one-door, 400-square-foot boxes stacked three storeys high for an affordable price of just $575,000 each.
Ed Osborne
Foothills County