The Hongcouver | Racism, rogues, real estate: key players and cameos in Vancouver’s year of living unaffordably

2015 was a big year for anyone with a stake in Vancouver’s unaffordability debate - which is pretty much everyone in the city, for better or worse, as well as a fair number of folk in Hong Kong and mainland China.

And so the Hongcouver blog gratefully snatches the opportunity to indulge in a great New Year journalistic tradition: skiving off from the challenge of original work by rehashing a bunch of old columns and going to the pub.

Herewith, some of the key performers and bit players who helped keep the drama of Vancouver’s housing market and the unaffordability crisis in the spotlight. Enjoy, and may 2016 be a happy, healthy and affordable New Year.

[UPDATE: Property assessments arrived in the mail for Vancouver residents this week, confirming a banner year for home price increases - and unaffordability. More than 50 metro neighbourhoods reportedly joined the club of those with average detached house prices above the C$1 million mark. And by the estimate of the Knight Frank real estate consultancy, those increases gave Vancouver the world's biggest price increases for 2015. In the words of University of Waterloo professor Markus Moos on Twitter: "Good news to some, for most just another reminder of unaffordable housing".]

Tsur Somerville

For years, Dr Tsur Somerville was the go-to guy when one wanted an impartial academic opinion on Vancouver’s real estate market.