Juggling Dynamite

Extremely inflated pricing in Canadian real estate has led to affordability strain for most of the population around major urban areas. We should not be surprised to see social unrest and demands for higher property taxes over the months ahead.

After fifteen years of goosing demand and prices with debt, the problems cannot be fixed by throwing even more debt and further government ‘stimulants’ at it.  While negative for present owners (myself included), lower prices are an important part of the solution needed.  At the same time, the price compression now underway will ripple through an economy which became unduly concentrated on a rising real estate sector over the last decade.  The easy money tab will now exact payment with interest.  See Toronto’s condo boom will end, dragging the economy down with it:  Capital Economics.  Also see:  Rally against housing unaffordability on Vancouver’s billionaire row:

A group of activists descended on an exclusive street in Vancouver’s Point Grey neighbourhood Saturday to protest wealth inequality in the city and a housing crisis that has left many struggling to put a roof over their head.

A surge in real estate wealth over the past decade has made those who live on Belmont Avenue the owners of some of the most expensive properties in British Columbia. The 10 most expensive homes on one block alone add up to a whopping $362 million in value. Here is a direct video link.

As we think about these issues, it’s important to appreciate that money laundering costs civil society in many ways including the support and prevalence of criminal organizations/activities, lost tax revenues, as well as elevated property prices causing regular households to spend more on housing and sign on to years of extra debt payments (and reduced saving ability) to put a roof overhead.  Who remembers when gambling was recognized as socially damaging and hence illegal in most jurisdictions?

BC Attorney General David Eby speaking on money laundering at the North Cove Advisors Vancouver Housing Conference, April 23, 2019. Here is a direct video link.

Three decades of add-debt-and-stir policies have come to the point of extreme wealth concentration for a few and broadly negative returns for everyone else.  Strucutral reforms designed to reduce debt and waste, increase opportunity and improve quality-of-life for the masses, are the path to greater financial and social stability.

Columbia University Professor of Economics Jeffrey Sachs and Frances Donald, head of macroeconomic strategy at Manulife Asset Management, examine the factors behind the growth of income inequality in the United States.  Here is a direct video link.