Everyone predicted that boomers downsizing would lead to stabilized prices and availability of family sized housing units, it has not happened to the degree necessary to keep the market in balance.

One of the issues is that not enough suitable smaller units are available in the same (sub)urban neighbourhoods at prices that make the move tenable.

Ask yourself, why would I sell my ground related house, that is likely free and clear except for TMI (that I choose if I am going to pay the M part) and move out of my community to a condo that that is smaller and costs the same as the selling price of the home I own, plus it has TMI of $1-1.75 sq ft. The financial don't always make sense.

If you move from your ground related home and rent, and invest the equity smartly, then you can be further ahead. This is especially true is a speculator heavy market like the GTA, where units tend to be cash flow negative, even with rents increasing.

Rent Flation is sometimes caused by non home/property owners putting the oky doky on every school levy that comes up. When I was a landlord and taxes went up, RENT went up. Not just to cover for that property but also for the property I was living in as well.

same. no shame in it. wanting to pay more in tax is kind of like being insane; doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Why would we expect rent to not be going up? Inflation is affecting every other cost, not sure why rent would different. Landlords have expenses to cover so they raise their price. Lets hope the inflation starts to get under control for everything.

i dunno, supply & demand?

I work at a college, and one of my employees just told me he was just given notice that his 1 bedroom was going from $1050 to $1500. It's a property management company, and folks are profiteering at this point. That's not inflation, it's speculators snatching up everything they can find, and jacking the rents to squeeze out every penny possible.

If I were running the show, any residence owned beyond the one you reside in would be taxed at 100% of value every freaking year. Homes should not be a lucrative investment strategy subsidized by the federal government. They should be homes...

Good point.

I was paying $1.59/gal for home heating oil when we were energy independent a year ago and I got my oil tanks filled two weeks ago, it was $3.09/gal. Almost everything we buy relies on the price of oil whether for transport or the actual manufacture of it. We rent an apartment that includes energy in the rent, we expect a big bump in January when the lease is up.

That--and I expect substitution effect--people unhappy with where they are living, want a nicer place, but can't afford to buy because of the eye-watering jump in purchase prices.

COVID related--but more along the lines of 'if I have to spend another day in this place...'

I'd love to see some stats on whether these increases are across all price points...

Supply and demand - again.

A year ago, there was a huge glut of oil. Literally, we were running out of places to store it. Demand was way down because of COVID and the supply side hadn't adjusted. Hence, low prices. Now, the demand has skyrocketed with people driving again, planes flying again, etc. and OPEC hasn't changed supply. Hence, higher prices.

Nothing to do with the mythical energy independence.

Hogwash.

We went from a net exporter (glut of oil) to net importer of oil (begging Russia and Saudis).

Facts say otherwise, facts from reliable sources. However, I feel it's fruitless to present them and don't want to derail the thread anymore than I have.


I have nothing to contribute to the subject, but I do want to thank others for their input, like benb's post. There's a lot going on in a lot of different markets right now and it's interesting to hear what people have to say.

The implication that prior administrations were better on oil production seems disingenuous. We’ve had a pandemic that shut down demand. Futures were literally negative 1.5 years ago. Singe then, Texas froze and had hurricanes, and Louisiana had 3-4 massive hurricanes as well. Producers scaled back production when prices were super low, and haven’t been in a hurry to oversupply a market where prices are high.

Back to rent, if the rent increases were 4-5%, we could buy the whole “inflation” argument. 40% is something else. You could say build more, but big money is snatching up real estate, and creating a supply shortage. If these property management companies and REIT’s suddenly needed to divest, there would be plenty of houses.

The oversupply was well before covid. Russia and Saudi Arabia trying to oversupply each other contributed. The economy was much better than now too. People havysuch short memories.


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Russia and Saudis agreed to cut production in 2016 and they actually cut more than agreed. During that time, US increased oil production substantially and we were a net exporter of oil. Those are facts.

Today's demand is equal to the 5 year average. Another fact.

I said it in the Spring on this board, this is 1978 stagflation deja vu.

Rent increases are merely a reflection of government's policy errors.

I know many people, some being boomers and others much younger these days who rent and would not even consider buying a typical residential house.

To them, the idea that they dont have to cut the lawn or worry when the roof leaks or the boiler blows up is golden.