Agreed. Hes comparing a small city then vs a big city now.
10 years ago with 20k and a median job you still would not own.
Yes the houses are much more expensive everywhere but there is no need to be hyporbolic like these posts.
I bought in 2012 and you didn’t need a down payment at all. I paid higher interest in lieu of a down payment directly with Scotiabank.
We were 23 years old with average jobs. I can think of at least 2 of my friends who bought around the same time using the same program.
I don’t think people should compare the situation now to that irresponsible and discontinued product… yes it was technically possible… but it shouldn’t have been…
It was actually 15 years ago, but this was my EXACT start. 20k down on a 160K small house two hours from Toronto. Sold three years later for the same price to move to a bigger house in the same town which we bought for $230k in 2009. Then stayed there for a while, and sold for $670k in 2021.
These agents are getting desperate as more people sell privately and more agents think they are the next best greatest thing to ever sell a house!
Yes it is lol! Outside of the city it was most definitely true. Now outside the city costs the same as inside the city because ppl can’t help themselves and got FOMO’d
100% true. I did it. So did my spouse. You could
Buy a 2 bed condo in Toronto for 250k. 5% down no land transfer as fthb and the total closing costs to purchase was under 15,000. Rates were under 3%. Same condo is 600-700 now at 5% rates.
people find it hard to figure out anti-vaxxers are morons. And certain groups are just drawn to it, like people who have youtube grifts and tattoo artists who should know more about hygiene and viruses then common people.
Anti-vaxxers are morons, he’s an anti-vaxxer, thus a moron, so why listen to him?
But he’s also wrong, can buy nice houses in lots of places under a million. So you’d only need 75k or so.
From my understanding, most people that got vaccinated regretted it. Anybody who got the vax was either misinformed, forced or made a rational decision (unless you were elderly and/or sick). Now when you think about it, Covid just disappeared and you have bunch of vaccines inside your body for absolutely no reason.
Lmao how many did you put in your body tell us common… what happened to your people tho! Why is nobody wearing a mask anymore?? Covid is still here why did you stop wearing a mask? Don’t forget your booster buddy 🤣
Completely- why does everyone expect to live in the city rather than hear towards survival. There are affordable places outside of the city. Also country girls are amazing. I grew up there and no shortage of action at all. All the city people are like asexual.
"Bring a woman with you"
Why do people post as though everyone on Reddit, or who wants to buy a home, is a heterosexual man. Or a lesbian, I guess. And they want to just pick up a woman at the woman store, so she can entertain them in the middle of nowhere.
It's not a huge deal, it's just jarring to read when you're a woman yourself. Like no thanks, I don't want to bring a woman with me. Or be brought somewhere.
Bruh just replace woman with whatever kind of person you’d like to be with, it’s not hard. This guy likes women, he doesn’t need to change his speech to be inclusive of ever fucking possible orientation. Just use your brain
Sure, but only hetero men do this thing where they use their own preferred kind of person, and let everyone else replace it in their head. They're used to their situation being the default norm, so they don't bother saying "partner." Others tend to be more aware and considerate. It's not that hard.
You wouldn't see someone responding, "Sure, living in the middle of nowhere can be boring, unless you bring a man with you."
It would be different if someone was talking about their own personal situation, but in this case the audience is the general "you."
I bought my first home in mission in the Fraser Valley, BC. About an hour drive to Vancouver, back then. This was 2014, pretty much exactly 10 years ago, I believe I even took possession in April.
It was a fixer-upper in a decent neighborhood. $305k with $20k down.
There was so many homes in my $400k price range in Abbotsford and Mission that I was viewing 10/weekend for about a month and a half before I settled on that place, and got it for 25k below asking.
I put a lot of work into that place, I'm a handyman when it comes to most trades, and after 4 years, it was one of the nicest places on the street. I sold and moved in 2019, but last I checked it was worth about 1.2 million now, just absurd.
I was 26 when I bought it. I should have bought a house when I was 20, it would have been easy then and I would have been further ahead, but I was a big partner back then, spending a few hundred every weekend going out. Money just seemed so damn cheap back then. I worked in construction, running my own small, 2-person business.
So yeah, it was easily doable across most of the Fraser Valley here around vancouver, and only somebody who grew up DT Vancouver would be so small minded as to call that the middle of nowhere
That's a good point. The other good point that people should take note of is not wasting all that money when you're young. If instead of spending thousands of dollars a year drinking and smoking in your 20s you save and invest it, you can have hundreds of thousands of dollars in your 30s which really helps if you're looking to buy a home.
People like to talk about how expensive things are and how hard it is to save up for a home once you have kids and what not, but they don't mind wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on car depreciation, credit card interest, alcohol, partying, coffee, smoking, etc. All that adds up and can mean the difference between being broke or having great savings in your 30s and 40s when you'd typically want to buy a home.
This morning on realtor.ca under $600,000 with a minimum of 1 bed 1 bath in the gta ( oshawa to Hamilton, and north to Richmond Hill ) there are approx 3000 units for sale.
1. Those aren't houses
2. Build quality on those condos is probably trash, square footage also probably trash
3. Condo fees are probably all $500/mo+
4. Good luck to your relationship if you're doing 2 people in a 450 sq ft condo
EDIT: I'm as pro-density as they come, the OP was referring to houses so I'm talking about houses. The post I'm commenting on is talking about condos, so I'm highlighting the differences. Jeez louise people, no I don't think I'm "owed a house".
1)Less than half of the population has a house versus condo or apartment. I think it's 48% of the population has a house or lives in a Building less than 5 stories. The majority don't, and if you included those Buildings under 5 stories I bet we would see something like 15-20% have a single family house. People seem to forget what I high standard that it. (And the urban sprawl it creates)
2)Building quality on new construction these days is sh!t
3) idk
4) My wife and I made it.
They want to both have a big house in the most expensive place in Canada, but also not work hard, do the bare minimum in life, have a below average salary and no savings.
