Ok, renting sucks but sadly, until I can pay my student loans, and convince the banks I’m worthy I’m stuck. WTF is with rental prices? A 3 bedroom house for 1500+? 30 minutes from the city? I understand the high prices in the South End. But what gives? I see want ads all the time with families begging for homes within their budget (often no more than 1000+ utilities), but where are they, these poor families? And what if you live alone? Say goodbye to your paycheck and live in a box. F. —Needs a real home
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2011.
Narh, since 3 bedroom apartments start a $800/mo, I don’t see $1,500/mo for a house being excessive. Especially if it includes,a second bathroom, utilities, a garage/shed, land, etc.
People rent their houses to make money, so when you add up the mortgage, taxes, utilities, maintenance & tack on a profit ; voilà $1,500.
If you want cheap, rent a trailer.
Really, though. $1500/mo divided equally among 3 people = $500/month each plus whatever extra stuff isn’t included in the rent. That’s really not that expensive.
You can find 2-3 bedroom apartments for around $1000. They’re not super fancy, but nice enough.
A friend of mine is moving into a two level two bedroom/two bathroom apartment this weekend. He said it’s huge and it’s in a decent part of Clayton Park (i.e.: not on willett/harlington) and it’s $780/month with heat and hot water/water included.
Sounds like a good deal to me.
I agree that $1,500/mth isn’t bad for a house. I remember seeing one before for just under $3,000/mth and wondered who the fuck is retarded enough to pay that much in rent for a house?
However that being said, it is annoying that a bank won’t offer a mortgage (though I understand why) but tells you to keep renting where, in the majority of Halifax, you shell out enough in rent to cover a mortgage payment…
OP, once you are able to make the move to a mortgage, go for it. Renting sucks, and provides no return on your money. Friends of mine own several properties in Halifax that they rent out. The rent they charge often covers the mortgage plus some extra. Own a place near South End and you can milk even more money out of students to cover the mortgage.
if you are paying that much, and only one person, then you are fucking nuts. apartment renting has it all over a fucking house these days. just think what you would pay out monthly for a house, compared with an apartment. sure, you don’t own it, but don’t have the fucking headsches of maintaining it either.
the only way a house is good, is if you live in the country, and have wood heat. other than that, no fucking thank you.
Have you actually been to the bank and/or met with a mortgage broker to see if you could get a mortgage? If you have a down payment and your credit is ok, then you might be able to get approved.
feel free to drop me a line: jennymachomes@me.com
Renting an apartment is better than owning your own house only if you like to throw your money out the window. The cost of maintaining a house is minimal when you consider that more often than not you’ll actually make money when you sell your property.
Frenchie, tell that to those in the States and other places who lost their shirts. Real estate is not always a guaranteed profit.
But that said, the other reason is the cost of repairs aftera tenant moves out, especially pigs. Nope there is no way I would ever become a landlord and put up with that shit. It takes only one idiot to destroy any amout of income you hope to gain.
Renting a house/apartment is wicked because you don’t have to pay for things like lawn mowers, snow removal, broken pipes, heat/hot water (and sometimes even electricity), painting anything, appliances, property taxes, fines occurred from not shoveling the sidewalk, driveway salt, etc etc.
melectric: I would say that you pay for all of the stuff you mention via your rent. If you think for a moment that the landlord pays for that stuff out pocket, you’re mistaken.
Real Estate is not a guarantee, if you’re buying on the speculation of a market boom, you might get burned. Luckily, Halifax doesn’t really have booms or busts when it comes to real estate; things have been steadily, but modestly, increasing in value for decades.
When you’re young, the most advantageous thing you could do is buy a house, get married, have kids blah blah – the kids turn into fucking teenagers who drain your money and patience dry – they finally move out – after you sober up from the bender of joy at being an empty nester, you sell the fucking mansion on the hill to some poor sap who is young and about to repeat the same joys of living you’ve just experienced – you then move to a brand new rental unit, with all the bells and whistles, no maintenance, no snow removal, no HRM rape-my-sphincter tax grab – invest your profit to finance this rental nirvana, go south a few times a year, buy a mid life crisis mobile, and if you’re lucky cheat and fuck your remaining years away.
This UNFUNFILLED Alexander Keiths moment brought to you in 3D by someone who really shouldn’t drink this early on a Friday afternoon.
I own a place in the country.
I live out here because I hate the city. I am not people friendly, I also need space for my woodworking hobby & I bought a place on the water because I love to swim, canoe, kayak, snorkle…underwater photography is a hobby. I love walking in the woods, nice days, rainy days & I like to hunt.
People who say its expensive to own a home … I don’t know what your talking about.
I put 50% + down on this place when I bought it. My mortgage is under $160.00 every 2 weeks.(that price includes the property taxes.) I have owned this place for almost 10 years…but have only lived here for 8. I usually make a balloon payment on my mortgage at tax time…I can pay almost 5000.00 without a penalty.
I will be paid off by year end next year, I presently owe less than 10 grand.
