Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
 

I think you over estimate what a house can do for you... It's just bricks and mortar and while I think it can be a good idea from a pension point of view, it won't make you happy... For me personally one of the happiest homes I ever lived in was a rental property and was a shoebox... I have owned a lovely 4 bed roomed house in the UK with beautiful sea views and was as miserable as sin there. It really is all about what makes it a home and for me that's family and friends not the house that they come to..

We didn't even consider the suburbs of Toronto for that reason.... The idea was to spend less on a house here and not have to wok so hard. Buying a house near a capital would seem like the least sensible plan in the world especially when we had the option to move anywhere. Add in that with a young family we were looking for a slightly less city feel anyway.

Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
 

I just can't have what I want in a rental:

Yard for a pond.

A nice kitchen suitable for cooking with space.

The ability to have a garden, space for the dog to play.

Renting is a waste of money with nothing to show for it and has no stability, once rent hits a point we can't afford, off we have to go to a new rental, or if a landlord becomes a pain, have to move again, moving moving moving, always having to move when it comes to renting.

Hard to be happy when renting means giving up everything you dream of having.

Rentals in our price range are always crappy, old, outdated, and generally crap.

Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
 

I can't offer a yard with a pond but there's a safe balcony for the upper floor and a deck for the lower one. Both kitchens are spacious and the park is a minute away on foot. :)

I'm sure there are exceptions and it likely varies place to place.

I had a young couple for a year - great tenants - who moved on once they had saved enough to buy their own house.

Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
 

:goodpost:

This is exactly why I have never wanted to rent & thankfully have never had to. I feel so sorry for people in your predicament, it must be really hard to save & get out of the renting trap once you are in it.

Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
 

Rent eats up huge amount of our income, but we are in the least expensive building in town, and overall nothing in this town is any cheaper, we have a severe rental shortage right now, so bad there are bidding wars for rentals...


Owners who have rented their homes out for years are now selling, and the new owners are occupying and not renting, so each month less and less on the rental market and no plans for any developers to build any rentals, although they are building lots of new 350,000+ town homes and 500,000+ single family homes, but no condos and no rental housing.

We can't even save money as there is nothing to cut at this point to save money.

Tis life these days.


There are some really nice condos and town homes I'd love to live in, and offer the amenities I would like, but they are well out of price range, 1,500+ a month, so have to settle for the basic, no amenity place we have now.

They are building some town houses down from us, and I love the floor plan and layout, but at 348,000 as the starting price, a bit out of our price range...lol

Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
 

This is about "minimum standards". It's true that at a certain point a house or an income level can't make you happy, but up to that point, not having the "minimum" will detract from happiness.

And this of course changes over time. It's why we're happy roughing it in crap hotels when we're students, but want some luxury when we're older. Ditto homes.

Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
 

One of ours pays less for a mortgage than rent would be. It is just getting the deposit together is harder for some.

Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
 

Why is renting generally seen as a bad thing?

Owning would eat up much more.

Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
 

Does that calculation take into account other owning expenses plus lost opportunity costs of the down payment?

Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
 

Yes, as well as some other costs and benefits.

Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
 

Then that's pretty impressive. They must have got a bargain.

Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
 

Not necessarily. Owning you build equity and for many it could be paid off in 25 years if they don't keep moving up. After the mortgage is free and clear, just basic living costs and the value of the home is your own.

Renting is paying someone else's mortgage. In 25 years, they own the property and the renter keeps on paying. Over 25 years owners can be 10's of thousands ahead. My kid pays 30% less on mortgage than an equivalent for rent and has already seen a 20% increase in equity value.

Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
 

The main reason is what happens when you retire/can no longer work, general living costs are high enough without having to pay rent on top.

Obviously repairs & whatnot can rear their ugly heads now & then but in the grand scheme of things they really don't cost that much, & money you do spend usually adds to the value of the home.

Yep. We pay £500 a month for our repayment mortgage (on a flat just outside London) & rents on our place go for £950. Plus in the 5 years we have owned it the value has gone up £70k.

Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
 

From a landlords perspective renting is really good if you get decent tenants. You get capital appreciation and income, if it is a good property, little outgoings.

Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
 

Yes, but if we owned that means our income is higher, we can't own at our current income level, but there are places in BC where you can buy a house and likely end up paying less per year then what we pay in rent alone.