Are you happy, comfortable, uncomfortable or miserable?

Metro Vancouver residents who are over the age of 55, don't commute and own their homes outright are probably beaming from cheek to cheek over their living situation. They may even feel like they won the lottery.

But university-educated 18-to-54-year-old renters or mortgaged homeowners who commute are among a large class of residents in the region who could be dubbed Les Miserables, according to a recent opinion poll.

The Angus Reid Institute polled 821 Metro residents this month to find out how they felt about their housing and transportation situation.

About two in five respondents said they were "seriously thinking of leaving Metro Vancouver because of the cost of owning a home here." That is not a detached house with a yard in Vancouver either - that's any old condo, townhouse or detached home in Metro Vancouver, suburbs and all.

What's more, people were so displeased with their living situation that 18 per cent fell into a category the pollster dubbed "miserable." Another 27 per cent were "uncomfortable" on Angus Reid's pain index, while just 55 per cent were either "comfortable" (34 per cent) or "happy" (21 per cent).

Miserable, as strong a word as it is, is appropriate in this context, given that 85 per cent of those people are seriously considering leaving.

For a sense of who those people are, they are often young and university educated, and about half of them live in households with three or more people in them.

Shachi Kurl, a senior vice-president at Angus Reid, said it was concerning and striking that most of these respondents were serious about moving. "If one thinks about an entire cohort who are saying that they're seriously thinking of getting up and going," Kurl said, "is it your youngest and most educated that you want to leave? I would suggest not."

About half of the miserable group are already homeowners. But their commutes - often more than 45 minutes each way - are bringing them down.

"The price they are paying, both literally and figuratively in terms of their stress levels, is quite high. ... What is that doing to quality of life?" Kurl asked.

On the other end of the spectrum are the blessed 21 per cent of respondents who could be dubbed happy. Those folks tend not to commute, often have no mortgage, and live in their homes alone or with one other person. Also, about nine in 10 of them agree with the statement: "I basically hit the jackpot by getting into the (real estate) market at the right time."

But even half of those in the happy camp think that high housing prices are a problem. They are among the 80 per cent of overall respondents who say high housing costs are hurting Metro Vancouver and the nine in 10 who are worried the next generation won't be able to afford a home.

"This issue is one that has been gripping this region for years, and I mean decades, really, if you go back," Kurl said. "You go into any lunch room at a major employer in this city, people are talking about it. You talk to people on the bus, on the SkyTrain, people are talking about it."

The issue has people pointing fingers in all directions. About two-thirds of respondents believe "foreigners investing in this real estate market" are a main cause of high housing prices. Others pointed to wealthy investors, owners of empty condos, low interest rates, the priorities of developers and other reasons.

But what the majority of respondents could agree on is they want governments to get involved. And they want more information.

"There is a high level of interest and desire to actually collect some data on the issue of what's actually behind these high housing prices," Kurl said.

The findings come as Eveline Xia, a Vancouver resident who kicked off a public debate about housing under the hashtag #donthave1million, is preparing to hold on June 24 what could be the most bookish rally the city has ever seen.

The Give Us Data rally, slated for Vancouver Central Library, is intended to push politicians and policy-makers for independent, reliable and accurate data on the issue.

"The reason we can never conclude or make policy decisions on the foreign ownership issue is because everybody says: 'We don't have the data.' I've heard that for years now. The answer is always: we don't have the data to conclusively determine that it is or it isn't foreign ownership or foreign money driving Vancouver's real estate market," Xia said in an interview.

The issue is not going to go away on its own, so we need data to deal with it, Xia said.

"This crisis - and it's a been a crisis for a while - is something that's in people's minds every single day," she said.

Xia, 29, said some her friends - well educated professionals - have already left the region.

She and others she knows are considering following suit, on the hunt for affordable, family-sized houses or apartments within a reasonable commute from work.

"There are all these factors coming together that make this city right now a great place to leave," Xia said. "We're going to see an exodus."

The Angus Reid survey was a self-commissioned, representative randomized sample of 821 Metro Vancouver adults. A probability sample of that size carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 per cent, 19 times out of 20, according to the pollster.

mrobinson@vancouversun.com

THE METRO VANCOUVER EXPERIENCE: Four different realities

21% Happy

87% own their homes

71% have household of two or fewer

83% have no mortgage

Longtime homeowners:

55% brought before 1990 82% before 2000

66% don't commute

34% Comfortable

65% own their home

62% have household of two or fewer

56% bought their home before 2000

38% don't commute

47% commute under 30 minutes

27% Uncomfortable

47% own homes

45% have households of 3+

51% of those who own homes bought with last 10 years,

31% within last 5

90% commute to work/school

18% Miserable

