Housing Affordability in Vancouver and Ottawa

Applied the four different classification schemes on ArcGIS, and normalized data to determine housing affordability in Vancouver and Ottawa.

Dwelling Cost For Vancouver Census Track Data

Dwelling Affordability of Vancouver & Ottawa Census Track Data

This lab dealt heavily with the classification schemes, and choosing the right one. For this map, (link 1), I would use the standard deviation classification because the map and its histograms both clearly display the distribution of the housing costs. I feel like this makes more sense than all the other classifications, since standard deviation is something that is more known to the general public. In addition, it gives a better idea of the ranges of the prices and the outliers. If I was a real estate agent preparing a presentation for home buyers near UBC, I would use Manual Breaks, since I can customize the map towards the buyer’s needs and price range, by creating my own breaks. This will make it a lot easier for the buyer to make their choice and is also good in terms of a social/business aspect, because it will give the buyers a feeling of importance, and that the real estate company really cares about personalized cliental support. There are definitely ethical implications of my choice of classification method because each method highlights and downplays certain data, and that could create a bias, and could highlight or downplay certain areas of Vancouver in which the local income per household is comparatively higher or lower. But unfortunately, these biases need to take place in order for businesses to sell houses appropriately, according to their buyer’s needs, even though it would create an ethical implication.

In relation to the map in link 2, we take a closer look at affordability in Vancouver and Ottawa. Affordability measures the cost of the product, relative to how much the buyer is able to pay. This is essentially why affordability is a better indicator of housing affordability than purely housing cost. In incorporates a human aspect to it, and shows the incomes of people living in certain areas, and allows us to see if the housing prices around these areas are suitable for these buyers.

In terms of rating housing affordability, the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey uses the “Median Multiple” system to determine a range. This is known to be trusted, as the Median Multiple system is vastly employed in urban markets, and is also recommended for use by the United Nations and the World Bank. It is used by higher education institution research as well. Because these are all platforms that provide unbiased information to the world, we can trust their ratings. The following are the housing affordability rating categories (as per the 12^th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey):

Affordability is also a good indicator of the livability of a city, as it gives us a sense of whether or not people are able to rent or buy a means of shelter. The more affordable that houses are, the more people are able to thrive in that city, as have the satisfaction of knowing that there are homes which their income can support.