How do you guys do it?

[threepeat]

I was watching BNN today, and they said Vancouver leads the country by far for house prices, which make up 74% of household income. Toronto was a distant second at 47%. I thought we had it bad in Alberta, but Calgary was 42% and Edmonton 40%.

Do you guys really spend 3/4 of your income on your home? How do you afford anything else? Does everyone rent, do people live with their parents or have roommates, or what?

Just curious...

 

[dipitydoo]

that's why there are so many homeless people here.

Rainy, gray and overpriced. Vancouver's geographically blessed, but as far as the city is concerned I do not know what has gotten into people these past (10-ish) years, things are out of control!

And now watch how that World Rating (from the top 3) starts to slide. So many new cases of violence have happened in the past 2 years, Vancouver's slowly becoming a large city and the drug mafias are taking over, with the violence that it entails. People "randomly" being shot is something that did not happen here years back, but now it is sadly a more common occurrence.

People live beyond their means, or the quality of life is compromised and they have to share to make things more affordable. You'd be surprised at the amount of people that live in deplorable conditions in what would seem like a choice location downtown, but 3-4 or more people sharing a tiny apartment. It's gross.

 

[Ima]

Anyone who pays 3/4 of their income to rent/mortage is a fool...

Ya... I call Bull shit on the figures...

Prices all across Canada hav risen dramitically the last few years... Prices in Edmonton/Calgary have risen faster than the GVRD, yet they are cities in the middle of the prairies driven by cold harsh winters (Feel free to disagree Albertan's but come on)...

If you were homeless, where would you rather be??? -30 Conservative Edmonton or +5 Liberal Vancouver... Larger population on the coast with better winters and longer summers with in a confind geographically, Vancouver numbers are high end to begin with, but I doubt close to the #'s given....

 

[Maury Beniowski]

I bought a house in 1992, paid $320,000. Used the proceeds from my previous house which I built in 1980 for $126,000. Sold it for $250,000 but still owed about $100,000 on it so my equity in my current residence at the time of purchase was $150,000. Needless to say, I was in way over my head but everyone was saying to load up on real estate debt, so I listened and I struggled. Of course, inflation became a positive factor and along with increased wages, I was able to pay it off eight years later. My 2008 tax assessment came in a few weeks ago, and the tax valuation is about $800,000 with a potential market value of $850-900,000. That's how I did it, and believe you me, it was one leap of faith after another getting to where I am now. There's no better time to enter the market than right now, anytime on the Lower Mainland. Let inflation work for you. Those who whine about prices are wasting a valuable opportunity, in Vancouver anyway. Suck it up and go for it!

 

[maxx50]

It Take Two .

I live in Victoria .. or just out side.. I rent a 2 bed rm 2 bath apt. for $1150.. below the going rate witch is $1450 or more This place sells for $450.000 or more. Now i know I will never be able to buy some thing like this .. but it is about the average for new condos in out town.
In contrast.. i was informed that you can get some thing similar in Oliver B.C. for around $200 to $220,000..so we chose to be where the work is and the big bucks.. and we end up paying the price also.

 

[LonelyGhost]

and the scarey thing is that compared to other places in the world,
Vancouver and Victoria ARE bargains!!!

the big question is whether they can sustain their prices this time
around ...

when i bought my house in Victoria, prices had not risen in over 10 years
(well, they had, but went right back down again) ...

and as the US economy starts to tank, the effect will hit Canada ...

already the Eastern economy is slowing and BC companies are
recruiting people from Ontario to work in BC ... so more workers
and wages will drop (in the local paper I saw five carpenters trying
to find work!!!) and as that happens, fewer houses will be bought,
inventory will rise (already moving toward a balance point) and
they could start going down again ...

not drop ... not crash ... not burst ... just go down ...

 

[kafka555]

The secret is there are periodic troughs in the market (such as the entire 1990's), when people leave the area.

But you have to start small (ie 1 bedroom apartment condo), and work your way up.

Having a middle-income earning spouse helps as well.

Personally, I spend 25% of my after-tax income on my condo (mortgage, fees, taxes etc). I personally don't know anyone who is spending 74% of household income on housing.

