Coquitlam
Port Coquitlam
Port Moody
In-person meetings causing concern
Homeless couple fears eviction from makeshift cabin
Coronation Park redevelopment inches closer to reality
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T H U R S D AY
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FEBRUARY 4
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2021
There’s more at
tricitynews.com
PoCo hockey helps out + Fourth pot shop for Port Moody + PoCo mortgage expert wins big
BORROWED SUNSHINE
HOUSING
Are we living beyond our means? Coquitlam homeowners pay 38.5% of their income on their mortgage STEFAN LABBÉ slabbe@tricitynews.com
Kimberley Constable, the manger of the Terry Fox Library in Port Coquitlam, gets a dose of artificial sunshine from one of the 150 special therapy lights that can be borrowed from the branch. For more, see the story on Page 22. MARIO BARTEL/THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Coquitlam is the seventh most “cost-burdened” city in Canada, according to a recent study that measured the percentage of household income homeowners used to pay off their mortgages. The report, conducted by the real estate date company Point2, found Coquitlam homeowners spent an average of 38.5% of their income on their mortgage, meaning an average household would need to earn an extra $32,845 (33%) more to dip below the recommended 30% income-mortgage threshold. And
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that’s with median household incomes standing at $100,408. Beyond Coquitlam, the share of household income needed to afford housing “has gone up exponentially” over the last decade. In 2010, six cities were on Canada’s mortgage burdened list, defined as cities where mortgages make up more than 30% of a homeowners’ income. At the time, Coquitlam took the unenviable top spot with mortgages making up 40% of homeowners income, according to study. Ten years later, several other cities in British Columbia have joined Coquitlam in the “markedly unaffordable territory.” They include Burnaby, where 44.7% of residents’ income was found to go toward their mortgage in 2020, as well as Richmond (44%), Vancouver (41.6%), Kelowna (40.8%) and Langley (40.5%).