My wife and I recently embarked on a long overdue date night to Detroit, MI., to see one of our favourite comedians, Sebastian Maniscalco at Little Caesars Arena.
He absolutely killed it. And so did his opening acts.
We were laughing for two hours straight. Laughter is good for the soul.
Prior to the show, we had dinner at an amazing “Detroit Style” Mexican restaurant called Vecino Detroit, and after the show, we hit up a very cool cocktail bar called The Monarch Club.
Both, highly recommended!
Despite all the Canada-U.S. tensions, I still feel very fortunate to live so close to Detroit.
The city has really reinvented itself.
And to me, it provides a bit of hope…Most people had written off the City of Detroit… and now it’s back!
In Canada, more and more people have written off the idea of homeownership – especially young people!
And it’s becoming very obvious that there is a growing divide between generations when it comes to housing affordability in Canada.
It’s a problem that’s been building for years, but it seems to have reached a boiling point recently.
Back in 2005, a young couple earning a median income could afford a home in 21 out of 26 markets in Southern Ontario. That’s right, 21 out of 26.
The Canadian Dream was alive and well.
But fast forward to today, and that same couple wouldn’t be able to afford a home in ANY of those markets. Not a single one.
The dream has turned into a nightmare.
In our business, we deal with both mortgage borrowers and mortgage investors.
A mortgage investor is basically somebody who acts like the bank. They have excess cash, and they lend it out.
Just the other day, I was on the phone with a young couple who were trying to buy their first home.
They had good jobs, a solid down payment saved up, and a baby on the way. But even with all that, they couldn’t qualify for a mortgage on even a modest starter home.
The system had failed them, just like it’s failing so many others.
And then, not an hour later, I was on another call with one of our mortgage investors.
He was upset that his returns had dipped slightly, from 12% to “only” 11%.
The contrast was staggering.
And also a bit enlightening.
Shortly thereafter, I read an article in the National Post that I want to share.
WARNING: The article is political. There is certainly some bias on the part of the writer. Nonetheless, I believe it does a good job of capturing the current mindset of young, aspiring homeowners.
I’m sure there will be opposing views, and I welcome and feedback.
Here’s the article:
Pierre Poilievre keeps saying it: Canada is broken.
And for millions of younger Canadians, it’s not just a slogan. It’s reality.
But for older voters — especially Boomers and older Gen Xers — that message is like nails on a chalkboard. They hate it. Not because it’s wrong, but because it threatens a version of Canada they still believe in. A Canada that worked. A Canada that rewarded hard work, played fair, and gave them everything they have now.
And it did work — for them.
If you bought a home in 1996, you paid around $150,000 in most major cities. Today, that same home is worth over $1 million. In that time, you’ve watched interest rates drop, your equity skyrocket, and your retirement fund balloon. Government services worked when you needed them. Your pension is solid. Life in Canada got better, year after year. So when someone says “Canada is broken,” it sounds absurd — because for you, it never broke.
But for those who came after you? It never even started.
Younger Canadians are locked out of the middle class their parents entered with a college degree and a single income. They’ve been told to study hard, work hard, and keep their heads down. And they did — only to graduate into a gig economy, spend half their income on rent, and watch the dream of home ownership float further out of reach every year.
They’re not looking for handouts. They’re looking for a fair shot. And they’re not getting one.
This is the raw generational fault line running through Canadian politics today. And it’s only getting wider.
That’s why older voters are drifting toward people like Mark Carney — technocratic, stable, a man who promises to “manage” Canada rather than change it. His recent ad isn’t a pitch to young people with no assets — it’s a comfort blanket for those who already have theirs. It speaks to a deep yearning among older voters to go back to a time when Canada felt whole. When the system worked. When they were building their lives, not watching their kids fail to launch.
But you can’t go back to 1996. And young Canadians don’t want to.
For them, Poilievre’s blunt diagnosis — that the country is broken — is refreshing. It’s finally an admission of what they’ve been living for a decade. That the institutions their parents built no longer serve them. That the rules are rigged. That the future doesn’t look like opportunity, it looks like survival.
The Liberal Party doesn’t want to talk about this. Neither do their allies in media and academia. Because to admit that Canada is broken is to admit that the people who ran it — for decades — broke it. Or at the very least, turned away while it happened.
This isn’t a left-versus-right issue. It’s generational. The system still works if you own a home, have a pension, and aren’t saddled with debt. But for younger Canadians, those things are slipping out of reach — and politics that only speaks to nostalgia is just another reminder of who Canada still belongs to.
We are becoming a two-tier nation. One Canada owns. The other rents. One Canada votes to protect what it has. The other votes to escape a future it never signed up for.
So, yes — Canada is broken. But if you’re over 55, you might not notice. That’s not an attack. It’s just the truth.
The next election won’t just be about left versus right, Liberal versus Conservative. It’ll be about a political class that’s still campaigning in 1996 — and a generation that can’t afford to live there anymore.
National Post
Again, there’s certainly more than a little political bias, however, the author does capture what I’ve been seeing on a day-to-day basis.
Two groups that grew up, and live in two very different versions of Canada.
But here’s the good news: it’s not too late to turn the tide.
Just like Detroit staged a remarkable comeback, we too can revitalize the Canadian Dream.
Every time a young family is able to buy their first home, it’s a victory against the forces that have made homeownership feel like an impossible dream.
So if you’re ready to take control of your financial future, if you’re ready to be part of the solution to the housing crisis, then let’s talk.
Together, we can build a future where the Canadian Dream is alive and well for generations to come.
Stay positive, stay proactive, and never stop believing in the power of homeownership.
Til Next Time,
Vince
P.S. Check out either of those spots in Detroit that I mentioned. You will not be disappointed.
