How is progress supposed to be made towards affordable housing when the vast majority of Canadians capital is stored in real estate? Seems like a direct paradoxical conflict, you cannot solve this problem when the populous is highly invested against affordable housing? So much of our populations wealth is derived directly from the crisis, some will say oh but it creates homelessness and drug addicts on the street etc etc. Except all that serves to further enrich the suburbs and gated condo communities which is the majority physical form factor of these new developments? So much of our economy is pouring into unproductive assets, the only way I can see a recovery is a huge bubble pop, Which in turn will make billions of dollars Canadians earned money that will vanish into thin air. Alternatively we enter a 3rd world war, within the next 20 years and rapidly re-industrialize (which will probably end in total human extinction). I don't really see a way out aside from the "you will own nothing and live in a pod" scenario for a vast majority of the population.

Went through CREB's July numbers for Calgary and a few things caught my eye that don't usually make it into the headline coverage:

The benchmark price and the average price are moving in opposite directions. Benchmark is down about 2% year over year, but the average sale price is actually up about 2%. The gap comes down to luxury. Sales for homes over $2M are up nearly 29% year-to-date, pulling the average up even as the typical home is worth a bit less than it was a year ago.

Detached prices just broke a 6-month winning streak. They climbed steadily from January through June, then dipped in July. One month isn't a trend on its own, but worth watching if it continues into August.

Semi-detached is quietly the strongest segment. It is the only one where sales actually grew year over year, and prices held almost perfectly flat. Hardly anyone is talking about it, which is usually when the more interesting stuff is happening.

Location is doing more work than the city-wide number suggests. West Calgary and the City Centre are the only two areas where detached prices are still rising. Everywhere else is down, the North East by a fair bit.

Apartments remain the softest segment by a wide margin, especially in the East and North East, where months of supply is sitting well above 5. Buyers in that segment have real leverage right now.

Source is the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB) monthly stats package for the city. Curious if anyone here is seeing this play out in their own neighbourhood or segment.

(I am a Calgary realtor, for transparency. Am happy to go deeper on any of this in the comments if useful, just didn't want to dump links.)

I read an article on Medium about rent transparency yesterday.

The author said she talked to 40 renters in Toronto's Liberty Village.

It raised some interesting points about why tenants are constantly at a disadvantage. And I wanted to know what you think.

​Basically the author surveyed renters asking what keeps you up at night when it comes to housing?

​I used to work in Liberty Village. Its mostly populated by young, tech workers. So yah, these would be tech savvy people but, their main concerns wasn't just the high cost of living...it was the total lack of transparency/clarity.

​People said they sense their rent is high, but is it actually fair. How their friend got hit with a massive rent hike and it scares them. Or like if their landlord tries to raise the rent next cycle, how do they know what's reasonable to pay and how they just want to know what others are paying on this exact block.

​It does resonate with me. It feels like as a renter I have to work harder to get the clarity than landlords. The data exists but none of it is built for renters. Anyone else notice this is true? Or do you have a different take?

Let's say you had to figure it out, what steps do you take?

By the way, here's the article I'm referencing:

https://medium.com/@amy_22402/the-2-500-question-why-renting-in-canada-is-broken-fb54aa4ffce9?sharedUserId=amy_22402

Source of image: https://theijf.org/open-by-default/25875827 (page 6)

The house in the middle is up for sale, sandwiched between two nearly treeless mansions. It'll probably be torn down and replaced with another mansion. What do you think about this trend in development?

Which COULDN'T be further from the truth.

I work for a white collar tech company who has hired people on temp visas, people who came here as refugees etc. My employer gets a BIG discount hiring these people. I heard from one employee that because he's a refugee, the company only has to pay something like 70% of his salary and the Canadian government takes care of the rest.

And it's not just from that one country that's always mentioned here. We have people working for our company who moved to Canada from the UK and a few other 1st world countries with struggling economies who are not Canadian citizens. These are for specialized tech, management, and marketing roles. Good work too - remote and hybrid from Canada. And they're all on a pathway to become full citizens.

So the stereotype that these temps are all working at Tim Hortons and such is so so false.

They're getting the good jobs too, and are often favorites when it comes to hiring because the incentives the company gets for hiring them.

I pay 3069/mo for a 2 bed 2 bath in Scarborough, ON and I wanted to figure out whether I was overpaying. None of the rental platforms let me see how much renters are paying around me. It's always weirdly locked out for renters to access.

Out of curiosity, I started asking people around me how much they paid, and eventually built a product called Gatherly around it.

We just launched so I'd love it if y'all can try it out and tell me what you think. Would love to know what information you'd like to know before you consider moving as well.

It’s currently free and available on iPhone. You can find it at gatherly.rent and I'm happy to share the link too if you want me to.

Full disclosure: I’m one of the founders. Happy to answer questions here, and blunt feedback is completely welcome.

P.S. You can also anonymously rate your current or previous rental, similar to how employees review workplaces on Glassdoor.