Canada

Capitalism is indeed somewhat broken in this sense -- in its current form, wealth is a funnel, and it moves towards the more wealthy from the less wealthy. However, it's still not feudalism and it could definitely get worse.

What would you propose as incremental changes towards a future you wish to see?

The bottom will not fall out unless some very drastic policy changes are made. Those policy changes won't be made until ownership rates drop significantly (they're still very high, around 65%)

What we'll see is a plateau instead, where rates can't go higher simply because not enough people can afford them, but we won't see a drop either.

I'm in quite a high income bracket and by sheer luck bought my house right before the most recent price explosion. My small, poorly built, seventy year old home in a lower middle class neighbourhood is now worth four or five times what I paid. If I was renting, there's no way I could buy it even though I'm making much more than I did when I got it. I can't realistically look into upgrading, because the jump in cost to anything nicer is just absurd.

I have no idea how all this is sustainable and even less idea how our politicians think they can keep ignoring it. I know why they're ignoring it, but they must be aware how this is going to end if they continue to shrug and look the other way.

it doesn't have to fall out every as long as the govt does low interest rates. which is what everyone is screaming to get back to now that rates have raised.

low interest rates allow the wealthy to borrow money for free and buy up assets and increase the value of assets. they support a economy based on financialization and speculation rather than the growth of trade.

for the bottom to fall out interest rates have to remain high and supply has to vastly increase. we also have to become comfortable with inflation and wage growth, which will erode the value of assets.

our current economic scheme hates wage growth and inflation, and loves low interest rates and inflated asset prices. this doesn't benefit ordinary people. it benefits the wealthy.

Yeah, that's ridiculous. Unfortunately house pricing is largely in the hands of local governments -- municipal or provincial. NIMBYism gets in the way on the local scale. It's a weird game theory thing.

My parents have been saying that for at least my entire life (20-something years). I'm at the point where I'll believe it when I see it. It may be pessimistic, but too many people in power are just all too happy to let people become homeless.

In my opinion, Airbnb shouldn't be a thing here right now. Multiple personal properties shouldn't be a thing here right now. Certainly not when hard-working, good people are starving on the streets. Nothing will change unless we actually change things. If we keep just waiting for magic to happen, we will be forever disappointed.

Anyone who is upset with the current housing market, please contact your officials, and please VOTE when the time comes around. We need a solution.

Today, it's a random guy down the street. Tomorrow, it may be you or your family. Inflation hurts us all eventually, especially when it just keeps going up.

We are a dual income family, also making well over the average income for our area, and we live like kings. Bought a 4bd house, late 90s build, with an oversized double garage, finished basement yadda yadda yadda for just over $400k a few years ago. Markets starting to go bonkers around us though, because we literally have busses going through our neighbourhoods packed with boomer Ontarians that are trying to infect our housing market with their bullshit.

10 years ago I realized Ontario was a bust. I wasn't making what it would take to buy a house, my wife was making minimum wage, living in our parents basements. Everyone was like oh you can't go anywhere, family, what about your friends, etc. On a lark I got a job in Calgary, we drove for 3 days, and by the end of the month my wife also had a job, and we didn't double our household income, we pretty much tripled it. In one month. It's since grown quite a lot more, I think alone I now make about 4x what my Ontario salary would have grown to in their sad little attempt to keep me there, and my wife has more than doubled her initial earnings. Which is ironic, because we also live like kings out here, zero debt other than our mortgage, because our overhead is low, taxes are low, the cost of living out here is really good. The politics are a bit weird, but you just kind of smile and nod. To be fair they are pretty goofy in Ontario too. Fuck Ontario, seriously. That place is fucking broken. I mean it's literally this simple, just find something awesome and move. You have every excuse in the book not to, but there's a whole world out there, trust me.

I think it's coming. I agree with all your points, but I think it's inevitable. It's what it's going to take.

Having lived in Winnipeg, the garage may be nicer than the house...

We got realtors banging on our door all the time, "your house has increased by x amount." Judging by two sales on my street this week, one that didn't even get to a sign getting stuck in the lawn, and the other a bidding war I'm hearing, I've probably gained a couple hundred thou. Especially considering I've made a bunch of improvements. But it's like I told my wife, we just would be overpaying for the next place, and I don't understand how anyone likes moving, because I sure as shit don't get off on it. Nope, our house is big enough, nice enough, and has the bones to build upon as we go should we feel the need, I just couldn't be fucking bothered. They are ripping me out by my fingernails for the nursing home, way I see it.

It's mania. Boomers cashing out, and people with way too much debt flying around, just willing to spend whatever it takes. In my hometown, I think the average wage in the area is somewhere around $20 an hour, and the average price of a house is about $800k. Because the boomers fled Toronto, and infected our area, and now the actual residents are priced out. So now all our parents are selling the houses we grew up in for a cool Mil, which on average is about nine or ten times what they paid for it, and padding their overloaded RRSPs and Pensions with anotner mil. Four+ generations of my family lived there, there's townships named for us for christ sakes, and I cant afford to live there. Fuck em though, whatever. Place can rot, the praries and the Rockies have my heart now.