Wild Ginger Writing

In a city where the median family income is roughly $70,000 per year, why are houses priced at several hundreds of thousands of dollars or even upwards of a million?

That’s the question urban planner Andy Yan of Bing Thom Architects is trying to figure out, but he needs more tools to help find the answer.

“Per-capita incomes in Vancouver aren’t too much higher than Reno and Nashville, but our housing prices compete with San Francisco,” Yan said. “So this is really talking about well, if local incomes aren’t giving the upward flow towards prices in housing, what is?”

Yan said the globalization of real estate has played a large role in shaping Vancouver into what it is, pointing out the city as a safe, reliable place for foreign investors to put their money.

“I think we offer a hedge against bad things happening in other places in the world, and I think increasingly people have recognized that across the world and that becomes a part of the rationale for investing into the city,” he said.

At this point Yan can’t say for certain what is truly pushing the housing market, which is why he’s calling for much more substantive research into the subject.

“We’re struggling with how to measure this particular phenomenon,” he said. “I think having the proper instruments available to measure and answer this question is important. This is a power shaping cities across the world.”

Sam Smith/For Metro