Dear Editor,
Re: “The big squeeze is on first-timers, not homeowners,” Letters, July 5.
Steve Mullin speaks for many young people who cannot afford to get into the housing market. However, long-time homeowners are not tone deaf to their plight. Many are acutely aware that their own children and grandchildren are caught in the same situation.
The housing crisis was not created by homeowners. Look instead at those who profit from a hot housing market: the construction and real estate industries, property flippers and speculators, and local governments that rake in fees and property taxes.
Also to blame is the provincial government, which looked the other way while the situation got out of control, and a federal government with no national housing policy.
We all need to put pressure on government to solve the problem because young families and singles need decent, affordable housing.
So do older, mostly retired homeowners without the financial resources to afford annual tax increases of 10 to 40 per cent.
Mr. Mullin’s assumption that a $5,500 tax bill would be for a house worth over $3 million is off the mark. Our tax bill is larger than that on a property valued at less than $2 million.
There is something wrong with the way that property taxes are calculated. We all use roughly the same amount of public services, yet taxes for single-family dwellings are rising while those for condos are falling. This needs to be fixed before large numbers of homeowners decide to protect their equity by moving into the condo/townhouse market.
Marion Smith
Richmond
