Housing Affordability in Canada

[Carjosse]

How is anyone my age (early-mid 20s) suppose to ever be able to save up and buy a house or soon I imagine even a condo? When home prices keep increasing at 20% or more each year how is anyone who is not already in the property market supposed to enter? I have been reading a lot of articles how most millenials who are purchasing homes are doing it with the help of their parents money, what about those of us who don't have that? Now because of the pandemic nowhere is safe, even small towns are rapidly increasing in price. I have no idea how people are expected to buy a house, have kids, and somehow have enough money leftover to retire.

Something has to give and the government needs to intervene, the market needs to crash and it should be now before it gets worse. Ban foreign ownership, heavily tax and in some areas ban non-primary residences, heavily tax vacant residences, charge capital gains on home sales, half measures won't do anything.

 

[swing_voter]

The Chinese need their emergency escape houses.


.

 

[MamboDervish]

How is anyone my age (early-mid 20s) suppose to ever be able to save up and buy a house or soon I imagine even a condo? When home prices keep increasing at 20% or more each year how is anyone who is not already in the property market supposed to enter? I have been reading a lot of articles how most millenials who are purchasing homes are doing it with the help of their parents money, what about those of us who don't have that? Now because of the pandemic nowhere is safe, even small towns are rapidly increasing in price. I have no idea how people are expected to buy a house, have kids, and somehow have enough money leftover to retire.

Something has to give and the government needs to intervene, the market needs to crash and it should be now before it gets worse. Ban foreign ownership, heavily tax and in some areas ban non-primary residences, heavily tax vacant residences, charge capital gains on home sales, half measures won't do anything.

The pandemic should have resulted in at least some residential market collapse in a big city like Montreal, as people discovered they don't need to occupy office space and head out of town. That is what has happened, to a greater or lesser extent, in every major city here in the states. What it means is that if there ever was a time to put your foot in the door - buying a small condo for example - the time might be now, before the migration reverses and the city real estate starts to climb again.

 

[Carjosse]

The pandemic should have resulted in at least some residential market collapse in a big city like Montreal, as people discovered they don't need to occupy office space and head out of town. That is what has happened, to a greater or lesser extent, in every major city here in the states. What it means is that if there ever was a time to put your foot in the door - buying a small condo for example - the time might be now, before the migration reverses and the city real estate starts to climb again.

Prices only increased in Canadian cities. There was a small dip last year (in sales, not in price) then they came roaring back again. And I just started my working life, I don't have the savings for a downpayment on a condo.

 

[MamboDervish]

Prices only increased in Canadian cities. There was a small dip last year (in sales, not in price) then they came roaring back again. And I just started my working life, I don't have the savings for a downpayment on a condo.

Then my guess is you're going to have to wait. I've never met anyone in my entire life who was prepared to buy property in their 20s. It wasn't until my mid 30s, only then with my woman, and even she had a small loan from her family. It takes time.

 

[Court Jester]

How is anyone my age (early-mid 20s) suppose to ever be able to save up and buy a house or soon I imagine even a condo? When home prices keep increasing at 20% or more each year how is anyone who is not already in the property market supposed to enter? I have been reading a lot of articles how most millenials who are purchasing homes are doing it with the help of their parents money, what about those of us who don't have that? Now because of the pandemic nowhere is safe, even small towns are rapidly increasing in price. I have no idea how people are expected to buy a house, have kids, and somehow have enough money leftover to retire.

Something has to give and the government needs to intervene, the market needs to crash and it should be now before it gets worse. Ban foreign ownership, heavily tax and in some areas ban non-primary residences, heavily tax vacant residences, charge capital gains on home sales, half measures won't do anything.

Welcome to the world of supply and demand. You think life was easy for generations during WW2 or the depression. They figured things out, so will you if you work at it.

The best things in life don't come easy anyway. Start saving and making good choices and before you know it you'll be on the road to success. But it doesn't happen overnight, your generation is far too impatient. Maybe part of that everybody wins a trophy thing.

