Back when I bought my house 22 years ago I purposely bought a house that I could easy afford and I paid it off quickly. My friends bought bigger house with large mortgages. I thought that I was the smarter one looking at my house as more of a need and liability. I invested in the stock market. My friends have now made a fortune on their homes based on what I assumed was wrong thinking -looking at your house as a sure way to get rich.
They have done better than me who saved and invested in what traditionally was the best investment- sound businesses on the stock market. Even my accountant advised me to by a second home as an investment property a few years ago. I didn't because because it went against my thinking and needs. The housing bubble needs to burst so that young people can get homes but also to stop the cycle of Greed towards housing. Government building affordable housing and limiting the amount that these government subsidized affordable housing can be resold at to ensure these homes stay affordable is key to my mind .
Ahh, yes. That is why our policy advocacy for a price on housing equity goes hand in hand with our advocacy to have all senior level politicians join the PM in acknowledging that home prices need to stall. https://www.gensqueeze.ca/globe_mail_trudeau_break_housing_addiction
"Policy advocacy for a price on housing equity goes hand in hand with our advocacy to have all senior level politicians join the PM in acknowledging that home prices need to stall" I gave this more thought and I think it makes more and more sense. It's more doable than some of my ideas which might be good in a book imagining a different world of values that my dad had and passed on to me. But these Generation Squeeze's ideas here are very practical and reasonable. We should be contacting our MPs...with it. Most politicians have email addresses so at the least we can copy and paste this quote above and endorse it 100%.
Merry Christmas Generation Squeeze and Keep the good faith.
I found myself coming to the same realization a little while back Glen. I too started off with more grandiose schemes, but eventually I realized that it would be better to aim for something more realistic, like stalling home prices.
Very wise of you Kareem. We need to cut to the chase-reduce loopholes the complexity of Income tax and set direct policies. Stalling-freezing home prices going directly to issue is the answer. The value of our homes according to city tax assessments are a fraction of the market value of our homes. Homeowners know this-make them/us pay their market value in city taxes and they will be less eager to see their home skyrocket in value!!!
I wrote a letter to the Globe's editor:
Dr. Kershaw’s article- Is a bedroom for the cat a sign of Canada’s new housing aristocracy?- struck a strong chord with me. As a retired homeowner I too have seen the value of my house go up over the total value of my pension which I worked decades for. My undeserved gain was also why many of my retired friends have their sons and daughters living in their basements. Well-educated, industrious young people who can’t come close to being able to buy a house. Having read the Globes many excellent articles addressing the housing crises and reading Generation Squeezes proposed policies I decided I was willing to do something about it. I donated $365 to support Generation Squeeze’s well thought out policies. I appreciate my house 365 days a year and sure don’t want its inordinate increase in value to close the door on owning a house for a generation of Canadians who are just as well educated and as industrious as I when I bought my house. That donation is to support far more substantial systematic adjustments needed to address the “colossal wealth transfer” My housing wealth should be put to work when determining my eligibility for public subsidies, or the taxes I pay. I am joining Paul Kershaw in his renouncing “room-for-my-cat aristocrats” the belittlement of people who started in the housing market after the wages paid by good jobs became disconnected from the value of local homes. I am hoping that enough of us are generous enough to make the connections to the real costs of this unbalanced “colossal wealth transfer.”
Paul, I could sell my home for about 9 times what I paid for it 22 year ago.
If the government said to me, you cannot sell it for 9 times but something like 1.5 or 2 times what you paid for it 22 years ago, I would be fine with that, as long as that was applied to all housing. So, I could sell and afford to buy another house.
Great! Not that long ago housing prices went up very gradually-not outpacing general inflation...Generation Squeeze is working hard to towards that sanity.
We have lost sight of real values in the financialization of our economy. Nowhere is this more felt than in turning owing a house into an investment asset to maximize wealth leaving so many unable to afford a home. I gladly give 365 dollars to Generation Squeeze because I appreciate my home 365 days a year!
That's generous financially, Glenn, and symbolically very clever and meaningful. It inspires an interesting campaign idea. As a strategy to cut taxes on lower- and middle earners, and raise revenue for deeply affordable housing, we propose a price on housing inequity. It would be a deferrable, modest surtax (0.5% to 1%) on the value of principal residences above $1 million (like my home, which is about $2.5 million). More info: https://www.gensqueeze.ca/price_on_housing_inequity. It could be designed to exempt those who bought their first home within the last five years or so in order to focus more on those who have gained equity over years on the market. So far, governments haven't shifted taxes this way. Perhaps while we work away to achieve this policy change, we can ask supportive, older affluent homeowners like me to donate to the Gen Squeeze tax shift advocacy. It would be another way to put our housing wealth to work -- just as you have modeled with your generous donation. Cheers!
Thank you so much Glen for your support, it is deeply appreciated! Sadly, it remains an uphill battle to find funders open to pushing back on beliefs that are too often taken for granted – even when there’s ample evidence that these ideas no longer provide a stable foundation from which to address emerging crises. That's why knowing we have people like you behind us matters a lot! Best wishes to you and your family for the holiday season. Looking forward to seeing you in substack in 2024 :)
You are on the right track Paul.
