These high school students are already thinking about housing and whether they'll be able to afford it

When Lavanya Gupta thinks about her dream home, she uses one word to describe it: "Lavish."

But the Laurel Heights Secondary School student says she understands it won't be easy to afford a penthouse with an incredible view.

"It's beautiful. But it's not ideal given the amount it would probably cost," Gupta says. "Maybe in 20 years, I'd probably be able to afford that. Hopefully prices are better by then."

Gupta, Tanish Munjal and Yahya Ali took a break from their Grade 11 accounting class earlier this month to share their hopes, dreams and concerns when it comes to their future and housing.

All three Waterloo, Ont., students say they would like to own a home one day and believe it's a realistic dream to have for their future.

All three also say they hear the conversations about the high cost of housing at home with their families.

"Every day," Ali said. "My dad comes home … he talks about it when he comes home, like, two or three times, he talks about housing costs, how much it's going to be."

Gupta agrees.

"I can hear my parents already starting to complain," she said with a laugh. "I can hear all the burdens that come with it and just the fear that you're not going to actually be able to afford anything in the coming future because the rates are so high right now."

Rent while in university a concern

While any serious contemplation about home ownership is something that may be a decade away for these three students, they have more immediate concerns, such as what the cost of housing would be if they move out of their home after high school.

"It's not affordable for any student in university," Munjal said.

"Students, they're not going to be working jobs where you get paid $40, $50, $60 an hour. You're going to be getting maybe minimum wage or a little bit more than that," he said. "With the cost of houses right now, minimum wage is definitely not an amount that you would be able to pay your rent with."

Gupta said that a few years ago, her parents had talked about potentially buying a home as an investment she could split with other students when it was time for university.

"I know that's not possible today," she said, adding she has talked to her friends about what they're going to do and no one seems to have a good answer.

"We were planning on going to the same university and we're like, maybe we can rent something together. But then we realized even if we were working on minimum wage, even if we saved up right now in high school where we're working on minimum wage, we would still not be able to afford the houses like the rents and Toronto," she said.

"So we thought we might have to get like a good handful of people and into like a one-bedroom place, but that's the equivalent to living in a dorm room."

'We can't really predict what's going to happen'

Ali said he has spoken to friends about owning homes, but it's a frustrating conversation.

"It's just pretty difficult cause right now we can't really predict what's going to happen in the future," he said. "Costs are really high right now, so we're just guessing."

Munjal hopes the government will step in and look at non-profit housing as a way to address the housing crisis in the future.

"I think housing should be a right for everyone," he said.

"There's going to be something that the government is going to do and I think that eventually, that everyone will be able to have an affordable house if they use a not-for-profit system instead of a profit system," Munjal added.

"I think it's only going to get better from here. I don't think it can get any worse."

Give me shelter: The hunt for housing in Waterloo region is a series by CBC Kitchener-Waterloo that hears from the people struggling to secure the housing they want and need. They might be making do with non-traditional housing: a tent, a room shared with multiple people or their parents' basement. We look at how the basic need for housing is not being met for many people in a rapidly growing region of Ontario.