Housing

Next year, same time, things will probably be somewhat different from where I am now. These are the classified reports keeping the home front informed about what's really going on in Canadia.

Vancouver as seen from the south (near McDonald and 32 West)

The current roof over my head is paid for by my generous employer. While this gesture is quite nice, they will only be paying for the time span of two months. After those two months I either have the choice to stay where I am now and pay a substantial amount of my net income to the real estate agency, find a suitable alternative, or join the hordes of homeless that roam the streets.

Although I like the idea of absolute liberty and freedom, the latter isn't really a long lasting option. With the upcoming Olympics, rumor has it the local government has decided it will “take care” of the homeless as many other governments have done before. Because these actions may be seen as not so very humane, the government installed a countdown clock. This clock precisely informs the local unhoused how much time they have before the yet undisclosed “operation clean Vancouver before the Olympics start” begins.

The first option, paying the rent of my overpriced temporary housing, doesn't work either. Since I need the money to explore all the interesting sides and sites of Vancouver, paying large sums of money for suboptimal living quarters seems a bit of a waste.

In conclusion I'm on a quest to find a place to stay for a longer period.

Effective Advertising, no seriously it works

Sadly that isn't as easy as it sounds as the Vancouver housing market is (still) in overdrive. The average income on this side of Canada is about $44k (which is roughly equivalent to 4somethingK euros, at the best). Common sense dictates that housing prices should be about five times as much (220K), however the actual average price is more than double that amount. So the local population keeps buying, selling and renting places out at speculative level far above the reasonable.

Naturally I find this tendency objectionable because I'm on the wrong side of this phenomena. This being on the wrong side of things, requires me to make trips to faraway and remote places in North Van, Burnaby and Northern Richmond as downtown is simply too expensive in general. In these outer areas one can admire the desolate suburban landscapes, dire homes without any trace of character and the chill of ending up on a socially deserted island...

Burnaby Suburbia

Common sense also suggests that the housing market will somehow, someday will suffer a “correction” which won't be totally unlike to the anticipated Cascadia Subduction Zone “correction” ... while I'm all in favor for corrections in my benefit, let's just hope these two will not be correlated in any way.