 

[Poeticus]

I bought a house in 1992, paid $320,000. Used the proceeds from my previous house which I built in 1980 for $126,000. Sold it for $250,000 but still owed about $100,000 on it so my equity in my current residence at the time of purchase was $150,000. Needless to say, I was in way over my head but everyone was saying to load up on real estate debt, so I listened and I struggled. Of course, inflation became a positive factor and along with increased wages, I was able to pay it off eight years later. My 2008 tax assessment came in a few weeks ago, and the tax valuation is about $800,000 with a potential market value of $850-900,000. That's how I did it, and believe you me, it was one leap of faith after another getting to where I am now. There's no better time to enter the market than right now, anytime on the Lower Mainland. Let inflation work for you. Those who whine about prices are wasting a valuable opportunity, in Vancouver anyway. Suck it up and go for it!

YES!

To the risk takers go the rewards.
The dual-income hard-workers become the landlords
If you are late to move from the starting bell
Be prepared for eternal commuter hell
Local values will remain strong of course
By nature we live in the land of scarce resource.

 

[87112]

The Asian way, 2 generations living under one roof divide mortgage by 2.

 

[SexyBoy]

The house market is not going to be doing too good soon.

The houses that were started before the US got into this mess still have to be finished. Guess what happens once they are?

1. Buildings costs go drastically down because no one in the US is going to be buying...
2. More trades workers are going to be coming in from the US to Canada.
3. What do you think we are running out of land?
4. The market has already started to level off here.

Now seriously if you live by the law of supply and demand it isn't going to take a genius to figure out the supply is going to go way up and the demand is going to go down. Unless of course you live in a bubble and think that Canada isn't affected by the rest of the world. Even China is slowing down because their number one customer isn't buying as much. Who is their number one customer? You guessed it the United States.

The Olympics is also helping increase the market but that is over come 2010.


BTW there was a time to buy stocks etc. The time to sell was three days ago or a couple of weeks ago. If you really do not know much about investments. invest in a 100% sure thing. Example money market fund.

We do not know how much money the Fed (the US bank) actually has. I mean they do own all the gold in fort knox. It is up to the Fed to bail the country out if it can.

Everyone thought grain prices would never go up. Now look at it. $15 for a bushel of wheat lol.

 

[InTheBum]

I was watching BNN today, and they said Vancouver leads the country by far for house prices, which make up 74% of household income. Toronto was a distant second at 47%. I thought we had it bad in Alberta, but Calgary was 42% and Edmonton 40%.

Do you guys really spend 3/4 of your income on your home? How do you afford anything else? Does everyone rent, do people live with their parents or have roommates, or what?

Just curious...

Well, I don't know exactly how everyone else does it, but in HubbaHubba's case, he lives with his grandparents and surfs Perb after they go to bed...at 7 pm.

 

[therealrex]

I bought a house in 1992, paid $320,000. Used the proceeds from my previous house which I built in 1980 for $126,000. Sold it for $250,000 but still owed about $100,000 on it so my equity in my current residence at the time of purchase was $150,000. Needless to say, I was in way over my head but everyone was saying to load up on real estate debt, so I listened and I struggled. Of course, inflation became a positive factor and along with increased wages, I was able to pay it off eight years later. My 2008 tax assessment came in a few weeks ago, and the tax valuation is about $800,000 with a potential market value of $850-900,000. That's how I did it, and believe you me, it was one leap of faith after another getting to where I am now. There's no better time to enter the market than right now, anytime on the Lower Mainland. Let inflation work for you. Those who whine about prices are wasting a valuable opportunity, in Vancouver anyway. Suck it up and go for it!

The problem with your story is that you started out when house prices were lower and your wage was in the same ballpark. Someone doing the same thing today would need to be making about 150-200k a year to start out with a $600,000 home to get anywhere near the result you did.

 

[InTheBum]

The problem with your story is that you started out when house prices were lower and your wage was in the same ballpark. Someone doing the same thing today would need to be making about 150-200k a year to start out with a $600,000 home to get anywhere near the result you did.

You better look at living in the burbs RealRex and making that commute at 6 am - 5 days a week, or find a woman making a high income, so you have the dual income. Another option is to move out of this living shithole...

 

[Ima]

Investors said oil would never go higher than $50 a barrel...
Investors said Gold would never go over $500 an ounce...


