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I’m a renter. Just for the hell of it I check out house prices every so often. Most houses seem to start at 300k and up. How can anyone making less than 100k a year afford something like that? There is cheap housing—it’s called a packing crate. -Phuk Anime
This article appears in May 22-28, 2014.
13 Comments
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yup… and don’t even begin to look at condos.
Their fees’ll kill ya.
Prices here are insane
since I am in the market for a new place I too look at the listings. several times a day.
the 300 k houses should not be considered starters. ridiculous.
there are places for sale within hrm for under 100k.
2 bed, 1 bath condos on windmill for around 80k. standalone houses for under 150. these are what should be in your mind when looking to ENTER the housing market. its a foot in the door. try to get one that hasn’t been upgraded to sell – you will get it for less because so many buyers insist on status/perfection. buy something that looks a little tired, do some upgrading yourself (almost anyone can put in new taps, paint the walls, install laminate flooring) and sit on the place for a couple years so you don’t get nailed with capital gains. then sell it for a lot more than you paid. in the meantime, what you USED to throw away in rent is now sitting under your ass in the form of equity. buy for 80. pay down mortgage to 70. sell for 100 in 2 years. you immediately have 30 k profit to put towards the next, slightly better place.
you won’t get anywhere if you keep your eyes at 300K. and do this NOW before you have kids and it limits what you can buy.
any place with an elevator is going to have high condo fees.
My Canadian dream is that Kenny West and his fatarsed slore hired their wedding planner from Game of Thrones.
Oh frig off, Molly — NO ONE (except crack heads like our friend Propecia) deserves to live on Windmill fucking Road!
But, I get where you’re going with your post.
I heard there was a trailer in North Preston going cheap.
Ivan – they’re waiting until the stadium is built before they tie the knot, and hopefully her fucking tubes. Bruce Jenner is going to be both Best Man and Mother of the Bride.
i don’t know about north preston – it really is a place i wouldn’t consider- the aura is foul. but there’s a cute mini in Dartmouth just off the dreaded windmill between the bridges, in a nice little pocket of small houses, beautifully maintained, nice deck, lovely trees around, spiffy décor for 65k.
really. 65k. even with pad rental you’d be under 600 a month to put a roof over your head while building a savings account (the equity is your savings – not your landlord’s RRSP) your own laundry in your own place. your own deck for bbq’s. NO ONE living above you.
re areas…. i like funky areas. i can’t abide cookie cutter burbs. i don’t belong there, i get hives. the place i bought in Vancouver was in an area where my boyfriend said ‘i won’t even drive through there!’ it was a rental turned condo and the unit i bought had so many dead cockroaches and grease behind the fridge my realtor gagged (mind you she was hungover) the carpet had a big scorch mark from where the renter used his hibachi inside. the ceiling was festooned with black stuff. and a huge grease mark on the wall from where his head rested where he slept on his mattress on the floor. the places that were clean went for 5 k more. so i scrubbed and wore a mask when i cut up the carpet.
i got it for 70K. 400 sq ft. but a lofted ceiling, peekaboo view of the mountains and in an area that was bound to gentrify. and boy did it ever.
re windmill. 5-10 years what do you think it will look like? it’s got cheap, waterview condos!
if i were younger and NOT heading for my deserted island/peninsula, i would snaffle up the grungiest unit in a well maintained building, top floor, water side. put in the sweat equity. that big grocery store company wouldn’t have spent all that money to put a store there if their really smart market analysts didn’t think something was going to perc.
I never feel bad for childless individuals/couples living on 100k/year. As long as interest rates remain low (and they should for the foreseeable future), a 300K mortgage should be affordable on a 100k family income, especially with no kids. 20% down reduces the mortgage to 240k and saves CMHC default insurance costs.
You could also check out some smaller condos or flats. They generally come at lower prices, 180-250k in the North End. You’ll have condo fees, which cover maintenance, heat, and water. Try to find a small condo building, preferably one that is owner-managed, to keep condo fees low.
Despite the affordability of Halifax for those living on above-average incomes, financial investments yield higher returns than real estate investments. Maybe consider not buying for that reason alone.
you are braver than me sir cat. I would never recommend pushing the safety zone to 240 on a 100 k income. 200 tops. what if one of them loses their job and has to get a lesser paying position. just too tight. anyway, how easy is it to save up 60k on 100k? you get 60k AFTER you sell your first place, or the 2nd.
condo fees give renters sticker shock if your rent covered heat/hot water.
re the investment return. hindsight is 20/20 and I thought I was being a smarty-pants by keeping most of my condo sale money in investments instead of just buying this place outright. that nasty little crash took a BIG bite, whereas the house would have been a safe bet. it’s ok if you can be sure of double digit returns (its back to that now) but when it’s bad, its horrible. I would buy a home (but never on a new Brunswick riverfront) well below what the mortgage lenders allow and keep a regular steady flow into mutual fund stuff.
When I see 2 feet of snow that needs shoveling, a jungle that needs mowing or a roof needing replacement, I think back to how easy life was while I rented an apartment. Owning a home these days isn’t as glamourous as once thought. It requires a lot of work but the plus side of that is equity.
If you get over the stigma of mobile homes, the trailers are actually quite nice for what they are. You pay lot fees, yes, but they are usually pretty cheap. The trailers themselves are usually under 50K. If you got a 20 year mortgage on that, your payments would easily be under 200 bucks even if you got a shitty rate due to credit issues. Throw on a lot fee and you’re still living without utilities for under 450. That’s pretty good. You could probabally pull it off, lot fees, mortgage, taxes (yes you pay property tax on a trailer on a rented lot) with utilities for under a grand a month. That gives you a yard, no shared walls, a bit of equity (mobiles do tend to depreciate vs. a house but you will get something out of it when you sell). I make really good money and have a very nice house but have often seriously considered what I could do with the extra money if I gave up the house for a mobile – travel, pay off consumer debt, buy a nice waterfront cottage out of the city.
Also – if you’re willing to commute, like people do in the rest of the developed world, you can go 45-50 minutes out of the city and find livable, decent properties in the 100K range that aren’t mobiles. It is all a matter of what you are willing to give up.
For what it is worth, hurry up an buy if you are in the lower end of the acceptable risk category for lenders because CMHC is getting their panties in a bigger knot every day and are really tightening up lending rules (you need CMHC mortgage insurance if you don’t have a 20% down-payment). I can see the Bank of Canada also stepping in to up the rules for qualification as they have been doing on a regular basis. It’s just going to get harder if you don’t already have your foot in the door with a lender.
Commuting gets tiresome after a while, ustwess.
Especially in the winter months 🙁
45 minutes commuting in your own car, nice and warm and cozy, coat off, shoes on, boots in the back seat, snacks beside you, music on, temperature exactly the way you like it, windows open or closed, exactly the way you choose
or
trudge to the bus stop in 50 pounds of winter clothing, stand in the freezing cold, hope like heck you get on, squish into a hard seat beside some smelly person who is sweating profusely inside his 50 pounds of winter clothing, have to listen to the idiot in front of you screaming into her phone about that bitch who stole her boyfriend, cringe each time the sneezer behind you lets go, your feet are stuck to the floor in spilled coffee.
bonus – you get to scroll thru new offerings on the LTWWB and you are being an eco warrior.
For the time being I’ll stick with an apartment. ~900 sq. ft, decent rent, heat, water and underground parking included, zilch for electricity bill and, best of all, 10 minutes commute to work and 10 minutes walk to the ferry downtown.
If/When I look into condos, it won’t be further away. No point in wasting an hour or two every day sitting in traffic and suburban sprawl is pretty much an abomination.