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“Where does Vancouver sit? Its (housing) values are between Honolulu and San Francisco at Halifax incomes.” Things are similarly bad in the Fraser Valley, where housing prices are seven times median incomes.

And here’s where those gasps and exclamations of “wow” came in: Yan first presented a slide that showed million-dollar-plus detached homes in Metro to be concentrated in Vancouver. Then he showed another that included household transportation costs paid out over a 25-year period. Suddenly, those million-dollar homes had spread clear across Metro.

“We can’t necessarily sprawl our way out of this housing situation,” Yan said.

Local families have taken on extraordinary debt loads to get into the housing market, Ley said, calling it “a very serious problem just waiting to happen.”

“What if current economic conditions change? What if there was a significant recession or even a small recession? What if interest rates went up two to three per cent?”

Even if those things don’t happen, what will at this rate become is a serious Metro labour shortage, he said.

By 2020, workers in 82 of 88 in-demand jobs will be unable to afford a single-family home in Metro, Ley said, citing a 2015 study from Vancity. And in just 10 years, most people will forgo career opportunities in the region and simply relocate elsewhere, he said.

There are a few things driving the out-of-control market, and it’s not a strong local economy or in-migration from other parts of Canada, Ley said. It’s not a writ large lack of supply, either, the panelists agreed.