If you've been following the housing market (in most cities) over the last year, this chart likely won't surprise you. It is from a recent City Observatory article by Joe Cortright talking about the "k-shaped housing market" that we have seen emerge over the last year. The above is for the US, but I would imagine that the chart would look similar for Canada, as well as for other countries. Here's an excerpt from the article:

There’s an obvious explanation for the different trajectories of house prices and rents:  Low income workers rent; high income workers own and buy homes. High income households have been barely grazed by the Covid-19 recession.  In fact, the combination of low interest rates and enforced savings (because many kinds of consumption spending, including dining, entertainment, travel and even much retail have been constrained by lockdowns), mean higher income households may find housing a much more attractive spending item.  If you can’t go out to dinner, or take a vacation, you have more money to spend on a new home.  Low wage workers are in the opposite situation.  Low wage workers have borne the brunt of the recession; they are also much more likely to be renters than higher income households.

A colleague in the office recently introduced me to a Swiss invention called the Wickelfisch (or baby fish). Below is a video showing you how they work. They're so neat. So Swiss. And I obviously just ordered one. They're available via this US company for $12-20, depending on the size.

The video is of people swimming in the Rhein. Because swimming downstream in rivers -- and ending up in a different location -- is so popular in Switzerland, the Whickelfisch was invented as a way to keep your clothes and belongings dry. It also acts as a flotation device.

I'm not planning on floating down the Don River anytime soon, but a Wickelfisch looks like the perfect bag to bring to the beach. Especially if you don't want to leave your stuff unattended to while you go for a swim.

Of course, the other neat thing about this video is that it shows you how awesome it is to have clean and swimmable water running through the middle of a city. Most people I know are afraid to swim in Lake Ontario out of fear they might grow a 6th toe.

That's too bad.

If you've been following the housing market (in most cities) over the last year, this chart likely won't surprise you. It is from a recent City Observatory article by Joe Cortright talking about the "k-shaped housing market" that we have seen emerge over the last year. The above is for the US, but I would imagine that the chart would look similar for Canada, as well as for other countries. Here's an excerpt from the article:

There’s an obvious explanation for the different trajectories of house prices and rents:  Low income workers rent; high income workers own and buy homes. High income households have been barely grazed by the Covid-19 recession.  In fact, the combination of low interest rates and enforced savings (because many kinds of consumption spending, including dining, entertainment, travel and even much retail have been constrained by lockdowns), mean higher income households may find housing a much more attractive spending item.  If you can’t go out to dinner, or take a vacation, you have more money to spend on a new home.  Low wage workers are in the opposite situation.  Low wage workers have borne the brunt of the recession; they are also much more likely to be renters than higher income households.

A colleague in the office recently introduced me to a Swiss invention called the Wickelfisch (or baby fish). Below is a video showing you how they work. They're so neat. So Swiss. And I obviously just ordered one. They're available via this US company for $12-20, depending on the size.

The video is of people swimming in the Rhein. Because swimming downstream in rivers -- and ending up in a different location -- is so popular in Switzerland, the Whickelfisch was invented as a way to keep your clothes and belongings dry. It also acts as a flotation device.

I'm not planning on floating down the Don River anytime soon, but a Wickelfisch looks like the perfect bag to bring to the beach. Especially if you don't want to leave your stuff unattended to while you go for a swim.

Of course, the other neat thing about this video is that it shows you how awesome it is to have clean and swimmable water running through the middle of a city. Most people I know are afraid to swim in Lake Ontario out of fear they might grow a 6th toe.

That's too bad.