How do people in Vancouver afford a house?

I live in Vancouver BC. I live outside the city in the suburbs but it s still extremely expensive. My wife and I have a good income. We have a combined gross monthly salary of just over $11 000. We still can t afford a house. We rent a basement suite. We ve been saving for years and have enough for a down payment but it s the mortgage that we can t afford. What I don t understand is how families with the same or less income are buying nice homes within the city. How are they pulling it off? I need to know how they do it! For those that don t live in Vancouver, a typical price for a house is around 850k.

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