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I CAME BACK TO VANCOUVER — My Friends STILL Can’t Afford a Home!

430 views · Published 27 March 2017 · 5:05 · Indexed 8 November 2026

Channel: Mike Martins · 2017 · News & Politics

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“I feel like Vancouver was sold to the highest bidder.”
— Mike Martins

YouTubers, Mike Martins here. I’m back in the Vancouver/Burnaby area for the weekend because my daughter is being baptized, and being back here has reminded me exactly why I left.
I stopped around Brentwood Mall in Burnaby, where construction seems to be everywhere. I also caught up with some friends I hadn’t seen for a couple of months, and the conversation quickly turned back to the same subject: housing.
They’ve been saving for roughly seven or eight years, building up what should be a substantial down payment, but they’re still struggling to find something in the Vancouver area that makes financial sense. They want to settle down. They want more space. They want to start a family. But every time they look at the housing market, the numbers just don’t work.
Now they're considering places like Merritt, Kamloops and Prince George, because the money they've saved could potentially go dramatically further outside Vancouver.
That’s exactly the realization I came to.
I wasn't trying to buy a house because I wanted to speculate on real estate. I wanted somewhere to raise my family. After dealing with bidding wars and prices that seemed completely disconnected from ordinary incomes, I eventually decided I wasn't going to keep playing the game.
I left Vancouver.
Through my Living the Dream series, I've been documenting what happened afterward: buying my house for around $260,000, moving during the winter, renovating it, cleaning it up and slowly turning it into a family home.
Coming back to Vancouver has made me realize something else: you don't necessarily need the big city to feel successful.
Meanwhile, affordability pressure appears to be moving through different parts of the market. If detached houses become unreachable, buyers move toward townhouses and condos. But what happens when those become unreachable too?
Vancouver isn't the only city facing this discussion. Similar affordability concerns are being raised in places such as Sydney and Melbourne, where housing prices have also become a major subject.
This is March 2017, and I'm documenting what I'm seeing while it's happening.
What happens to Vancouver if ordinary working families simply decide they can't make the numbers work anymore?

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