Semester Reflection

This semester, I completed an independent inquiry project that looked into the cause for BC’s high housing prices. I looked into multiple factors that caused housing prices to skyrocket as well as the potential future economic impacts they could have on BC’s economy. Lots of the information revolved around the greater Vancouver area as that is an area where prices are especially high. The most interesting parts about this project were how the high prices could impact the economy in the future. For example, the increased prices, mixed with the high cost of living, resulted in BC losing lots of families and young workers. This would cause our workforce to have a shortage as there will not be enough new workers entering the workforce to replace the workers leaving. This would force the price of skilled labor (plumbers, electricians etc.) to charge more for their services due to supply and demand and ultimately force the price of new houses to be more expensive. Another interesting part was how even though housing prices went up, there was not a significant decline in the amount of homes purchased. This breaks the law of demand because it states that when price goes up, demand goes down.

This topic matters today because housing is something that will always be needed, and being able to identify the causes and effects of high housing prices can help us prevent this from happening again and allow us to make a more educated decision when purchasing a house. I gather and synthesize information to develop logical conclusions, such as when I was able to identify the connection between people leaving BC for other provinces and the increased cost of living in BC. I came to this conclusion because people would want to live an area where their money gets them more house to live in.