Lots do!
The median Van West home is a cool $2 Million now. There is a misconception that only wealthy Chinese or those with 'hot' off-shore money can afford these prices.
There are lots of people locally who have an income big enough, say $700K, to be able to afford buying even at these lofty levels.
Some are business owners, but many are professionals who may even be paid by the tax-payer. Eg while the average doctor makes a lot less than this, I hear from my medical buddies (and in fact you can check on-line) that some Cardiologists , Opthalmologists and skin docs are well into this bracket.
There are many high prices lawyers in this range too, and I am sure the lawyers who got to take the tax-payers largesse in this case and never get audited are in the exclusive club.
In fact the top producing Realtors probably have membership too and there are quite a few stock-brokers who run large 'books', pushing them easily to this level.
My point is there is enough local money power to keep buyers coming in alongside our off-shore arrivals. Not enough however to eat into the 7-8 MOI.
And don't even get me started on some of the over-paid padding that goes on in parts the corporate world.
This has little to do with RE but humor me please, I lost a good chunk of money on it...
Yellow Media....
The CEO Marc Tellier is leaving after 12 years. He will get a $4.3 Million package, and $450,000/ year retirement pay on top of that when he turns 65 (he is 45 now). Last year his salary and bonus added up to over $1.4 Million. So he is a wealthy man.
Ok you say that's not a big deal.
A CEO is God's anointed on this earth, they walk on water or at least they think they do, and the Rogers and TD CEOs who are retiring will likely get 4-5X MORE than this guy.
Also compared with some US or European CEOs who rape their companies, this is loose change!
However I was a share-holder in Yellow media, and I know what happened. Since 2002, Yellow Media has seen it's share-price decimated from several dollars to a few cents. Even the BNN staff reporting it yesterday could hardly contain their shock and amazement at the package.
The Chairman put out a semi-apologetic news release saying they had to pay it per the contract that was signed at the time. There was apparently no clause that stated..'if share-holders are completely whipped, abused and trodden into the dirt, then no severance will be payable to you Mr CEO."
I have a better idea...why don't the Board of Directors who agreed to the contract and the lawyers who advised the company dig into their deeep pockets and pay it themselves.
As for Mr Tellier, this sums it up best.
