With the Canucks out of the playoffs, the only hockey stick most of us are seeing these days is the shape of the graph for real estate prices on the Sunshine Coast.
We’ve been feeling the heat from the Lower Mainland market since January, and in April, for the first time ever, the dollar value of real estate sales topped $100 million in a single month. It was over $105 million in May. Keeping up with all those numbers has forced a lot of us in the journalism trade to become instant experts – and like all experts, it doesn’t take much to prompt us to offer opinions. Having a column due, for instance.
By Vancouver standards, prices for detached homes here are still pretty reasonable, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a problem.
It’s time to acknowledge this wild ride could be a warning sign the local economy is getting dangerously imbalanced and threatening renters, young families, and anybody else who hasn’t already climbed onto the property ladder.
If it keeps up, home ownership (at least the stereotypical backyard, white picket fence, two-car garage type) could become impossible for segments of society that used to be the prime buyers of “starter homes.” Getting into a stable and affordable rental situation on the Coast is already a real struggle.
If we want our community to be a place where young families, professionals at the start of their careers, and workers are going to be able to live, and live well, there have to be appropriate and affordable housing options.
Gibsons is to be applauded for aggressively (at least as aggressively as a small municipality can) tackling the issue by working with the Sunshine Coast Housing Society and Click Modular on a project that could see several homes built as infill on unused road allowances.
The Sechelt and District Chamber of Commerce gets a nod too, for its policy motion at the B.C. Chamber calling for better data collection (the B.C. Chamber also adopted policies urging local governments to back increased density, and provincial and federal incentives to encourage rental developments).
But, we also need to have a local economy with a healthy mix of job and business opportunities that allows people to make the money locally that they’ll need to buy or rent a home here.
Enter the new region-wide economic development entity. Remember it? The $300,000-a-year agency funded by your local governments? The board was named on March 24. It’s had meetings (not open to the public), but the update on their progress in the SCRD’s Coast Current newsletter of June 2 is little more than a rehash of the March press release announcing the board appointments.
Well, entity, Mr. DeMille is waiting. It’s time for your close-up.
