Shard

Ministry of Health? Probably will lose the housing component you receive if you're renting at non-arms length. Would that change your plans?

scrubbedexpat091

Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation, not sure of the new fancy name they have, but they deal with social assistance and disability and not sure what else.

Yeah they may take away the housing supplement if we move in with a family member, they are known to do that even when rent is being paid.

If we lose the housing supplement that would be paid to MIL as rent, we wouldn't move as there would be no advantage for the most part since we would still be using income to pay rent and not sure we would actually save anything....lol


The ministry is also the red tape agency that makes going back to school difficult as they view student loans as income for any amount not used for specific purposes.


Dec and Jan are the hard months, we have to survive solely on work income which doesn't cover our monthly expenses, but for those 2 months and sometimes November we generally have used our income exemption up so everything comes out of work checks, but since they can't cover everything, we struggle to eat in the lean winter months.

scrubbedexpat091

Article about one of the town house communities being built.

Townhouses in Squamish selling quickly


There seems to be no demand for condos, so developers are for the time being not building any.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/real...ians-1.3086793


Suppose it's better to pay 40% towards a mortgage then towards rent? Renters a lot of times end up using 40%+ on rent but long term have nothing to show for it, although maintenance does need to be paid for is your the owner on top of that 40%+.

We are 41.2% of our income just to rent if we are both working during the time frame we receive disability, in the months we don't, its like 55-60%.

vanity

25,000 signatures

First rally: #donthave1million rally draws hundreds to downtown Vancouver

ExKiwilass

hundreds. big deal.

on the CBC this morning it was described as a rally for middle-class people who wanted to be able to buy something nice in Vancouver, rather than a rally for people who want affordable rentals who are poorer.

scrubbedexpat091

Not enough poor people for politicians to lose an election and most others don't care about the poor, so nothing will ever really be done there, if the government wanted to, they could fix the housing issue over time for the poor, starters would be to raise disability housing allowance to a level that actually reflects the cost to rent something, right now the powers that be think you can find a rental for 375 per month.

As for Vancouver, my advice is to leave if your young and start a life where you can have a life, Vancouver isn't going to be the place young people will have a life outside of a condo building, so if condo life isn't for you, pack up and move.

Don't have to leave BC, just have to move east of Surrey, the interior or Vancouver Island, maybe the north but jobs seem more scarce up that way.


Those who bought in the past have no incentive to want prices to drop, and those who want to buy now do, and those mind sets will always conflict with one another.

Vancouver is not, and likely will not be in the future an affordable city, the days of Vancouver having healthy middle class are long gone.

vanity

I also thought the turnout was disappointing considering the number of petitioners but that is the thing with middle class - comfort

At least it has enough legitimacy to generate political debate:

To control property prices in B.C. Robertson calls for housing spec tax - The Globe and Mail

B.C. finance minister suggests speculation tax wouldn’t control prices - The Globe and Mail

MrHyperPants

best give up the latte's everyone



http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2015/05/t...-down-payment/

scrubbedexpat091

The down payment is really the easy part of buying, the hard part is getting the necessary income the banks require for the mortgage.

KuroKuro

I love VanCity Buzz. It is truly awful.

First tip for saving money? Stop spending so much. Amazing insight!


VanCity Buzz seems to be written by a young generation for a young generation that never listened to their parents/elders and then are amazed by insights like this.

I hate being a Millennial and considered part of this generation.

JuneSpring

A friend sent this article to me - I stand corrected on the racism point, and am sorry for that -

Sydney's skyrocketing house prices are worrying, but Chinese buyers aren't to blame

Shard

People are too quick to use the word racist these days, and as the commentator in the Vancouver articles noted, it shuts down conversation. In Cornwall, for example, there is a well known problem of wealthy Londoners snapping up property for second homes, driving up prices and affordability for locals. No talk of racism - just whinging about bloody Londoners.

Interesting article. The one difference from Vancouver is that Australia does indeed seem to restrict foreign purchase of existing housing stock. That's significant enough to mean you can't apply the conclusions from Sydney to Vancouver.

On the other hand, the point about foreign/Chinese money expanding supply of new property, and that exerting downward pressure on the overall market is a good one.

scrubbedexpat091

We had a in depth mortgage evaluation from a mortgage broker this week, upside is we could potentially get a mortgage when the car loan is older (its only 12 months in) around 2 or 3 years old the lady said would be ideal point.

Based on current income, she said with 5% down, on the very high end we might qualify for 180k, but realistically it would be closer to 150-170k based on our current income.

It will take us closer to 5 years to save 5% down, so by the the car will be paid off completely.

But who knows if there will even be anything remotely decent in that price range if the time ever comes, only time will tell.

Still on the fence over buying a condo, almost seem's better to retain freedom and just rent, but I dunno. Condos seem to hit an age here where they stop going up and start going down or just sit and do nothing.

What happens if you own a condo in a building that needs to be torn down? Lose your investment entirely?

How long does a wood frame condo realistically have life wise? Does a 20-25 year old wood frame building still have another 30-40 years left in it?

scilly

there are wood frame 3 storey apartment buildings in Vancouver that are at least 60 years old, and are in good shape.

It depends on whether care has been taken of the buildings ........... and condo strata councils HAVE to take care of their buildings because all the owners have got a monetary interest in the building being maintained!

scrubbedexpat091

I was curious as I have seen a few condo buildings in pretty poor shape, we have one in town built in 1960 and is well known for lack of maintenance and while cheaper then other buildings, probably is a bad investment from what I can tell.


I think concrete might be better to buy in for quiet? We are in wood framed right now for this apartment and it's noisy, you can hear every little sound upstairs, and next door, and outside, but of course I would think there are ways to make wood frame buildings quieter and not all are noisy?

Its mostly the upstairs where noise comes from, the floors have very poor insulation if any, and having hardwood instead of carpet doesn't seem to help on the noise front.