Your socialist solutions are frankly quite disgusting to read.

 

[RetiredUSN]

How is anyone my age (early-mid 20s) suppose to ever be able to save up and buy a house or soon I imagine even a condo? When home prices keep increasing at 20% or more each year how is anyone who is not already in the property market supposed to enter? I have been reading a lot of articles how most millenials who are purchasing homes are doing it with the help of their parents money, what about those of us who don't have that? Now because of the pandemic nowhere is safe, even small towns are rapidly increasing in price. I have no idea how people are expected to buy a house, have kids, and somehow have enough money leftover to retire.

Something has to give and the government needs to intervene, the market needs to crash and it should be now before it gets worse. Ban foreign ownership, heavily tax and in some areas ban non-primary residences, heavily tax vacant residences, charge capital gains on home sales, half measures won't do anything.

Doesn't Canada have programs to help first time buyers like this one..........

First-Time Home Buyer Incentive | Place to Call Home

Learn how to get an additional 5 or 10% to add to your down payment on your first home.

www.placetocallhome.ca

If you haven’t purchased a home within the last four years (or lived in a spouse’s home in the same timeframe), you may qualify for the RRSP Home Buyer’s Plan. With this plan, you may borrow up to $35,000 tax-free from your RRSP to fund your down payment. Just keep in mind that the money must be in your RRSP at least 90 days before the purchase of your house.

I know that housing up their is a bit higher, especially in the metro areas, but you should be able to pull it off if you stay away from today's trend of buying a McMansion.

 

[Evilroddy]

Prices only increased in Canadian cities. There was a small dip last year (in sales, not in price) then they came roaring back again. And I just started my working life, I don't have the savings for a downpayment on a condo.

Carjosse:

Buy an off-island fix-me-up. Then work your way up through progressively more valuable properties until you can afford a nice on-island home. That's the old fashioned way of doing it.

Cheers and be well.
Evilroddy.

 

[Carjosse]

Carjosse:

Buy an off-island fix-me-up. Then work your way up through progressively more valuable properties until you can afford a nice on-island home. That's the old fashioned way of doing it.

Cheers and be well.
Evilroddy.

By the time I have enough to do that house prices off island will have doubled too. What is a $300,000 dollar house will be over $600,000 in just a few years. It is an impossible situation fuelled by nothing but speculation.

 

[Carjosse]

Doesn't Canada have programs to help first time buyers like this one..........

First-Time Home Buyer Incentive | Place to Call Home

Learn how to get an additional 5 or 10% to add to your down payment on your first home.

www.placetocallhome.ca

If you haven’t purchased a home within the last four years (or lived in a spouse’s home in the same timeframe), you may qualify for the RRSP Home Buyer’s Plan. With this plan, you may borrow up to $35,000 tax-free from your RRSP to fund your down payment. Just keep in mind that the money must be in your RRSP at least 90 days before the purchase of your house.

I know that housing up their is a bit higher, especially in the metro areas, but you should be able to pull it off if you stay away from today's trend of buying a McMansion.

It is programs like that just make it worse, all it is financing your retirement with your house.

 

[Carjosse]

Then my guess is you're going to have to wait. I've never met anyone in my entire life who was prepared to buy property in their 20s. It wasn't until my mid 30s, only then with my woman, and even she had a small loan from her family. It takes time.

You shouldn't have to need all that, housing needs to be affordable and measures need to be taken to increase affordability and availability.

 

[Fledermaus]

Then my guess is you're going to have to wait. I've never met anyone in my entire life who was prepared to buy property in their 20s. It wasn't until my mid 30s, only then with my woman, and even she had a small loan from her family. It takes time.

Things have changed. In the early 1980s in California it was cheaper to buy than to rent. My first house was at 22. My wife and I worked. She made decent money and I made little being military but we still swung it.

 

[911Sparky]

It is programs like that just make it worse, all it is financing your retirement with your house.