Back when I bought my house 22 years ago I purposely bought a house that I could easy afford and I paid it off quickly. My friends bought bigger house with large mortgages. I thought that I was the smarter one looking at my house as more of a need and liability. I invested in the stock market. My friends have now made a fortune on their homes based on what I assumed was wrong thinking -looking at your house as a sure way to get rich.
They have done better than me who saved and invested in what traditionally was the best investment- sound businesses on the stock market. Even my accountant advised me to by a second home as an investment property a few years ago. I didn't because because it went against my thinking and needs. The housing bubble needs to burst so that young people can get homes but also to stop the cycle of Greed towards housing. Government building affordable housing and limiting the amount that these government subsidized affordable housing can be resold at to ensure these homes stay affordable is key to my mind .
Ahh, yes. That is why our policy advocacy for a price on housing equity goes hand in hand with our advocacy to have all senior level politicians join the PM in acknowledging that home prices need to stall. https://www.gensqueeze.ca/globe_mail_trudeau_break_housing_addiction
"Policy advocacy for a price on housing equity goes hand in hand with our advocacy to have all senior level politicians join the PM in acknowledging that home prices need to stall" I gave this more thought and I think it makes more and more sense. It's more doable than some of my ideas which might be good in a book imagining a different world of values that my dad had and passed on to me. But these Generation Squeeze's ideas here are very practical and reasonable. We should be contacting our MPs...with it. Most politicians have email addresses so at the least we can copy and paste this quote above and endorse it 100%.
Merry Christmas Generation Squeeze and Keep the good faith.
I found myself coming to the same realization a little while back Glen. I too started off with more grandiose schemes, but eventually I realized that it would be better to aim for something more realistic, like stalling home prices.
Very wise of you Kareem. We need to cut to the chase-reduce loopholes the complexity of Income tax and set direct policies. Stalling-freezing home prices going directly to issue is the answer. The value of our homes according to city tax assessments are a fraction of the market value of our homes. Homeowners know this-make them/us pay their market value in city taxes and they will be less eager to see their home skyrocket in value!!!
I wrote a letter to the Globe's editor:
Dr. Kershaw’s article- Is a bedroom for the cat a sign of Canada’s new housing aristocracy?- struck a strong chord with me. As a retired homeowner I too have seen the value of my house go up over the total value of my pension which I worked decades for. My undeserved gain was also why many of my retired friends have their sons and daughters living in their basements. Well-educated, industrious young people who can’t come close to being able to buy a house. Having read the Globes many excellent articles addressing the housing crises and reading Generation Squeezes proposed policies I decided I was willing to do something about it. I donated $365 to support Generation Squeeze’s well thought out policies. I appreciate my house 365 days a year and sure don’t want its inordinate increase in value to close the door on owning a house for a generation of Canadians who are just as well educated and as industrious as I when I bought my house. That donation is to support far more substantial systematic adjustments needed to address the “colossal wealth transfer” My housing wealth should be put to work when determining my eligibility for public subsidies, or the taxes I pay. I am joining Paul Kershaw in his renouncing “room-for-my-cat aristocrats” the belittlement of people who started in the housing market after the wages paid by good jobs became disconnected from the value of local homes. I am hoping that enough of us are generous enough to make the connections to the real costs of this unbalanced “colossal wealth transfer.”
Paul, I could sell my home for about 9 times what I paid for it 22 year ago.
If the government said to me, you cannot sell it for 9 times but something like 1.5 or 2 times what you paid for it 22 years ago, I would be fine with that, as long as that was applied to all housing. So, I could sell and afford to buy another house.
Great! Not that long ago housing prices went up very gradually-not outpacing general inflation...Generation Squeeze is working hard to towards that sanity.
Excellent work Kareem, Paul, Andrea and Megan!
We have lost sight of real values in the financialization of our economy. Nowhere is this more felt than in turning owing a house into an investment asset to maximize wealth leaving so many unable to afford a home. I gladly give 365 dollars to Generation Squeeze because I appreciate my home 365 days a year!
That's generous financially, Glenn, and symbolically very clever and meaningful. It inspires an interesting campaign idea. As a strategy to cut taxes on lower- and middle earners, and raise revenue for deeply affordable housing, we propose a price on housing inequity. It would be a deferrable, modest surtax (0.5% to 1%) on the value of principal residences above $1 million (like my home, which is about $2.5 million). More info: https://www.gensqueeze.ca/price_on_housing_inequity. It could be designed to exempt those who bought their first home within the last five years or so in order to focus more on those who have gained equity over years on the market. So far, governments haven't shifted taxes this way. Perhaps while we work away to achieve this policy change, we can ask supportive, older affluent homeowners like me to donate to the Gen Squeeze tax shift advocacy. It would be another way to put our housing wealth to work -- just as you have modeled with your generous donation. Cheers!
Thank you so much Glen for your support, it is deeply appreciated! Sadly, it remains an uphill battle to find funders open to pushing back on beliefs that are too often taken for granted – even when there’s ample evidence that these ideas no longer provide a stable foundation from which to address emerging crises. That's why knowing we have people like you behind us matters a lot! Best wishes to you and your family for the holiday season. Looking forward to seeing you in substack in 2024 :)