Some Interesting Statistics on Housing in Vancouver

All data is from the 2006 census from Statistics Canada.

The total number of households in Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area: 817,225
Total owners: 531,725
Total renters: 285,045

Change since 2001:
Households: +7.7%
Owners: +14.9%
Renters: -3.6%

Not surprisingly the number of owners rose in the 4 years between 2001 and 2006 but I didn't thiink it would be double the rate of population increase. Surprisingly, the count of people renting fell between 2001 and 2006 even though the population increased.

Percentage of households owning: 65.1%
Percentage of households renting: 34.9%

Number of households spending more than 30% of income on shelter: 265,870
Renters spending more than 30% of income on shelter: 123,050
Owners spending more than 30% of income on shelter: 142,815

Those numbers of people spending more than 30% of household income on shelter costs are just sickening. I had no idea there were so many people in that kind of dire financial position. We are talking about 1/4 of the entire population of the greater vancouver area. I suppose that single people who make average incomes or lower would comprise the majority of those spending 30% or more in addition to the overextended home debtor.