Carjosse, you are seeing the glass half full. I don't mean to minimize your plight, but I bought my first home as a single man at age 23. It was an old house, 900 sq. feet,
3 bedroom, 1 bath, in a small town 30 minutes from my family and my job. I bought books, learned how to fix it up (the internet did not exist then), sold it for a profit, then started the process over again. With the amount of You Tube video's available today you can do the same thing, but it means some sacrifice. When my buddies were going to the bar, I was saving for a house, when they were going to a ballgame I was replacing old worn out cabinets. It's not easy, but if you make it your highest priority you can buy a home.

 

[Evilroddy]

By the time I have enough to do that house prices off island will have doubled too. What is a $300,000 dollar house will be over $600,000 in just a few years. It is an impossible situation fuelled by nothing but speculation.

Carjosse:

When my parents bought their first and only house in the West Island of Momtreal in 1962 they payed $26,000 for it. When my mum sold the same house in 1989, she got a net payment after taxes of $209,000 for the house. That works out to house values doubling every 7 years or so over a 27 year period. What you're experiencing is not new. It just seems much worse because inflation has reduced the value of income/wealth and has ballooned the numbers of weaker dollars to make it seem insurmountable.

Find a life partner, work like hell together, save like a pair of Scottish misers, start small and work your way up gradually, using your own skills and labour to improve each house. The intermediate houses which you buy and sell along the way will balloon in value too while you use them as stepping stones to get the home you seek, so you will have a partial hedge against the speculative inflation. And given the nature of Quebec politics, there will eventually be a political crisis which will take some of the air out of the housing market. Be ready to pounce if that opportunity comes along.

Cheers and be well.
Evilroddy.

 

[Fledermaus]

Carjosse:

When my parents bought their first and only house in the West Island of Momtreal in 1962 they payed $26,000 for it. When my mum sold the same house on 1989, she got a net payment after taxes of $209,000 for the house. That works out to house values doubling every 7 years or so over a 27 year period. What you're experiencing is not new. It just seems much worse because inflation has reduced the value of income/wealth and has ballooned the numbers of weaker dollars to make it seem insurmountable.

Find a life partner, work like hell together, save like a Scottish misers, start small and work your way up gradually using your own skills and labour. The intermediate houses which you buy and sell along the way will balloon in value too while you use them as stepping stones to get the home you seek, so you will have a partial hedge against the speculative inflation. And given the nature of Quebec politics, there will eventually be a political crisis which will take some of the air out of the housing market. Be ready to pounce if that opportunity comes along.

Cheers and be well.
Evilroddy.

Redundant phrase. I've got a wee bit of Scottish blood.

Copper wire was invented by two of my ancestors fighting over a penny.

The Grand Canyon? One ancestor dropped a nickel down a gopher hole.

 

[Carjosse]

Carjosse:

When my parents bought their first and only house in the West Island of Momtreal in 1962 they payed $26,000 for it. When my mum sold the same house in 1989, she got a net payment after taxes of $209,000 for the house. That works out to house values doubling every 7 years or so over a 27 year period. What you're experiencing is not new. It just seems much worse because inflation has reduced the value of income/wealth and has ballooned the numbers of weaker dollars to make it seem insurmountable.

Find a life partner, work like hell together, save like a pair of Scottish misers, start small and work your way up gradually, using your own skills and labour to improve each house. The intermediate houses which you buy and sell along the way will balloon in value too while you use them as stepping stones to get the home you seek, so you will have a partial hedge against the speculative inflation. And given the nature of Quebec politics, there will eventually be a political crisis which will take some of the air out of the housing market. Be ready to pounce if that opportunity comes along.

Cheers and be well.
Evilroddy.

You don't see the insane increase in housing costs as a problem, when home prices double every few years and rents increase along with them? How is that in any way sustainable? Incomes cannot keep up with housing costs.

 

[longview]

You don't see the insane increase in housing costs as a problem, when home prices double every few years and rents increase along with them? How is that in any way sustainable? Incomes cannot keep up with housing costs.

Save your money up, get pre approved for your mortgage and get to know some Real Estate people,
for different reasons some people like to unload property
in a hurry, and if you are ready, it would help you leverage one of those fast deals.
Good Luck!

