The September benchmark price for a townhouse, one of the most popular Squamish housing types, was $805,000. A single family home came in at $995,000.
Let’s break that down. For a couple to buy a townhouse, with a minimum of $100,000 down (not a realistic down payment for many), the monthly mortgage payment would be a little over $4,000 with a 4.8% interest rate over 25 years, by CIBC mortgage figures. Financial experts agree that housing shouldn’t take up more than 28% of your income. That means to buy a townhouse in Squamish, a couple should earn about $14,000 per month. So each person in a couple needs to make $85,000 a year to live in a townhouse in our community. Say what?
That explains why there are so many help wanted signs for low-income service jobs. If you make $43,000 a year, or about $22 an hour – well above the wage offered for many service jobs in Squamish – how can you live and work here? Rents match mortgages, especially when our vacancy rate continues to hover around 0%.
Add to that the cost to participate in our “recreation capital of the world” popular activities.
Conservatively, to take up rock climbing costs $3,200, including courses and gear, according to Tam McTavish, amateur Alpine Club of Canada Trip leader. To get into kiteboarding costs a minimum of around $2,000, according to The Kiteboarder Magazine. Mountain biking can ring in at between $4,500 and $6,000, according to Outside Magazine, but many hardcore bikers in Squamish say they spend closer to $10,000 just on their bike.
Sure, many of us slip on our sneakers and hit the trails for free, but if you want to truly be part of our community, will walking the trails cut it as your only outlet? That isn’t what we advertise and that isn’t what people who want to live here sign up for. They want the recreation.
Add to the cost of housing and recreation the higher cost of food in our grocery stores and our limited child care and the picture is clear. To live comfortably here you need money — and lots of it.
While the current council is genuinely trying to address the affordability problem with projects such as Under One Roof and two planned purpose-built rentals, those are years away from completion, and by then who will be left here to fill them?
There is nothing wrong with having money or with being a town that caters to that demographic, but we have to be honest about what we are and stop pretending we are anything else.
When we continue to pretend we are a community for all, it makes those struggling to make ends meet here feel like they are to blame, when that isn’t the case. The deck is stacked.
