[Halifax] St. Pat's Crossing (6067 Quinpool) | ? m | 4x28 fl | U/C

[Keith P.]

One thing to remember about housing and what it costs is that expensive housing is a relatively recent phenomenon of just the last 5 or 6 years. In the 1980s and '90s I lived in several of the large apartment blocks around SGR. When I moved there in the early '80s I was paying something like $600/mo, and when I moved away in the late '90s it was around $900/mo, so not unreasonable inflation. There's a long way to make that into today's $2500 or $3000/mo., especially for the same 1970s buildings.

I bought my house in the late '90s for $115K if memory serves. The identical house nearby was recently purchased for $500K+. I would expect to get even more if I sold it today. Why? Covid seemed to spark a change in that equation as people fled here from big cities, combined with runaway immigration spiking demand for housing of any sort (thanks, JT). That led to rentals with 8 mattresses on the floor, something never seen here previously, and something that govts would have previously come down hard on but which they no longer seem to care about. We have only ourselves and our leaders to blame. Govts making a fortune raking in taxes from all those people working and buying stuff blinds them to the costs, both financial and social.