Who can afford to buy?

I was on the Vancouver east-side this summer when I struck up a conversation with an older gentleman who had moved to Canada about 40 years ago, raised children, who now have kids of their own.

He asked if I rent or own. When I said I rent, he said, "I know, your generation had no chance to buy a home. Think about the national anthem. Our home and native land. Is it really your home if you can never buy a home?"

The "social contract" is exactly what he was talking about, a social contract that has been broken.
Why should I love a country that bleeds me dry of money just so I can pay someone else's mortgage? The idea that one could make an honest living, buy a modest home, and raise a family, is long dead in the current state of affairs.

If you don't have wealthy parents, who already own property, there is almost no hope of escaping the rental trap.

Our mortgage industry requires most people to have a renter's suite if they're buying a single family home; a "mortgage-helper" is now part of the structure of buying a home.

It's part of the deal to have a renter pay part of your mortgage. Who does this serve? Home buyers face escalating costs and the potential headache of being a landlord.

Renters pay higher and higher costs only to have that money pay the mortgage for the wealthier people upstairs. Is this a "fair deal"? Should I be proud to be Canadian when the system seems to be rigged against me, in favour of those higher on the income ladder?

And what about children being born now, who will have it even worse?

Marcus Weber, West Kelowna