Article content continued

Housing prices across all types of real estate are expected to rise by 4.87 per cent each year, while wages creep up by between 0.6 and 3.2 per cent.

Wage growth has lagged behind real estate prices since at least the turn of the century. Average housing costs in Metro Vancouver increased by 63 per cent between 2001 and 2014, while hourly wage rates rose by just 36.2 per cent, according to the report. In Vancouver proper during the same time period, average home resale values have jumped by a whopping 211 per cent.

Norman and her husband ended up buying a four-bedroom house in the Garibaldi Highlands for about half of what a similar house would go for in Vancouver. They now have a one-yearold son and have settled into a community of like-minded families in Squamish.

“We’ve met tons of other young people who have, for the same reasons, moved out of Vancouver because they can’t afford it anymore,” she said.

The couple still makes the tough daily commute into Vancouver, but Norman has arranged to work from home two days a week to make her life a bit easier.

Right now, the average household would need to make $123,000 to pay for the average monthly mortgage in Metro Vancouver. That will jump to an average household income of $197,965 by 2025, and even highly skilled young people starting off in careers as industrial electricians, family doctors and firefighters won’t make enough to cover that, according to the report.