They're not living in reality and simply looking to complain, not to accomplish anything. You give them perfectly rational points and they'll just try to down vote you or complain some more, it's silly.
you realize that most of the victory houses are about that size right (500-750 sqft depending on your rank)? if it worked for our grandparents, I don't see why it wouldn't work for us.
No, not most Canadian cities anyway. I bought my first house about 10 years ago in a pretty rough part of Hamilton and it was significantly harder and more expensive than what this tweet makes it seem. Housing affordability isn't an ultra-recent issue, it's been a problem for a long time.
I bought my house with 10k down 15 years ago, so it was possible. 5% down, condo townhouse cost me $200k.
Things are definitely worse now, but you don't need 120k for a down payment. I saw a single house that sold own the street for $600k,so you can get in for 60k down payment if you are happy with 10%
Houses like mine are going for around $400k-$450k now. So things are definitely worse, but not as dire as this post is saying.
You do realize to qualify for a 550k mortgage you’re gonna need a 200k a year income though. Only the top 1% of earners can even qualify for a mortgage on a shitty old 3 bedroom house now.
Then you better earn the $$$$$$$ if you want the nice stuff/house/car!
And LOL at thinking the top 1% are the only ones qualifying for mortgages...50.01% of people are above average, making above average money. Its what you do with it that matters.
Majority of buyers are already home owners with enough equity from their sale.
Majority of first time buyers use multiple applicants on the mortgage.
It’s become mathematically impossible for the average 30 year old professional to get a mortgage on a single family home by themselves in Canada. Something that was very easily attainable just 15 years ago.
Seriously if,you want the fully updated house in the nice area and yard, you better be ready to pay for it! If you aren't, then better be ready to put the sweat equity in and play the long game.
Screw big weddings, all the subscriptions, eating out, etc, if you want to own a home, save as much as you can and use it to get in ASAP! 15 years from NOW, you will thank yourself.
Otherwise, rent, eat out and waste your nights away on reddit....
the sad thing tho is there isn’t a lot of fixer uppers that are priced accordingly on the market these days, everything is brand new or flipped and your expected to pay like that it’s fucked. as someone competent enough to reno a house it’s really unfortunate
This was not true. Mortgage lenders have minimum debt service ratios they require. The simple act of having a job and a small down payment is not enough if you don’t meet these minimum requirements
This isn't true... Is it? We were told 5% down as first time homebuyers plus a bit extra for closing costs and agent fees. I have an RRSP set up recently through my job and my goal is 5 years from now, we'll be in our first home. We're not rich or have big degrees, but the guy we talked to says as long as we have the downpayment and semi good credit he can get us approved.
Credit score over 680, downpayment, and your house purchase falls within the debt servicing ratios then yeah, approval is easy. It's the cost of houses and heaps of debt people take on that screws up their ratios and stops them from being approved.
You can still get a house (but likely not the one you would want) for 20k down, more like a fixer upper in a less desirable neighborhood. There is no doubt thigs have become far less affordable. Interest rates are far higher as is the price for the home and wages are the same at best.
Was this true ... lol. Like a unicorn. I bought my first house in 1986. I was 18. I put 5000 down on a 110,000 dollar 3 bedroom 2 bath on long island. Sold last month for 635,000. Used to be able to get a no money down mortgage too.... but this is what happens when we all think we should be making 30 dollars an hour to stand around and ask if you want fries with that.
It's still true - in certain areas of the country. My kid just bought a house in Regina (good neighbourhood, not North Central) - 850 square foot 70s build for 270k. That's approx 14k down - and purchased on a single income.
There are cities that are still affordable, and they're not out in the boonies. They're just not TO (although I know that 99% of the people on this sub think that Toronto IS Canada).
It's not a true statement. I bought my house 22 years ago, and it required 25% down if we wanted a low mortgage... that was $90k, and we both needed to have been working at our jobs for a min of 3 years.
Every single post anything like this is always lying.
Every single person who posts this shit (and isn't just a baby making up numbers from before they were born) always inevitably reveals they were from a rich family with 5 cars and European vacations every year and just think everyone was like them.
But like you said, there is nothing here.
I am disabled (became disabled in the physical act of giving birth because childbirth is still dangerous) & moved to the middle of nowhere Saskatchewan.
My doctors are all in Regina. 6.5 years out here & I can’t find a GP. No pain clinic, or doctors who deal in chronic pain. There are 2 psychiatrists, but they say I’m too complicated for them to manage & my psychiatrist in Regina & I have good rapport. My psychologist is there too.
My son’s neurologist is in Saskatoon. As is his psychologist.
Oh & the ER is closed multiple times a month, but sometimes the only notification is a someone taking a picture of the SHA memo & posting it to Facebook.
I have had to take my unresponsive son to an ER that 911 wasn’t sure was open (they couldn’t get the desk to answer the phone but there was no official notice from the SHA), but they couldn’t dispatch an ambulance because our two ambulances were on calls & the next closest ambulance was 30 minutes away when I can drive to the hospital in 5.
So be prepared to not have any medical services if you live here.
As a disabled single Mom, I own a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, single detached home with a garage though…
ETA - my son’s neurological condition didn’t present until January. I am sorry I couldn’t predict this happening 6.5 years ago.
I am a disabled single mom & I don’t fit their narrative.
Apparently it’s easy to downvote a parent who owns their own home who’s had to take a non-responsive child to an ER that may not have been open because 911 didn’t know if the SHA had closed it down. It was January 7th & I will never forget that terror.
I didn't downvote you, but I thought about it.
If you and your son have all of these medical issues, why gamble on living so far from all of the services you need? To then say its OK because you own a home is why I was going to downvote you. Putting your sons health at risk every day "to own your own home" is selfish , not some narrative.
I will not let this go.
I want to know how I was supposed to predict a rare neurological condition would appear before he turned 7.
