JUNE 2017 BCBUSINESS 31
A frothy real estate
market has left
affluent British
Columbians who
can't afford to buy
feeling poor–and
homeowners of
modest means
feeling flush.
With research
partner Environics
Analytics, we
explore how this
divide has affected
personal finances
from Vancouver to
Kelowna to Comox,
finding unexpected
pockets of wealth
along the way
have seven times their annual
household income—which is in the
healthy $100,000-plus bracket—socked away,
thanks to the sale of a condo several years ago
along with savings from their earnings. Justin
Jacobsen, who makes a "comfortable six-•gure
salary" as an investment analyst, and his wife
have also banked a huge wad of money. Nels
Anderson and his wife have amassed about two
years' worth of household income in savings.
These three Vancouver couples in their
30s are, by normal standards, more than well
oƒ. They, along with many other millennials
in Metro Vancouver, have saved much more
than their peers in any other major Canadian
city, according to WealthScapes 2016, the latest
annual report on the assets, income, spend-
ing and liabilities of Canadians published by
BCBusiness research partner Environics
Analytics. The 30-somethings in B.C. have sav-
ings and investments that are 50 per cent higher
than the rest of their cohort in Canada. Those in
Vancouver have 20 per cent more than millen-
nials elsewhere in the province.
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BY F R A N C E S BU L A
P H OTO G R A P H S BY TA N YA G O E H R I N G
P E R S O N A L
F I N A N C E
