Page 24, January 24, 1978 - North Shore_News he great ’ . e ; eo. . . . ° e Blinding us to better housing approaches By ADRIAN STOTT $10,000. But to build a 2- bedroom house on that lot, You hear it with construction prices everywhere. ‘The running at least $350 per : . square metre, will set you solution to our housing pack about $42,000, for a _ problems is easy. The |. total home bill of $52,000. ~government owns Suppose you could the y an mce 10 all. (< MBLC. Pat it on the 55.000 you save drops that: total bill only by 10% to market. for peanuts, $47,000. That’s a nice and everyone will be discount, to be sure, but able to afford his own. probably mot the difference PT) etween buying and ren +4 some vapposch ine for most people. clude such , diverse But putting that aside for ‘members as Premier now, let’s say we do.want to Bill Bennet and Sun columnist Paul St. Pierre. They’ve all been caught up in. that-most persistent of our contemporary legends - - the Crown . Land Myth. In fact, the release of Crown Land would solve very few of our problems, and would create many others. Also, widespread acceptance of the idea may be preventing us from seeing about it. growth, migrati other, more effective, remedies. HIGH PRICED LAND? The problem, we're told, goes like this. Home ownership should be a reasonable expectation in B.C., yet the ordinary person can no longer afford - to buy his own place. The reason given is land prices, which have shot up since 1970. The Myth starts right here, because the problem itself is a mis-statement. PEACEFUL AND BEAUTIFUL TO BEHOLD -- but for living purposes the trouble with most Crown land is that it’s in the wrong places (Chris Lloyd photo) In the first place, home prices aren't that high. For many people, the price of a first home is still around the _ guideline figure of 5 years’ wages. Looked at in that way, a $60,000 home represents an earning ability. of about $6.25 an hour, hardly a princely wage. It's true that you can't find $60,000 houses everywhere, but even in Greater Van- couver they aren't that far away. Kitsilano may be pricey but Richmond isn't. Second, the price of land is only a major part of the price of a home if you're buying right in town. In more rural areas, it’s much less significant. Only 50 miles from Vancouver, 0.2 hectare serviced lots (that's about ‘4 actfe, around 4 times the size of a city lot) have been selling for under WE ARE SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE OUR CUSTOMERS ARE SATISFIED! *NORDIC Down Comforters are made with PURE WHITE GOOSEDOWN and fine downproof ticking. “We give a FULL 10 YEAR WARRANTY, plus o COMFORT GUARANTEE with every comforter we sell. “We stock a wide selection of colourful covers in our unique functional design. *Take advantage of buying directly from the Manufacturer — NORDIC DOWN COMFORTERS —— —_ as wy || DISTANT THUNDER’’ A hard hitting Film that points to the signs of the end of times which are all around us Sun. Jan 28 Valid until 100 % Goosedown “100% Jan. 31/79 White 7:00p.m FREE MISSION see itat — Delbrook Baptis! Church 515 West. Windsor Rd. N. Vancouver, B.C. 158 50. | 169 50° 194 50 Nordic DOWN COMFORTERS 3155 Granville at 16th Ave., Parking at rear. 731-0713 rownLand’ myth — left with’ increasing the small investment of money taken up, it supply. bring:down the price of land. Releasing Crown Land simply is not the way to go ordinary commodity like back then weren't fools. the ; distance from coffee or calculators. It not They not only took ad- munity’ facilities (or the high’ only has to be on the market, eS it has to be produced in the they also took the most facilities) would red right place too. Listing more nt r lots in Atlin won't do much _ that was easily accessible, or _for land _prices.in Victoria. — . And that brings up the first was mostly snapped-up long" real drawback of Crown ago. There isn’t much vacant Land. Most of it is in the wrong place.-A little history will show why. ' If we are also to retain a free market in land, there are only two-possible ways to proceed. Either the demand for land has to be reduced, or the supply increased. But reducing the demand would probably require at least holding the line on provincial population through im- Strictions and similar moves. It’s not likely . land ‘was available pretty even if the remaining land we'll go that way. So we're much for the asking. For a.’ were made available, and Tordic DOWN COMFORTERS 4 and time, you could obtain 4 “wouldn't be too helpf crown land grant, often ‘prices in town. Th However, land isn’t an around 160 acres. People commuting distance vantage of this situation, but taxes to provide. - a papa uce. convenient land. Property desirability. near to population centres, Crown Land left near Prices increasing - Granville and Georgia. 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