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Can you afford to live in Vancouver if you #donthave1million?

WATCH: Vancouver housing is pricey, with the average home costing at least $one-million. What happens if you don’t have $one-million? Eveline Xia took to Twitter with #DontHave1Million to address the city’s rising house prices and the generation left out of homeownership?

Buying a home in Vancouver may be out of reach for most people, but having a solid job and good education are not necessarily a guarantee of ever being able to afford to live in one of Canada’s hottest real estate markets.

Twenty-nine-year-old Eveline Xia has a masters degree in environmental studies, but she says she and others like her will never have a million dollars seemingly required to be able to afford a home in Vancouver

A report released by Royal LePage yesterday says a two-storey detached home in Vancouver and the North Shore goes for more than $1.27 million.

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And the market is not showing any signs of slowing down. Last month, a house that was listed for $1.6 million sold for $2.165 million, more than a half-million dollars over asking price.

Another recent report shows average Vancouver home price will exceed $2.1 million by 2030.

READ MORE: Home prices are cooling everywhere but red-hot Vancouver, Toronto

So Xia started a #donthave1million hashtag campaign on Twitter, where she encouraged people to share their occupation, age, gender and inability to afford a house in Vancouver.

The hashtag resonated with many Vancouverites.

Xia says she was surprised by how fast her message spread and how many people re-shared it.

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“People are afraid to speak up, because it is a personal issue,” she says. “It is a bit of an embarrassing issue. Not many people would want to discuss the financial details of their lives. But many people told me they felt the same way, and it is making people feel like there are not alone in this issue and that we can stand together in solidarity.”

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Xia asks if doctors and lawyers are leaving Vancouver because they are not able to afford to live in the city, how does the rest of the population have a fighting chance?

“This is about a regular family striving for a middle-class goal, which is own a home,” she says. “What is the society without middle class? If people keep leaving, is Vancouver going to be Vancouver in 30 years?”

You can follow the #DontHave1Million hashtag here.

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