I met my neighbour at the end of the driveway on a sunny day late last month, my two-year-old daughter trailing on her bike behind me.
He’s a retired accountant, in his 60s, who moved to Squamish with his wife and two children in the early 1980s. He bought his rancher for “one-20th of what it’s worth today” and, by living simply, his family was comfortable on his income while his wife stayed home to look after the kids.
Back when he was in his mid-20s, it took him three years of saving every penny before he had enough for a down payment on the house.
He said it’s a shame that so many kids moving to Squamish don’t have backyards to play in. Instead, they’re living in condos and townhouses with, maybe, a central courtyard. Couldn’t families just save more and spend less? he asked rhetorically.
In the article “Money matters” this week, a local bank manager gives some good tips on managing debt and credit cards expenses. It’s important information that everyone starting out as an adult should know – and that many of us weren’t informed of in high school – but it’s not going to get the vast majority of young adults into houses. It’s a fact that many young people and their parents know all too well.
A typical single-family house in Squamish now costs $970,100, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. That’s nearly $1 million. A down payment of 10 per cent would be about $100,000 – no amount of daily saving would accumulate that much money. Plus, even if you managed to save this, the mortgage payments would be sky high.
A townhouse typically costs $738,700, a huge jump of 105 per cent from just five years ago. Maybe an apartment unit is more manageable at $445,800.
I nicely told my neighbour: The days of saving for a house are over for most people who aren’t in the market. An accountant with a stay-at-home partner – like my neighbour – would most likely not be able to afford it. It’s a huge stretch even for two people with good jobs and no kids to come up with that kind of money.
If they work really hard, and save, then an apartment is what’s usually in reach. So, it’s not that new families don’t want their kids to have a backyard – it’s simply not an option (and, after all, we have great parks and playgrounds here).
My neighbour said that’s a shame and if he was just starting out now, he would consider moving to a less expensive community, perhaps in the Interior of B.C. or the Okanagan.
And this is exactly what many people who grew up in Squamish are, unfortunately, doing.
- Michaela Garstin
