I have a confession: I’m in my forties and I’m a renter. What’s more, I might be renting forever.
I live in a two-bedroom apartment with my son in a desirable Vancouver neighbourhood—I’m not hard done by—but I’d always expected that I would eventually buy a place of my own. In my twenties, home ownership felt too far on the horizon to worry about. In my thirties, I pulled together money for a down payment and shopped around for a family-sized condo, only to realize that, at my price point, it would mean moving to the distant suburbs. I decided to keep saving. Now, in my forties, I’ve found that my funds can’t keep up with rising home prices—the average for Metro Vancouver hit nearly $1.2 million in recent months. The experience has been like watching a train leave the station without me—and it’s not coming back.
