High prices trapping many families in starter homes: report

METRO VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Does moving your growing family out of your small starter home feel like an impossible task?

Would you like to stay in Metro Vancouver but know newer, affordable condos just don’t give you enough space?

A new report has found there just aren’t enough affordable and available homes for families of four.

Andy Broderick, VanCity’s vice president of impact market development, says while the most affordable housing is apartments and condominiums, most are two bedrooms or less.

“Matching it up to someone with a larger family size… it’s a very limited market. And actually, it’s beyond the cost of most of the people who might be seeking that,” he tells us.

VanCity found the most suitable option for families is a three-bedroom attached home, like a town or row house. But, these make up less than 10 per cent of housing in region and have very low turnover rates.

That means just 0.86 per cent of all housing in Metro Vancouver is suitable and available.

Broderick adds most are also more expensive than a family with an income of more than $65,000 can afford.

VanCity says the median total household income for millennial families with two incomes last year was $65,492. That means those families can afford housing with a pricetag of around $384,000.

But the benchmark price of attached properties sold in August 2015 was $511,500.

The credit union has some suggestions.

“One is awarness of what the housing market’s doing currently… what kind of units are getting produced and whose needs they’re meeting,” says Broderick.

He adds cooperative housing could be another solution, adding an equity co-op would allow owners to build some equity rather than just be renters.