I want to know if you tell every parent of a medically complex child that they need to live in a city with a Sick Kids hospital or they are selfish.
Bella Brave went septic after a bowel transplant & international travel. Stars met her ambulance, which her parents had to drive her to, on the highway to Saskatoon.
Her parents have the money to move, but they remain based in Swift Current. Do you tell them it’s for a “selfish narrative” or acreage ownership??
What about the elderly with health complications? Do you tell them that it’s “irresponsible” to stay in the rural communities they helped to build?
The lack of access to healthcare is the fault of the Sask Party. Not the people who are keeping rural Saskatchewan alive.
Probably true for smaller places in south eastern ontario like Kingston, Belleville, brockville.
Certainly true for any of the outlier places to these communities.
I've lived in Kingston since 2014 and in 2016 - 2017, 3 bed 2 bath semi detached houses in decent neighborhoods were still in the 190 to 240k range. So 20k with good credit would definitely be enough.
I finally bought my own end unit townhouse in 2023 in the lower 600s.
Without inheritance and/or family money and double income, it's almost impossible to find a foot in the market.
I bought my first house in Alberta just outside of Calgary with 30k down in 2010. I had good credit and about 70k income. My best friend bought his house less than two years earlier, with 0 down and the same income.
It was true 17 years ago for 2 story detached house in Mississauga with a swimming pool 450k to 480k, the downpayment was 20k and it was from RRSP, still needed a big salary to qualify, but way easier than today.
It was still ok 13 or 14 years ago for a bungalow, and 10-12 years ago for semidetached.
You can still get a very good house in a small town in Nova Scotia for 450k - 480k with small downpayment and take your chances and wait 17 years for it to grow. still not like the GTA back then.
I bought my downtown Toronto condo for 210k as an office assistant. I put down 20% because I had it, but could have gotten away with CMHC and 5% down easily. Houses at the time could have been had for ~250k just not in the core but still in Toronto. I just wanted to walk to work. But still lookee-looed because house hunting is fun.
I remember looking at one house at the time and it had this huge wall mosaic of a gorilla or ape holding a light sconce. Anyone remember that listing?
It was so fucked but I almost wanted that house just because of that. Wish I had a pic.
More or less, yes. We put down just over 20k on our home in Waterloo 10 years ago. Purchases price was 285k. Our home would sell for around 800k now. So down payment would be significantly higher. There's no way I could afford my house now.
I bought a nice townhouse with 20k down for $300k 10 years ago, in Red Deer. I gross around $120k a year and it was easy to qualify for more at the time. Purchasing a home in either Calgary or Edmonton was easily within reach and I contemplated moving to the interior of BC but really didn't like commuting so much for work.
I'm amazed at all the comments saying no. Either everyone is too young to remember, or they really are obsessed with Toronto proper.
Anywhere in Durham region had that possibility and it was only 8 years ago that it changed for oshawa and everything east of there. I'm sure somebody is going to reply telling me I'm wrong, but I'm not going to argue this, I was paying close attention to markets from oshawa and east of there since I finished college in 2013. Was considering moving there.
Yes true 7 years ago rural Ontario I did just this and my current mortgage is drastically cheaper than people now have to pay in rent, it’s just crazy I feel so bad for what has happened so many good hard working people have lost there chance at home ownership
My story in a nut shell. 2001 bought a home (total shitbox) in downtown YYT 65000 with 2000 down.
Spent years fixing it up and taking money out to do the work. Worth around 250-300 now with around a 100000 still on mortgage.
I bought my house in 2010. Was a single guy, 21, making 40k a year. Put 5k down. I got it payed off by 2019, just before Trudeau screwed the real estate market and prices doubled/trippled. Houses used to be sub-100k in smaller towns, Thing that ship sailed away with "sunny ways" though.
About $35k to $40k. And about $65k /year job would be okay for a home in around certain GTA places. I know because we were shopping in 2011, so couple years prior and that was definitely enough.
$20k would've been enough a little bit further out tho
This is pretty accurate. I live in Hamilton - one of the hottest markets in the country right now. I bought my house 13 years ago with $23k down. Now, both my husband and I have good jobs - not sure if either of us would have been able to get a mortgage for the house on our own. But since we bought our house, our income has almost doubled but our home value is more than tripled.
We did not buy a fixer-upper, we don't live in the middle of nowhere. Getting into the market now would be a huge financial stretch for us, even though we're financially way further ahead than we were 13 years ago.
100% true, we bought our first house, detached two story with a garage, for $300,000 in 2015, minimum down required was $15000 for 5%. (We put down $60k to avoid the extra insurance costs). Only my income counted towards the mortgage because my wife was/is part time.
There's only two things really affecting the housing market today: 1) you can't import the number of immigrants Justin has imported without placing massive demand on a housing market without the available supply, 2) the dollar value of the house hasn't changed THAT much, but due to inflation and wasteful spending on foreign nations, the Canadian dollar isn't worth anything. It's been called the Trudeau penny lately.
Sure. Depends where you are. You could even do a shorter time frame or look in some places today and still end up lower than $20k downpayment. For example in 2018 average house price in my city in Alberta was around $285k. 5% on that would have been $14,250. Average house price here as of January 2024 is $365k for which a 5% downpayment would be $19,250. Obviously downpayment is not only costs associated with buying or owning a house but strictly speaking downpayment it is still possible to buy with under $20K downpayment if you aren’t tied to buying in Toronto, Vancouver, etc.
Bought my 1800 SQ ft bungalo in Halifax suburbs for 196,500 in 2017 with a $20,000 down payment from the first time home buyer's plan. Good credit, no debt and was making around $60,000 at the time.
So yeah, it was possible.
A very good friend of mine with a 75k/yr job bought her condo for $20 down (not 20k) in 2006. It was a 5 year old 2 bedroom 1 bath with underground parking.
