With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1184822
SUNSHINE COAST TOURISM DECEMBER/JANUARY 2020 BCBUSINESS 35 UNEMPLOY- MENT RATE (10%) AVERAGE HOUSE- HOLD SPENDING ON RECREATION (10%) AVERAGE SHELTER SPENDING (10%) FIVE-YEAR POPULATION GROWTH (10%) 21.2% $6,022 $25,030 $731,312 19.4 3.0% 15.9 3.2% 20.9% $4,184 $19,844 $611,541 19.6 6.8% 57.0 3.2% 23.8% $5,358 $25,471 $864,890 32.6 9.4% 53.4 4.6% 23.3% $5,715 $25,832 $676,451 31.4 4.6% 59.8 4.6% 23.2% $3,861 $20,080 $585,701 29.1 4.1% 173.9 4.6% 18.4% $4,633 $18,069 $314,461 13.8 0.4% 31.8 4.9% 20.1% $4,609 $20,520 $431,921 18.1 5.6% 73.9 4.5% 21.7% $5,114 $23,597 $619,309 24.7 7.6% 65.0 5.0% 22.8% $5,484 $25,170 $779,594 32.7 5.3% 61.1 4.6% 17.7% $4,967 $20,514 $295,888 16.3 4.4% 6.2 6.2% 19.9% $5,205 $21,630 $483,759 17.9 3.2% 39.6 4.1% 22.6% $4,312 $22,229 $1,100,741 31.1 4.4% 153.7 4.6% 22.0% $5,116 $22,949 $598,319 33.4 7.6% 39.1 5.0% 20.2% $4,359 $20,084 $424,957 15.6 2.0% 59.0 4.5% 20.0% $4,067 $17,884 $603,508 20.8 7.3% 68.5 4.9% 19.6% $5,205 $20,948 $518,937 20.7 0.9% 97.8 4.5% 17.1% $5,605 $23,506 $412,620 19.5 5.5% 29.8 4.5% AVERAGE VALUE OF PRIMARY REAL ESTATE (5%) FIVE-YEAR AVERAGE HOUSE- HOLD INCOME GROWTH (15%) AVERAGE COMMUTE TIME IN MINUTES (10%) HOUSING STARTS PER 10,000 RESIDENTS (10%) and a still-active construction industry. The real estate market may have cooled, but unaffordable housing keeps taking a toll on the broader region's performance, as captured by our average value of primary real estate indicator. Even more significant, the experts believe afford- ability is impacting Metro Vancouver well beyond what our ranking methodology might reveal. H O U S I N G W O E S "You have lots of job creation in the region as a whole, but housing is a huge barrier for a lot of people to enjoy the fruits of their labour," says Iglika Ivanova, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives think tank. The result has been a gradual erosion of people's standard of living. "It's one thing to think housing market prices are up, we have more wealth, but on the f lip side we have a lot of household debt, and B.C. households have the highest debt levels of all the provinces when compared to income," Ivanova adds. "Debt to disposable income is very high." One resu lt, Ha l l points out, is an exodus of residents looking for more-affordable pastures in the suburbs. "There are really large pressures on the outer suburbs of Vancouver," he says. "Where it shows up in the numbers is increasingly intensified forms of Category weights shown in brackets. Full methodology on page 33 BY THE SEASHORE After debuting at No. 12 on last year's list, oceanside Sechelt took a big fall