Barbara Yaffe: Vancouver property owners less able to trade up to bigger homes

VANCOUVER Housing affordability trends are such that, in Vancouver at least, a starter home no longer is a ticket to bigger and better digs as the years go by.

It used to be that homeowners would pay down mortgages and build equity, then be able to afford to move to a nicer house, perhaps in a more desirable neighbourhood.

Not any more.

Those pricier homes are simply unaffordable, even for owners of starter and mid-level homes.

So, by the time wannabe-buyers figure they can make the leap, they will increasingly find that the more expensive homes are out of reach.

Benjamin Tal, a deputy chief economist at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, outlined this new trend Monday in notes prepared for the International Housing and Home Warranty Conference in Vancouver.

The event, running to Wednesday, is being attended by 200 delegates who design, build, insure and provide warranties for both market and social housing.

Delegates are hearing about such things as how real estate practices have been changed by the Internet, new energy-saving innovations in home construction, and how shipping containers can be transformed into housing.

Tal explains: The value of bigger and pricier properties is rising notably faster than less-expensive properties widening the gap between starter home and dream house.

Regardless of what your starting point is, and by how much your property has appreciated, the desired move-up target is getting further and further out of reach.

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Barbara Yaffe: Vancouver property owners less able to trade up to bigger homes