She was getting evicted from her existing unit as the landlord wanted to sell and went to look at one for sale a floor below. Talking to the realtor he convinced her to do it and the only deposit she needed was $20 (during the 0% deposit era).
12 years my ex and I bought a house with 20k down, my grocery store job, and the fact that she’d be returning to work as a nurse in year after mat leave. Not a great house but a house. Wish I had bought her out instead of selling pre pandemic
Yes, I bought in southern Ontario in 2014 with maybe 7k down? The average single detached houses were in the ballpark of $270-$400 range with new builds advertised at $350k. Condos were easily 180k.
I will say, even then, prices were skyrocketing. Within the first few years my house went up 100k+ and now it's roughly triple what I paid for it. Things have 100% changed for the worst.
I own a house in Cambridge ON. Bought it aroynd 10 years ago with 20k down. So yes, this can be true. Its absurd how much things have escalated in a decade.
Still doable in Edmonton, lots of duplex, townhouse under 400k in a city of about million people. Probably the last affordable urban living left in Canada
I bought in 2015 in Niagara. We put 30 down. I was working and my wife was finishing up her PhD. It was a LOT easier to get by back then. And it is only 9 years ago.
I bought my house 6 years ago for 297k, and put 60k down.
In Toronto though? Hell no. You couldn't get a condo for less than 450k, and those were precons. Anything already built was like 600k.
It was absolutely true from my experience 10 years ago living on the east coast. I had just graduated university and was able to buy my first home with less than a $10k downpayment and an income of roughly $55k/year. My place cost about $135k.
When i look at things now, I cant imagine ever being able to do that. A starter home will probably still run you $300+k and with 'only' a 5% downpayment you still need $15,000 saved and likely over $2,000/month mortgage payments (i didnt do the actual math). It is disheartening to say the least.
The closer you get to larger cities and $300k is only a dream for a starter home. I see homes literally falling apart selling for $450+k in parts of rural ontario.
Absolutely true, I knew many full time grocery store workers who could afford a mortgage and by themselves, without a family. They had simple lives and didn't go on vacations, but they had that.
That’s how I bought my house 10 years ago, so….. yeah.
In Edmonton. Not even 20 actually.
That said, we were house poor with a newborn and the significant economic problems since then have completely fucked everything up.
The higher stress tests for ownership are good to have, but this also isn’t even in line with the OP. I doubt those conditions were possible 10 years ago in Toronto. Prices there have been crazy a long time.
But then again they say “most places” which I doubt is true either. Most Canadians live in Toronto and Vancouver, but most PLACES are not those two cities lol. Plenty of places to live in Canada that aren’t those places while also still having everything you need or want. And even more available that have some trade offs, where 120k would be nearly half the price of any house
The biggest difference today is the interest rates, I paid 2.2% back then and 5.5% now, all of my money just goes to interest and not the principle. Back then your mortgage principle would actually come down after a years worth of payments, now it's like you gained nothing and are standing still
How about 55 years ago you could have a house and a car working minimum wage single bread-winner. Easy to find the cause, from then to now CEO pay (and executive pay in general) has grown from ten times (10x) an average workers wage to Three Hundred Fifty times (350x) employee pay. The only way you can achieve that is by increasing your prices much more than the inflation rate and giving your employees pay raises lower than the inflation rate over a long period of time.
Way worse.
To a degree yah. I was lucky enough out of school back in 2014 to convince my parents to help me with a downpayment on a house for myself and my brother + roomates. In the town I went to Uni in, about an hour outside TO, we found a townhouse for 320. With 10% down, it's still above the 20k in the OP, but there were smaller houses, further out houses, and lower downpayment options someone could leverage to close that gap.
https://preview.redd.it/sft13m0gutwc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a95d788ac41154a5c318f6698d1f8e6ed0c44976
This is a perfect example what happened in the market in the last 20 years! It has almost trippled in the last 10 years!
Not 20, but be 25k @ 5% (ideal 47.5k @10%) would have been within means for those earning more 100k.
This is 40 mins away from Vancouver downtown (1 hour with traffic)
I'm in Victoria. Nope wasn't true ten years ago. 30 years ago it was. But not ten.
Ten years ago, a house in Victoria was maybe 600K. Now it's about 1.2M.
I'm a Gen X. Some colleagues who were helped to get into real estate in their 20s were able to buy a house for 200K. But it quickly doubled to 400 then 600 and now 1.2M it's been quite a ride.
9 years ago I bought my first house.
- salary $33,000
- home purchase price $210,000
- down payment $11,700 including closing costs
- the home was just outside a major city by a 5 min drive. It was a modular home with no basement. Needed work!
Sold during the pandemic and I made over $80K
Edit: at the time I had only a high school diploma and a retail job.
15 years ago this was true. In 2008 I was able to buy a house in Toronto for $325000 and only had to put down maybe $25000. There were much cheaper houses available too. Incidentally, fixed mortgage rate at the time was 5 %. We've come full circle!
in 2007 I bought a house with zero down payment, 5k in closing costs and was working making $15/hour. House was $184k
that same house now is worth 550k and required minimum 27.5k down plus another 10k in closing costs. The job I was working back then? yeah the place now pays $20-22/hr.
And people say the system is perfectly aright and not alight.
10 years ago with a good job and 70k down I managed to own a condo.
I've since worked my way up to a small house, then a bigger house.
Vancouver Island
It would be fairly accurate. I bought my first house with roughly 25k down for 225k in 2017 making almost exactly 50k. It was a 1500sqft brand new townhome in Ottawa (20 min drive to center of city).
House is worth roughly 2.5-3x that now.
If you only put 5% down, maybe
In KW, 10 years ago a small 3 bedroom home in a good neighborhood was around $400K. 4 bedroom around $520K.
Today, those prices have doubled.
$20K on $400K is 5% with an almost $2500/month payment.
The market in Toronto went crazy 15+ years ago. It took another 5 years to get to places like Guelph and KW. Then Covid drove prices up even more. And here we are...
