Statistics Canada and Simon Fraser University

School of Public Policy: His report compiles a number of other studies, including data on home-buying trends, population density, the cancelled immigrant investor program, and American research on the same issue, according to Huffington Post Canada. This year federal budget allocated $500,000 over the next year for Statistics Canada to develop methods to track ownership of Canadian homes by foreign homebuyers. Josh Gordon, the study author and assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University, said people whose dreams of owning a home are being crushed because they can't compete with foreign investors no longer accept "distraction'' excuses such as low interest rates for the state of the super-heated market. "People recognize what going on, and they're willing to call a spade a spade,'' he said, stressing that such views are based on reality, not racism. Gordon said his report blames Vancouver housing crisis on foreign buyers, particularly from China, because "this is where the evidence points, not because of some anti-Chinese animus.'' Chinese investors have also spiked home prices in the Toronto region, but Vancouver has seen the highest rise in real estate due to the influx of foreign money reaching an unprecedented level in the last year, he said. The average sale price of a single-detached home in Metro Vancouver was $1.4 million in April, a 30-per-cent increase from a year earlier, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. "People recognize what going on, and they're willing to call a spade a spade." The report, titled "Vancouver Housing Affordability Crisis: Causes, Consequences and Conclusions,'' says political inaction has allowed the problem to grow. "By linking the crisis unambiguously to foreign ownership and investment, documenting the major harms of the affordability crisis, and proposing a policy route out of the current mess, the report hopes to harness the city resentment and dispel its resignation.'' Mobilized and informed residents can ideally hold political leaders accountable, the report says. Gordon noted that other countries, including Australia and Singapore, have created policies for foreign homebuyers to protect their own citizens but that hasn't happened in Canada. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.