I have lived in Vancouver since the early 80s. Vancouver has always been extremely expensive. The prices have only gone up since the 80s. Our house went from $250,000 which was 50% more expensive than our Toronto house to $1.4M when we sold in 2010.
So unless you are talking geologic timelines, Vancouver sustained unreasonably high housing costs for 3 decades or more (it continues to be high) with no significant pullback and no discernible industry like Silicon Valley.
In the 1980s they blamed Hong Kong immigrants. More recently they blamed the Mainland Chinese. Now is it foreign investment? There has always been a bogeyman in the minds of Vancouverites but they have always been wrong. Regardless what the reasons, the costs have always been hard for regular Vancouverites to afford and yet the prices kept going up for decades.
So unless you are talking geologic timelines, Vancouver sustained unreasonably high housing costs for 3 decades or more (it continues to be high) with no significant pullback and no discernible industry like Silicon Valley.
In the 1980s they blamed Hong Kong immigrants. More recently they blamed the Mainland Chinese. Now is it foreign investment? There has always been a bogeyman in the minds of Vancouverites but they have always been wrong. Regardless what the reasons, the costs have always been hard for regular Vancouverites to afford and yet the prices kept going up for decades.