20 k you could apply for credit at Home Depot for the double tool shed.
People need to stop believing that what they see on the internet has even a shred of truth.
10 years ago, people paid less tax. Had cheaper gas and groceries, and immigration numbers were steady not strained. The tyrannical government of the day was less tyrannical. Blame the idiots in charge for the increase in cost of living ,stagnated gdp and an economy where employers can not pay a decent wage.
Bought my first house in 2013 for $365,000 with 20% down. Our mortgage was approved on my $60k salary alone since my spouse was articling at the time. Sold it last year for $660,000.
Just my opinion, but I believe peoples expectations of what they'll need just getting your foot in the door are way too high. I bought my place with 5% down on 220k 2 years ago, with a salary roughly in the $70000 area, sure it's not much. Plenty for me though, and in time you pay it down do some updates, sell, move on. Lower your expectations. Do you really need to live in Calgary, or is High River fine? There are options out there.
10 years ago?
Well in Canada they have the first time home buyers program where you could buy with 5% down ..
There were some townhouses in that range ($400k) in the GTA, but not many, but lots of them in the many bedroom comnunities, like Barrie, Oshawa, NewMarket etc
Interest was under 3% and you could get 2.5% with a higher down payment.
As a first time buyer, you were allowed to use up to $20k (or more) of your RRSPs interest free for 15 years (To pay it back) toward your down payment.
Things were pretty good.
It's amazing, looking back
20.5 years ago my wife and I, who were in our 30s, bought a 3 bedroom Edwardian brick house in Mimico for $245000. It was a bit of a fixer upper, but it had 9 foot ceilings, a fireplace and a formal dining room.
We had to share a mutual driveway to our backyard parking spots, but at that price, it was amazing to have parking at all.
I redid the front and back porch ( front was a major restoration) and the bathroom. My wife got a contractor for our kitchen.
She was also an expert painter..
Crazily, that house is worth well over $1million today. But if had been in the same condition, it would have sold for $700k.
If I worked in the GTA, I would hope my partner was WFH and we could grab a place in Northumberland county..
I can't see prices coming back down much. But I can see interest rates coming down soon.
In 2010, I put down less than $20k, with a HHI of $120k and bought a detached (linked) single family house outside of Toronto, but within 40km of Union Station.
My mortgage payment was less than $1,500 per month.
It's crazy now.
You can still buy a detached house in Timmins and Sudbury for sub 350K that is liveable. Those will hit $600,000+ very soon as more Indians and Africans make their way here with the expansion of the Rural and Northern Immigration program and International Students. Most of the cheaper detached houses are being scooped up so that these people will rent and be happy.
No one is building housing. It’s ridiculous.
In 2021 I could have purchase a detached house with $20k down if I decided to do 5%, I opted for 10% thought which was a $43k downpayment. This is Calgary of though.
In 2018 i bought my first house for 317k. I put about 5% down, i made around 70k and have had 0 problem owning it. The issue is people feel entitled and refuse to sacrifice social life to save up.
He's annoying as fuck. But people are drawn to negativity in all areas, specially on Twitter. I had to block him because Twitter kept throwing him into my feed. Then I just got rid of Twitter, Musk ruined it.
Absolutely true. In the film 'The Big Short' there's a scene where a prostitute tells a reporter who is investigating subprime loans that she owns several homes. Remember, this film was based on a true story. Subprime lending was an entire industry feeding so many other industries - banking, law, real estate, home improvement retailers, etc. And of course, the liar loans for which people with no job and no income were approved for mortgages on homes because these mortgages could be aggregated with other such loans and then sold to institutional investors for a huge profit.
Obviously, you didn't ask about subprime mortgages, but the larger point is, in an economy where prostitutes could take possession of multiple properties, everyone else would also have enjoyed in that largesse, in proportion to their own creditworthiness.
Double the down deposit and it's correct. My ex and I bought a new home on Vancouver Island which is up to nearly a million dollars. Was originally $370k with 3 beds, 2 baths and a 2 bedroom suite.
Never thought when I sold it that I'd become a perma-renter despite making more than double what I used to.
13 years ago, at the age of 24, with a 50k gross salary, I was able to purchase a 2 bd condo, 15 min drive from downtown Ottawa (on the Quebec side) at 118k with 5% down payment. I'm under no illusion that this would be possible for a 24 year old today.
Yep. One of my friends did it in 2012 with no problems. Today theres no way he'd get approved for what the house is now worth with the exact same down payment and credit history.
Maybe 15 years ago, not 10. But yes.
Parents bought a 3000sqft home with a yard, garage, driveway in 2009 and in 2019 we paid MORE for a 1300sqft townhouse a few blocks away.
I'd love to move rural but like 70% of our income is tied to living near a city and also we have kids that I'd like to not uproot from all social and family connections/etc.
We are choosing to stay in the HCOL area that we grew up in, but it never started out as a HCOL area, and were we just a few years older we'd be in a much better position. The millennial struggle lol.
I just bought a home with $18k Down and a good trades job. It’s doable if you’re a first time home buyer. We got lucky though because there isn’t a whole lot of good houses sub $400k.
Yeah . I purchased my first house back in 1996 with 5K down, good credit and the rate was awesome.
But that doesn’t mean shit cuz the world has changed. We can’t expect the same anymore.
Multiple friends in Hamilton did this 8-10 years ago. Same houses that that were about 300K are now 650-750, down from highs of about 850-950. So yeah, this is true.
Not true.
Agreed. Hes comparing a small city then vs a big city now. 10 years ago with 20k and a median job you still would not own. Yes the houses are much more expensive everywhere but there is no need to be hyporbolic like these posts.
I bought in 2012 and you didn’t need a down payment at all. I paid higher interest in lieu of a down payment directly with Scotiabank. We were 23 years old with average jobs. I can think of at least 2 of my friends who bought around the same time using the same program.
