Much ado about nothing

Since the release of 2011 Census data on housing and families, those of us who are data-inclined have had the opportunity to explore the ways in which our communities changed over the previous five years across a range of dimensions, from the proportion of new dwellings that are being added as apartments to the shifts in family composition and living arrangements. One specific element that has attracted significant attention of late (at least here in Vancouver) has been the prevalence of housing occupancy by foreign and/or temporary residents; this has been closely followed by concerns over the prevalence of both unoccupied dwellings and foreign investment, specifically as theypertain to the apartment stock in the metropolitan Vancouver region.