Homeowners in Vancouver, Toronto want housing prices to fall
A survey of residents in two of Canada's hottest housing markets suggest that even some homeowners in Toronto and Vancouver think housing has become too unaffordable and prices should drop. In Toronto, housing affordability stole the top spot from transportation and traffic concerns. The housing prices in both cities have climbed sharply in recent years. Tsur Somerville, senior fellow at the University of British Columbia's Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate, says he was surprised by how many homeowners thought a drop in real estate prices would be beneficial. "The consistent message here … is that this is an important issue that needs to be addressed," Somerville said. In Toronto, 56 per cent of homeowners said current housing prices were hurting the Greater Toronto Area — 13 per cent said they would like to see prices drop by 30 per cent or more, and 22 per cent said by 10 per cent or more. Those numbers were even higher in Vancouver, where nearly three quarters of owners said the cost of a home was "unreasonably high" — 20 per cent said prices should drop by 30 per cent or more, and 29 per cent by at least 10 per cent.
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