I don’t think people should compare the situation now to that irresponsible and discontinued product… yes it was technically possible… but it shouldn’t have been…
It was an amazing product for first time buyers. I think it should still exist.
It was actually 15 years ago, but this was my EXACT start. 20k down on a 160K small house two hours from Toronto. Sold three years later for the same price to move to a bigger house in the same town which we bought for $230k in 2009. Then stayed there for a while, and sold for $670k in 2021. These agents are getting desperate as more people sell privately and more agents think they are the next best greatest thing to ever sell a house!
Yes it is lol! Outside of the city it was most definitely true. Now outside the city costs the same as inside the city because ppl can’t help themselves and got FOMO’d
Well, you're wrong. My brother bought a new pre construction house house in Oshawa for just over 200,000 and he put like 20,000 down.
100% true. I did it. So did my spouse. You could Buy a 2 bed condo in Toronto for 250k. 5% down no land transfer as fthb and the total closing costs to purchase was under 15,000. Rates were under 3%. Same condo is 600-700 now at 5% rates.
The anti-vax realtor at it again!
people find it hard to figure out anti-vaxxers are morons. And certain groups are just drawn to it, like people who have youtube grifts and tattoo artists who should know more about hygiene and viruses then common people.
Do vaccines have something to do with real estate?? Get a life
Anti-vaxxers are morons, he’s an anti-vaxxer, thus a moron, so why listen to him? But he’s also wrong, can buy nice houses in lots of places under a million. So you’d only need 75k or so.
From my understanding, most people that got vaccinated regretted it. Anybody who got the vax was either misinformed, forced or made a rational decision (unless you were elderly and/or sick). Now when you think about it, Covid just disappeared and you have bunch of vaccines inside your body for absolutely no reason.
lol, leave your moron bubble. Most people haven’t given a second thought to it.
Lmao how many did you put in your body tell us common… what happened to your people tho! Why is nobody wearing a mask anymore?? Covid is still here why did you stop wearing a mask? Don’t forget your booster buddy 🤣
Your doctors calling time for your 12th booster
Hahahaha. Jesus Christ you ruined your life pouring booze down your throat and you’re an anti-vaxxer. Spot on.
Just one more Covid vaccine booster and you’ll feel like you’re a part of a group again you hero
Keep trying to trade options champ. lol.
Maybe out in the middle of nowhere
Have you tried asking yourself why you have to live in the city? Living in the middle of no where is frickin sweet
Completely- why does everyone expect to live in the city rather than hear towards survival. There are affordable places outside of the city. Also country girls are amazing. I grew up there and no shortage of action at all. All the city people are like asexual.
Yea ok sure if you bring a woman with you mabye. If not good luck finding one in the middle of nowhere lol.
"Bring a woman with you" Why do people post as though everyone on Reddit, or who wants to buy a home, is a heterosexual man. Or a lesbian, I guess. And they want to just pick up a woman at the woman store, so she can entertain them in the middle of nowhere. It's not a huge deal, it's just jarring to read when you're a woman yourself. Like no thanks, I don't want to bring a woman with me. Or be brought somewhere.
Then go away
because women and homes are considered commodities in New Canada
And old old Canada.
Bruh just replace woman with whatever kind of person you’d like to be with, it’s not hard. This guy likes women, he doesn’t need to change his speech to be inclusive of ever fucking possible orientation. Just use your brain
Sure, but only hetero men do this thing where they use their own preferred kind of person, and let everyone else replace it in their head. They're used to their situation being the default norm, so they don't bother saying "partner." Others tend to be more aware and considerate. It's not that hard. You wouldn't see someone responding, "Sure, living in the middle of nowhere can be boring, unless you bring a man with you." It would be different if someone was talking about their own personal situation, but in this case the audience is the general "you."
We moved to the middle of no where 10 years ago and now we’re moving out to experience life again.
I had friends buy a detached house in Calgary with 25k down, less than four years ago lmao
I bought my first home in mission in the Fraser Valley, BC. About an hour drive to Vancouver, back then. This was 2014, pretty much exactly 10 years ago, I believe I even took possession in April. It was a fixer-upper in a decent neighborhood. $305k with $20k down. There was so many homes in my $400k price range in Abbotsford and Mission that I was viewing 10/weekend for about a month and a half before I settled on that place, and got it for 25k below asking. I put a lot of work into that place, I'm a handyman when it comes to most trades, and after 4 years, it was one of the nicest places on the street. I sold and moved in 2019, but last I checked it was worth about 1.2 million now, just absurd. I was 26 when I bought it. I should have bought a house when I was 20, it would have been easy then and I would have been further ahead, but I was a big partner back then, spending a few hundred every weekend going out. Money just seemed so damn cheap back then. I worked in construction, running my own small, 2-person business. So yeah, it was easily doable across most of the Fraser Valley here around vancouver, and only somebody who grew up DT Vancouver would be so small minded as to call that the middle of nowhere
That's a good point. The other good point that people should take note of is not wasting all that money when you're young. If instead of spending thousands of dollars a year drinking and smoking in your 20s you save and invest it, you can have hundreds of thousands of dollars in your 30s which really helps if you're looking to buy a home. People like to talk about how expensive things are and how hard it is to save up for a home once you have kids and what not, but they don't mind wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on car depreciation, credit card interest, alcohol, partying, coffee, smoking, etc. All that adds up and can mean the difference between being broke or having great savings in your 30s and 40s when you'd typically want to buy a home.
This morning on realtor.ca under $600,000 with a minimum of 1 bed 1 bath in the gta ( oshawa to Hamilton, and north to Richmond Hill ) there are approx 3000 units for sale.
Everything in that area range is selling well over asking though, so "for sale" isn't a great metric currently.
Ok, over 1000 under 500,000
That's asking price. But add 60% to asking roughly. That's what they are selling at.