Mowing my lawn on my lawn tractor is like once a week. I have a snowblower, I just bought it for this winter.
Heating is CHEAP. I burn wood, I have been averaging 4.5 cords each winter, it costs just over 500.00
My oil bill is less than $1000.00 a year & I’ve never yet seen a power bill over $100.00 for 2 months, although it is getting close to that with all the increases.
I don’t know where you get your facts & figures for owning a home being so damn expensive, But I am proof that you can do it for a lot less than many of you may think.
Plus if I didn’t buy a property with waterfrontage (way over 300 ft) my place would have been a lot cheaper, & actually paid for now. My building is old (the main frame is over 100 years old) all post & beam construction but the roof joices & foundation are from the 50’s. My steel roof is in good shape, my foundation footings are over 3 feet thick !
I have completey rewired the whole place, that was the biggest expense… & wasn’t all that bad at about 5 grand. That’s new mast & everything inside. I have no water bill. I have no sewage bill, & a septic tank clean out every 7 /8 years is like $300.00 !
When I’m mortgage free, my property taxes will be a few hundred dollars a year.
Renting…means YOU WILL ALWAYS PAY UNTIL YOU DIE !
bahaha… love the rant Baz. That was beeee-u-ti-ful! And oh so true.
I am aware of what rent is for Jenn. I just like the fact that the only thing I have to do when something is broken is pick up the phone. I like that I can live somewhere new every year and not be tied down and have to go through a bunch of legal/banking/insurance BS just to move. If something unexpected happened, like my fridge broke or septic tank leaked or place got infested with mice or whatever, it’s not going to cost me anything to deal with it at that moment. That is what my rent is for – peace of mind :)! It makes me sick thinking of owning a home… I never want to know that some crapburb is where I’m going to spend a large period of time. I did it for my first 19 years of life and have no intention of ever doing it again. You want to be boring? Own a home!
melectric is one of our younger brethren…and she is correct. it’s fun to be able to put your shit in a dufflebag and go. don’t fall for their ploy^^
I will not give in to the hype ;D
Yup and you buy a house in a nice area and in 10 years it becomes a slum or has a high crime rate, then try to sell. There are good and bad points to both. I’ve rented and owned a house.
For peace of mind, an apartment every time. If it goes to pot, I pack and move. As melectric says if an appliance goes tits up, the landlord replaces it (provided you did your homework on the landlord). No going into debt, etc. Even if you own a house you can’t do anything you want. You have to obey the bylaws, and if you want to renovate you have to get building permits, etc. If your furnace/water heater dies, hopefully you’ll have the cash or credit to get another one quickly.
Now the pros of owning a house. Yes you will eventually own it. You can have whatever you want on the floors, paint/paper the walls any which way or have nothing on them at all. With any luck, when you sell you’ll make a bit on it.
@ More:
Yes, that’s nice for you that you have your house and that it’s sooooo wonderful and brag, brag, brag!
Here’s the thing–you live in the COUNTRY. It’s cheaper in the country. Most of us have to be in the city for work every day. Commuting sucks, and for those who can’t afford a car or just don’t want to be stuck in a car for an hour every day, living within the city limits is a must. I challenge you to find a house in the CITY where “the mortgage is under $160.00 every 2 weeks.” IMPOSSIBLE.
@ Bro Tim
I live in the country. I don’t know when you last checked out lot prices on waterfront property. making a little,as you put it, if I decide to sell is quite the understatement.
@ Butternut
We all make choices, some make what they feel they have to, & then some of us come to the realisation that…gasp… you can toss it aside & make a significant change, either in chosen profession, or where you live, the significant other etc… Or All Of Them At The Same Time.
After living in cities for almost all my life, coming out to the country was at first difficult, but its a learning process & I know I’ll never move back to a city…maybe a small town, perhaps a village in the future when I’m old and decrepit, but never into a city again.
Having recently bought a house, I will say that it is a change having to shovel, mow, and pay heat/hot water. But I’m glad we did because if we take care of the place, we’ll get our money back and then some come selling time.
Plastic Diver Guy, as Bro Tim said, “you never know, you might not do as well as you think, the housing bubble in the US is an example”
But the way I look at it, is after 10 years of renting an apartment, I left & recieved absolutely NOTHING.
IF I left my home tomorrow & sold it, I will get at this time more than I paid for it, including the upgrades… so I will “leave here” with SOMETHING, after living here as well !
Big difference in my way of looking at it !
Even if you don’t get all your money back, you have still lived somewhere for a number of years & you still got to take something away with you !
Of course if someone wants a house and can’t get a mortgage they can always get a free house in Detroit.
Which will soon have a statue of Robocop thanks to the awesome people of teh internets. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/imagin…
I don’t know where you people are finding these 2/3 bedroom appartments for around 700. I have been looking everywhere’s for a new place that is a 2 bedroom. On bayers road, a 2 bedroom is 890. And that is near Fairview. Clayton park’s is worse I found in prices.