Shard

Very good solution. Look into it.

Almost Canadian

Ah, I see, redistribution of wealth.

Almost Canadian

I thought we were talking about cottages in parts of Canada where nobody actually lives, or would wish to.

Alan2005

Well, that's the point of progressive taxation isn't it. I'm not sure what you are trying to say given that pretty much every country does this.

Shard

Oh ok. No need to extra tax those.

scrubbedexpat091

We are. Have to figure out if it's worth getting citizenship here first, most likely is, just the cost, and I have to see how long it would take roughly.

I'll likely go first and get settled, go to school, and so on, but of course have to see how the US side of things work and if it's doable for me to go first and then have her stay here and then go through immigration, still in the very early stages.

I do know tuition is dirt cheap, same program roughly 2,300 there vs 9,000 here. They also permit you to pay X% down, and then equal payments instead of the entire thing upfront.

Time will tell.

Have to rebuild my credit there first, I have not had credit there for 11 years so there is nothing on my credit report so the score has bottomed out at 525, but I figure with a secured credit card, should be able to get to a decent credit score within 2 years and hopefully able to think about a house around then. Need time to save the 10% down payment as well if they do 10% down still.

vanity

Wow - Congratulations! this market is crazy ad definitely benefitting homeowners presently. Did you find the competition different depending on price range? Still haven't got a foot on the rung!

vanity

Agree..vancouver is out of reach now but MR, NewWestminster, Tri-Cities - maybe they are closer..a little less expensive...!

scrubbedexpat091

They are all well above our upper limit, so not what we would consider affordable.

Looking at MLS we are isolated to places like Merritt, Port Alberni, Texada Island, and other small and mostly remote places that don't offer much employment so can't be seriously considered.

Our upper limit is 150 to 160 so really nearly impossible the province, and I doubt anything but a condo in LM region, but rather rent and keep the flexibility if it's a condo, no real advantage to a condo in my view, our income level will never permit home ownership in the LM, and owning a condo won't do much if anything to help own a home, and well I've seen several people get stuck in condos with noway out because the value just stagnates.

Lots of potentials in BC, just they are located in regions that offer little to no employment opportunities, and some appear to just be old logging towns on their death bed....

Even Powell River is pricey, this is what our price range there gets...

https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/S...olumbia-V8A0J6

Of the 11 listings for Powell River 10 of them are on Texada Island, which one is quite nice and newly remodeled and if we had self sufficient income and didn't rely on employment, would be something to consider, but not likely we could ever bring in enough self employment income on an island with 1,000 people to maintain a house payment.

It's actually a duplex.....not a single house.

We have largely dropped the idea of having a house, we can likely never bring in the income needed and even with some skills improvement, we would only be looking at 17 to 20 per hour type jobs.

https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/S...itish-Columbia

Moses2013

In reality, the majority of people can not afford houses in cities that are booming & trendy, unless they have high paid jobs. If you really want a house with your skills, you will just have to move further out from the city, or move to a city that is currently not classed as trendy. I'm sure there are plenty of cities in the US where housing is affordable. One example is Detroit where you can get a house for next to nothing. Now people will say "Who wants to live in a city that's bankrupt"? I can say that the people who will suffer, are the ones who bought homes during the boom, not the bust.

scrubbedexpat091

Has the Detroit economy picked up? Still seems to be around 13% unemployment and well if we struggle to find work in 6% unemployment, not sure we would find much success with 13% unemployment.

Problem is going outside of the city in BC means little chance of employment since the jobs are largely isolated to the city's.

If we were totally self sufficient for income, we would have a plethora of locations to choose from in BC, but since we rely on employment income, we have to be in the city's and none of the city's are in our price range.

Chilliwack for example is 2 hours east of Vancouver, last large city in the lower Mainland but houses are still above our limit, and it's hardly trendy.

Port Alberni has lots of houses in our range, but it's got little employment opportunities and high unemployment and pretty high crime rate. Was voted worst place to live in Canada last year.

That is the problem we face, there is nowhere to really go that is in our price range and offers job opportunities that would have the wage needed to own.

We have decided against the US anyhow, my wife can't risk it because of her health stuff, and I don't have the earning power to support 2 people in the event she isn't able to work for a time, in BC we have a safety net, but we can't leave BC which is the problem.

Can't even afford to rent anymore, so trying to just find a place where we can get a job, and a place in our price range to rent, but it's not been going well thus far. Not many companies willing to hire unskilled workers in advance, and then wait until we can move in a month.

Also very little out there under 700 anywhere which is our upper comfort limit, we barely make rent at 850 we pay now, so we really need to find a way to reduce our housing cost.

Even way out in Chilliwack there is a lack of pet friendly rentals in our price range, most are 800+.

Moses2013

Of course you have to do your own research, but I wouldn't rely on those figures alone. Detroit was just one an example and I'm sure there are also many other problems with job losses, but if you look back, we've always seen ups and downs. Just because a place has high unemployment on paper now, doesn't mean that there are no jobs, or no job investment is happening. If the property bubble bursts, you will always have high unemployment, but it's not because there are no jobs at all. It's often the case that people have huge mortgages and can't find an agreement with the bank, so nobody would work for $1,200 if their mortgage is $1,300. In your situation you will need to start setting the trend, rather than following the trend to be able to afford a house. Start researching the areas that were hit hardest, but are now growing. You then might find a place that you like and it's affordable.

scrubbedexpat091

One of the worst places to be in Canada for renting.

Squamish rental situation ranked as ‘poor’

scrubbedexpat091

Change to Strata Property Act paving the way for old condo buyouts | Globalnews.ca

Shard

JS, you are in good company in London too...

Millions give up on home ownership as house prices soar - Telegraph