 

[Evilroddy]

You don't see the insane increase in housing costs as a problem, when home prices double every few years and rents increase along with them? How is that in any way sustainable? Incomes cannot keep up with housing costs.

Carjosse:

My parents were 42 and 41.years old when they bought their first home. Even then they needed help from other family members to swing the purchase and they were paying off their mortgage until the late 1970's. They were both highly-trained and well-paid university professors and cutting edge researchers. But they still had to wait and save for that house, which they had built according to my father's design parameters. Life was hard then and it is hard now.

You're right about the housing bubble being unsustainable and eventually the bubble will break or deflate significantly. Hoard you coin and wealth, wait for your opportunity to get in on the ground-floor of home ownership when the change comes. Until then save and bide your time in cheap rentals far from the city centre.

Cheers, be well and good fortune in you life's quest to better yourself.
Evilroddy

 

[MamboDervish]

You shouldn't have to need all that, housing needs to be affordable and measures need to be taken to increase affordability and availability.

But not necessarily ownership.

 

[MamboDervish]

Things have changed. In the early 1980s in California it was cheaper to buy than to rent. My first house was at 22. My wife and I worked. She made decent money and I made little being military but we still swung it.

Boy they sure have changed. Our mortgage was at 14%.

 

[longview]

Carjosse:

My parents were 42 and 41.years old when they bought their first home. Even then they needed help from other family members to swing the purchase and they were paying off their mortgage until the late 1970's. They were both highly-trained and well-paid university professors and cutting edge researchers. But they still had to wait and save for that house, which they had built according to my father's design parameters. Life was hard then and it is hard now.

You're right about the housing bubble being unsustainable and eventually the bubble will break or deflate significantly. Hoard you coin and wealth, wait for your opportunity to get in on the ground-floor of home ownership when the change comes. Until then save and bide your time in cheap rentals far from the city centre.

Cheers, be well and good fortune in you life's quest to better yourself.
Evilroddy

When My Daughter lived in Canada, I was puzzled by the housing prices, and all the open land near by.
I guess it costs a lot more to build a house in Canada.

 

[RetiredUSN]

You don't see the insane increase in housing costs as a problem, when home prices double every few years and rents increase along with them? How is that in any way sustainable? Incomes cannot keep up with housing costs.

They build some kick ass well insulated double wide and wide singles in Canada. Affordable, and they sell easily if you ever want to go bigger.

 

[LetsGoBrandon]

How is anyone my age (early-mid 20s) suppose to ever be able to save up and buy a house or soon I imagine even a condo? When home prices keep increasing at 20% or more each year how is anyone who is not already in the property market supposed to enter? I have been reading a lot of articles how most millenials who are purchasing homes are doing it with the help of their parents money, what about those of us who don't have that? Now because of the pandemic nowhere is safe, even small towns are rapidly increasing in price. I have no idea how people are expected to buy a house, have kids, and somehow have enough money leftover to retire.

Something has to give and the government needs to intervene, the market needs to crash and it should be now before it gets worse. Ban foreign ownership, heavily tax and in some areas ban non-primary residences, heavily tax vacant residences, charge capital gains on home sales, half measures won't do anything.

All of those goofy suggestions would only inflate the price of housing more.

 

[Evilroddy]

When My Daughter lived in Canada, I was puzzled by the housing prices, and all the open land near by.
I guess it costs a lot more to build a house in Canada.

Longview:

Perhaps it's marginally more expensive but Carjosse is right about the speculative bubble inflating house prices drastically. Be it property alone, derelict housing or viable housing, the speculation is rampant. The reasons are different from region to region, but the net affect has been runaway inflation since the mid-1960's. Government policies to limit urban sprawl have had some effects to in certain parts of Canada.

Cheers and be well.
Evilroddy.

 

[Carjosse]

All of those goofy suggestions would only inflate the price of housing more.

How does decreasing demand and disincentivizing speculation of the housing supply inflate prices?