Vancouver homes prices will climb to $2.1 million by 2030: report

A new housing report from the VanCity Credit Union says the average house price in Vancouver will climb to $2.1 million within 15 years.

Andy Broderick, Vancity's vice-president of community investment, says future homebuyers who want to stay in the Lower Mainland should lower their expectations of what they'll be able to afford to buy.

"We'll be looking at more and more comfort with condo ownership, with living in denser conditions," says Broderick.

The likelihood of new buyers owning a house with a white picket fence is pretty much nil as the report highlights that wages are not growing at anywhere near the same pace as housing prices.

Broderick says the desirability of living in Metro Vancouver is to blame.

"You're here for the very reasons that the place is unaffordable," says Broderick.

"Realize that you may not be able to buy the kind of house you'd buy far up the Fraser Valley."

The report highlights that although Vancouver is the second-most unaffordable city in the world, it's also been named the third-most liveable city in the world.

But the report also mentions that the cost of condos will rise as well, leaving the most affordable options in Metro Vancouver cities like Langley, Port Moody and Coquitlam.

Focus on millennials

The report focuses on home ownership for millennials, or those born approximately between 1980 and the early 2000s.

However, a recent report from U.S.-based Federated Investors highlighted that millennials in North America stand to inherit $30 trillion over the next few decades.

And a recent housing report from the Vancouver-based Urban Futures Institute showed that despite climbing home and condo prices, millennials were more likely to own a home in 2011 than they were in 2006. And yes, that pattern was the same specifically for the Metro Vancouver region as well.

Broderick says the exponential rise in the cost of home ownership is not inevitable.

"I think we all have to elevate our awareness of the problem and start asking our municipalities and our provincial government to pull together to come up with solutions," he says.

Some of the Vancity report's recommendations for various levels of government include changing zoning to increase density, creating affordable housing, and changing tax structures to create incentives for developers.

To listen to the full interview, click on the audio labelled: Average Vancouver home expected to cost $2.1 million by 2030.