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LETTER: Houses in Barrie only affordable to the wealthy

'I'm not sure what the solution is, but I'm increasingly sure that our land prices are rendering housing unaffordable,' says letter writer
2022-01-08 Housing
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BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a story titled 'Barrie's affordable housing crisis needs 'multiple solutions,' says mayor' published on Jan. 8. 
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The median household income was $74,000 (Cdn.) in 2020. Allowing for 2.5 income for house prices, that comes to $185,000.

When I moved to Barrie in 2001, that would have been plausible and there were many new houses available here for much less than that.

Now only the wealthy can afford Barrie house prices.

The city is making a real effort to provide "more affordable" houses, but I fear the city is only reaching a few with incomes below median — and indeed even above median.

As long as residential house prices are driven by land property costs, and money available to the wealthy in the United States and Canada to invest in land, the majority of Canadians (and Barrie residents) will no longer be able to afford houses — unless they already own houses.

I'm not sure what the solution is, but I'm increasingly sure that our land prices are rendering housing unaffordable.

Andrew Biemiller
Barrie

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