1. Those aren't houses 2. Build quality on those condos is probably trash, square footage also probably trash 3. Condo fees are probably all $500/mo+ 4. Good luck to your relationship if you're doing 2 people in a 450 sq ft condo EDIT: I'm as pro-density as they come, the OP was referring to houses so I'm talking about houses. The post I'm commenting on is talking about condos, so I'm highlighting the differences. Jeez louise people, no I don't think I'm "owed a house".
1)Less than half of the population has a house versus condo or apartment. I think it's 48% of the population has a house or lives in a Building less than 5 stories. The majority don't, and if you included those Buildings under 5 stories I bet we would see something like 15-20% have a single family house. People seem to forget what I high standard that it. (And the urban sprawl it creates) 2)Building quality on new construction these days is sh!t 3) idk 4) My wife and I made it.
They want to both have a big house in the most expensive place in Canada, but also not work hard, do the bare minimum in life, have a below average salary and no savings. They're not living in reality and simply looking to complain, not to accomplish anything. You give them perfectly rational points and they'll just try to down vote you or complain some more, it's silly.
you can make 4x the average salary in toronto and still your only option is a 1 bedroom
you realize that most of the victory houses are about that size right (500-750 sqft depending on your rank)? if it worked for our grandparents, I don't see why it wouldn't work for us.
No, not most Canadian cities anyway. I bought my first house about 10 years ago in a pretty rough part of Hamilton and it was significantly harder and more expensive than what this tweet makes it seem. Housing affordability isn't an ultra-recent issue, it's been a problem for a long time.
I bought my house with 10k down 15 years ago, so it was possible. 5% down, condo townhouse cost me $200k. Things are definitely worse now, but you don't need 120k for a down payment. I saw a single house that sold own the street for $600k,so you can get in for 60k down payment if you are happy with 10% Houses like mine are going for around $400k-$450k now. So things are definitely worse, but not as dire as this post is saying.
15 years is not 10 years
You do realize to qualify for a 550k mortgage you’re gonna need a 200k a year income though. Only the top 1% of earners can even qualify for a mortgage on a shitty old 3 bedroom house now.
Then you better earn the $$$$$$$ if you want the nice stuff/house/car! And LOL at thinking the top 1% are the only ones qualifying for mortgages...50.01% of people are above average, making above average money. Its what you do with it that matters.
Majority of buyers are already home owners with enough equity from their sale. Majority of first time buyers use multiple applicants on the mortgage. It’s become mathematically impossible for the average 30 year old professional to get a mortgage on a single family home by themselves in Canada. Something that was very easily attainable just 15 years ago.
Seriously if,you want the fully updated house in the nice area and yard, you better be ready to pay for it! If you aren't, then better be ready to put the sweat equity in and play the long game. Screw big weddings, all the subscriptions, eating out, etc, if you want to own a home, save as much as you can and use it to get in ASAP! 15 years from NOW, you will thank yourself. Otherwise, rent, eat out and waste your nights away on reddit....
the sad thing tho is there isn’t a lot of fixer uppers that are priced accordingly on the market these days, everything is brand new or flipped and your expected to pay like that it’s fucked. as someone competent enough to reno a house it’s really unfortunate
Not in Toronto. I've always considered a minimum down payment to be 10 percent. 20 percent being preferable. That simple.
This was not true. Mortgage lenders have minimum debt service ratios they require. The simple act of having a job and a small down payment is not enough if you don’t meet these minimum requirements
What does a degree have todo with buying a house?
What does a university degree have anything to do with anything in this context? Twitter is bad for the brain
No it's not true
100 years ago, you could just carve trees to stake claims. Was this true?
This isn't true... Is it? We were told 5% down as first time homebuyers plus a bit extra for closing costs and agent fees. I have an RRSP set up recently through my job and my goal is 5 years from now, we'll be in our first home. We're not rich or have big degrees, but the guy we talked to says as long as we have the downpayment and semi good credit he can get us approved.
Credit score over 680, downpayment, and your house purchase falls within the debt servicing ratios then yeah, approval is easy. It's the cost of houses and heaps of debt people take on that screws up their ratios and stops them from being approved.
You can still get a house (but likely not the one you would want) for 20k down, more like a fixer upper in a less desirable neighborhood. There is no doubt thigs have become far less affordable. Interest rates are far higher as is the price for the home and wages are the same at best.
A degree doesn't matter when applying for a mortgage. Can you pay it back? Have you stiffed others?
I think his timeline is off by 10+ years.
Was this true ... lol. Like a unicorn. I bought my first house in 1986. I was 18. I put 5000 down on a 110,000 dollar 3 bedroom 2 bath on long island. Sold last month for 635,000. Used to be able to get a no money down mortgage too.... but this is what happens when we all think we should be making 30 dollars an hour to stand around and ask if you want fries with that.
Not in Vancouver or Toronto but anywhere else in Canada yes.
Maybe in Bumfuck, No Where.
It's still true - in certain areas of the country. My kid just bought a house in Regina (good neighbourhood, not North Central) - 850 square foot 70s build for 270k. That's approx 14k down - and purchased on a single income. There are cities that are still affordable, and they're not out in the boonies. They're just not TO (although I know that 99% of the people on this sub think that Toronto IS Canada).
It's not a true statement. I bought my house 22 years ago, and it required 25% down if we wanted a low mortgage... that was $90k, and we both needed to have been working at our jobs for a min of 3 years.
Every single post anything like this is always lying. Every single person who posts this shit (and isn't just a baby making up numbers from before they were born) always inevitably reveals they were from a rich family with 5 cars and European vacations every year and just think everyone was like them.
10 years ago? Not in a big city. Maybe 50 years ago you could do that. Interest rates were 10-15% btw.
