Friday, November 24, 2006

Vancouver spin on the obvious.

The globe and mail article I linked to a few days ago about the housing affordability study has been reported on locally in a Vancouver Province article by Ashley Ford. Comparing these two articles is interesting in where they differ:

1) The G&M article doesn't draw any conclusions about future activity, but the Province article reports that: "That trend is expected to ease in some parts of the country next year as prices start to level off and even decline, but not in B.C. or Alberta." Interesting to note that prices in some categories have already started to level off or even decline here in Vancouver, so I'm not sure where 'not in B.C. or Alberta' comes from.

2) Where the G&M articles says "Renters were much more likely to fall into this category of people who struggle to afford housing" the article in the Province says "However, high prices notwithstanding, it suggests it is still better to own a home than rent." No. It doesn't. It suggests that owners tend to have more money than renters (obviously), NOT that it is better to own than rent even with current high prices, which is a dangerous view to take concerning affordability.

3) It is unfortunate that in the local article there is absolutely no info about affordability levels in Vancouver compared to the rest of Canada, just the same National stats from the Globe story. It would have been informative to include this information and would have given the story a local angle.

*subtly edited to make it look like I didn't make the obvious mistake that VHB pointed out.
         

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