Many thanks for to the Times Colonist for publishing my short letter to the editor: “As people move up, cheaper homes available.”
You can read it at this link.
And if that link ever stops working in the future, a copy of the text is below.
I also have a number of posts explaining in greater detail the mechanism noted in that letter. And these posts include links to CMHC reports and other credible publications on it, a city staff discussion of it, a link to a hermit crab video, and more.
As people move up, cheaper homes available
A few letters have complained that new housing is expensive.
Yes, it is. Non-profit housing providers like the Capital Regional Housing Corp. struggle to get affordable projects off the ground, even with free land and grants from the province.
But new housing being expensive misses the point: Those new homes free up older, less-expensive homes.
As the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. notes in a June 2024 report: “Vacancy chains unfold when households with higher income move into newly built units. Doing so releases their former units for occupancy by households with lower income. When lower-income households move into the newly vacated units, they in turn create vacancies in their former homes.”
This can have positive impacts for lower income residents within a matter of months.
So yes, new homes are expensive. And without them, lower-income people are outbid by higher-income people for the few available homes.
(Disclosure: I am on the board of the Capital Regional Housing Corp., though I speak only for myself.)
Dave Thompson
Councillor, City of Victoria