In this lab, I studied affordability in Montreal and Vancouver, but will be discussing this concept in many contexts.

For example, affordability measuring takes into account many more factors than housing cost alone. A concept called The Median Multiple, which is used by the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, takes the median house price and divides it by the gross annual median household income. This creates a house price to income ratio that is widely used for evaluation urban markets and has been recommended by the United Nations and the World Bank (Wendell and Pavletich, 2015).

The housing affordability rating categories are:

These categories were determined by the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, which has the perspective that “domestic public policy should, first and foremost be focused on improving the standard of living and reducing poverty” (Wendell and Pavletich, 2015). Wendell and Pavletich also explain that Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey was created to supplement the work done by urban planning policies. The objective of this survey is to facilitate upward mobility among young people facing poverty in geographies that are facing ambiguous economic futures. I believe they a group that can be trusted because it seems that their primary goal is to help those that need it, and not those that are looking to profit from the current unaffordable housing market.

Is affordability a good indicator of a city’s ‘livability’?

Affordability is a key factor that can be used to determine whether of not a place is considered to have a high ‘livability’. In order for the people inhabiting the area to enjoy their time living there, they can’t be spending most of their time working to pay off their mortgage, groceries and other essential items. With affordable real estate, tenants will hopefully be able to live comfortably, work and have a good experience with the area. While there are many other elements necessary to provide the greatest economic ‘livability’ possible, affordability would definitely be at the top on my list.

As a hypothetical question, I was asked which classification method I would use if I were a journalist that was writing an article of housing affordability in Montreal and Vancouver.

As a journalist, I would choose the Natural Breaks classification method for my audience. I would choose this method because it is the classification that seems to give the most accurate representation of the house costs in Vancouver. It is using intervals that have a wide range starting at 0 – 401320, a price that can buy a house in most places in Canada.

However, if I were a real estate agent preparing a presentation for prospective home buyers near UBC I would use the Equal Interval classification method. Equal Interval shows this housing area as slightly more expensive than some other areas, however, does not look like a dramatic change in comparison to the entire map. This method adjusts for the high cost of Vancouver housing, as opposed to using intervals in its legend that are comparable to house costs in the rest of Canada.

I believe that there are ethical implications for my choice of classification method. Depending on my choice, I could choose a classification method that uses prices of house costs that are comparable to other parts in Canada in order to show the true high cost of housing in Vancouver. Nonetheless, it is also very easy to choose an option that only compares house costs to other houses in Vancouver, thus, not demonstrating the disproportionate price of housing in Vancouver. Depending on my selection, I can choose to show the abnormal house prices in Vancouver or normalize them.

Cox, Wendell, and Hugh Pavletich. 11th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey. Rep. New York: Stern School of Business, 2015. Print. Data from 3rd Quarter 2014.