Thing about Oil, Gold and Land... God isn't building any more of it...

A house in Edmonton goes for $400+ and you can build on the north/south/east and west there, with tons of room for growth... Perhaps the iner Vancouver hub may level off, but the burbs out to Chiliwack will continue to grow, people want land and there isn't much left in the lower mainland...

 

[therealrex]

You better look at living in the burbs RealRex and making that commute at 6 am - 5 days a week, or find a woman making a high income, so you have the dual income. Another option is to move out of this living shithole...

Not me I live in Winnipeg paid $85,000 for my house 10 years ago. I was just pointing out that if Maury was starting out today its doubtful he would be anywhere near as well off in 30 years as he currently is.

 

[Booty_Hunter]

3 times has the real estate market crashed, and it will happen again. Unless you're already in just wait it out. Already the market has more homes then buyers. For myself, I'll hold off unless I run into a bargain.

 

[SexyBoy]

Investors said oil would never go higher than $50 a barrel...
Investors said Gold would never go over $500 an ounce...


Thing about Oil, Gold and Land... God isn't building any more of it...

A house in Edmonton goes for $400+ and you can build on the north/south/east and west there, with tons of room for growth... Perhaps the iner Vancouver hub may level off, but the burbs out to Chiliwack will continue to grow, people want land and there isn't much left in the lower mainland...

Canada isn't running out of land that is for sure.

When you go out a little ways from the city land becomes cheap. $300-$2000 an acre depending on where you live. That is enough to build three houses on. Try again.

Oil can still be created btw. I guess that is why they call it fossil fuels.

When you are talking about oil you have to consider inflation. We only just broke the record since the 1980's.





"Crude oil briefly topped a record high set 28 years ago as surging commodity prices continued to pressure stocks.

A late-day stock rally trimmed a 105-point loss for the Dow Jones Industrial Average to just 8 points; it closed at 12,259. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index closed up 1 point to 1,331, but the Nasdaq Composite Index closed down 13 points to 2,259.

Crude reached an intraday high of $103.95 per 42-gallon barrel in New York around 9 a.m. That topped an April 1980 record price of $39.50 a barrel, which would translate to $103.76 a barrel in today’s money."

 

[Maury Beniowski]

The problem with your story is that you started out when house prices were lower and your wage was in the same ballpark. Someone doing the same thing today would need to be making about 150-200k a year to start out with a $600,000 home to get anywhere near the result you did.

When I started out in 1980, my house cost $126,000. At the time, my salary was about $16,000; I had $10,000 saved up. When I converted to my second house in 1992, I had built up some equity, and I was now making $25,000. There's no magic here. My wife thought I'd lost my marbles when I threw caution to the wind; she cried all night. These are just facts. I don't smoke, nor drink and stayed home avoiding spending binges. I could do the same nowadays if I had the years in front of me. I put in about 50% of the work building my first house, otherwise there is no way I could have plunged into the Vancouver market. It wasn't easy then, and it ain't easy today. You don't have to start with a $600,000 home, I wouldn't. There are other ways to do it, but sitting around isn't one of them.

 

[therealrex]

When I started out in 1980, my house cost $126,000. At the time, my salary was about $16,000; I had $10,000 saved up. When I converted to my second house in 1992, I had built up some equity, and I was now making $25,000. There's no magic here. My wife thought I'd lost my marbles when I threw caution to the wind; she cried all night. These are just facts. I don't smoke, nor drink and stayed home avoiding spending binges. I could do the same nowadays if I had the years in front of me. I put in about 50% of the work building my first house, otherwise there is no way I could have plunged into the Vancouver market. It wasn't easy then, and it ain't easy today. You don't have to start with a $600,000 home, I wouldn't. There are other ways to do it, but sitting around isn't one of them.

So you paid off a $170,000 mortgage in 8 years while making $25,000 a year??? You might wanna check you math either that or your bank is located in Fantasyland

 

[Maury Beniowski]

I don't want to get into a pissing match about this save to say I wasn't standing still during those eight years; my income was rising as it does with most people. I also had invested successfully in the years prior to the acquisition of my second home. I think I've said enough about this, I'll leave you with the rest to wonder about. My biggest asset during those years was, patience. Good Luck, I hope your life brings you more success that I have achieved in mine.