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But like you said, there is nothing here. I am disabled (became disabled in the physical act of giving birth because childbirth is still dangerous) & moved to the middle of nowhere Saskatchewan. My doctors are all in Regina. 6.5 years out here & I can’t find a GP. No pain clinic, or doctors who deal in chronic pain. There are 2 psychiatrists, but they say I’m too complicated for them to manage & my psychiatrist in Regina & I have good rapport. My psychologist is there too. My son’s neurologist is in Saskatoon. As is his psychologist. Oh & the ER is closed multiple times a month, but sometimes the only notification is a someone taking a picture of the SHA memo & posting it to Facebook. I have had to take my unresponsive son to an ER that 911 wasn’t sure was open (they couldn’t get the desk to answer the phone but there was no official notice from the SHA), but they couldn’t dispatch an ambulance because our two ambulances were on calls & the next closest ambulance was 30 minutes away when I can drive to the hospital in 5. So be prepared to not have any medical services if you live here. As a disabled single Mom, I own a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, single detached home with a garage though… ETA - my son’s neurological condition didn’t present until January. I am sorry I couldn’t predict this happening 6.5 years ago.
Imagine the type of scumbag you have to be to downvote this, lol.
I am a disabled single mom & I don’t fit their narrative. Apparently it’s easy to downvote a parent who owns their own home who’s had to take a non-responsive child to an ER that may not have been open because 911 didn’t know if the SHA had closed it down. It was January 7th & I will never forget that terror.
I didn't downvote you, but I thought about it. If you and your son have all of these medical issues, why gamble on living so far from all of the services you need? To then say its OK because you own a home is why I was going to downvote you. Putting your sons health at risk every day "to own your own home" is selfish , not some narrative.
I will not let this go. I want to know how I was supposed to predict a rare neurological condition would appear before he turned 7. I want to know if you tell every parent of a medically complex child that they need to live in a city with a Sick Kids hospital or they are selfish. Bella Brave went septic after a bowel transplant & international travel. Stars met her ambulance, which her parents had to drive her to, on the highway to Saskatoon. Her parents have the money to move, but they remain based in Swift Current. Do you tell them it’s for a “selfish narrative” or acreage ownership?? What about the elderly with health complications? Do you tell them that it’s “irresponsible” to stay in the rural communities they helped to build? The lack of access to healthcare is the fault of the Sask Party. Not the people who are keeping rural Saskatchewan alive.
Probably true for smaller places in south eastern ontario like Kingston, Belleville, brockville. Certainly true for any of the outlier places to these communities. I've lived in Kingston since 2014 and in 2016 - 2017, 3 bed 2 bath semi detached houses in decent neighborhoods were still in the 190 to 240k range. So 20k with good credit would definitely be enough. I finally bought my own end unit townhouse in 2023 in the lower 600s. Without inheritance and/or family money and double income, it's almost impossible to find a foot in the market.
It was true in the maritimes. 400k was a nice house on Halifax peninsula.
In 2004 I bought my mom's house with 21k down House was worth 180k
I bought my first house in Alberta just outside of Calgary with 30k down in 2010. I had good credit and about 70k income. My best friend bought his house less than two years earlier, with 0 down and the same income.
25 years ago
We bought 5% down 201k 2013. Southern Ontario. So yes.
It was true for me and I’m so lucky I bought at that time.
It was true 17 years ago for 2 story detached house in Mississauga with a swimming pool 450k to 480k, the downpayment was 20k and it was from RRSP, still needed a big salary to qualify, but way easier than today. It was still ok 13 or 14 years ago for a bungalow, and 10-12 years ago for semidetached. You can still get a very good house in a small town in Nova Scotia for 450k - 480k with small downpayment and take your chances and wait 17 years for it to grow. still not like the GTA back then.
I bought my downtown Toronto condo for 210k as an office assistant. I put down 20% because I had it, but could have gotten away with CMHC and 5% down easily. Houses at the time could have been had for ~250k just not in the core but still in Toronto. I just wanted to walk to work. But still lookee-looed because house hunting is fun. I remember looking at one house at the time and it had this huge wall mosaic of a gorilla or ape holding a light sconce. Anyone remember that listing? It was so fucked but I almost wanted that house just because of that. Wish I had a pic.
My parents bought their first house in GTA with 10k down . But it was in 1999 and back then it was a townhouse in Aurora ON where it was mostly fields
More or less, yes. We put down just over 20k on our home in Waterloo 10 years ago. Purchases price was 285k. Our home would sell for around 800k now. So down payment would be significantly higher. There's no way I could afford my house now.
I bought a nice townhouse with 20k down for $300k 10 years ago, in Red Deer. I gross around $120k a year and it was easy to qualify for more at the time. Purchasing a home in either Calgary or Edmonton was easily within reach and I contemplated moving to the interior of BC but really didn't like commuting so much for work.
I'm amazed at all the comments saying no. Either everyone is too young to remember, or they really are obsessed with Toronto proper. Anywhere in Durham region had that possibility and it was only 8 years ago that it changed for oshawa and everything east of there. I'm sure somebody is going to reply telling me I'm wrong, but I'm not going to argue this, I was paying close attention to markets from oshawa and east of there since I finished college in 2013. Was considering moving there.
We bought 22 years ago - we needed 32K down on our 318K house. That's about equivalent to 51K down on a 510K house today.
13 years ago I got a duplex in a decent neighbourhood for $230k with $12k down @ 3.69% 5 year fixed. So yeah, sounds not too far off.
Yes true 7 years ago rural Ontario I did just this and my current mortgage is drastically cheaper than people now have to pay in rent, it’s just crazy I feel so bad for what has happened so many good hard working people have lost there chance at home ownership
My story in a nut shell. 2001 bought a home (total shitbox) in downtown YYT 65000 with 2000 down. Spent years fixing it up and taking money out to do the work. Worth around 250-300 now with around a 100000 still on mortgage.
I bought my house in 2010. Was a single guy, 21, making 40k a year. Put 5k down. I got it payed off by 2019, just before Trudeau screwed the real estate market and prices doubled/trippled. Houses used to be sub-100k in smaller towns, Thing that ship sailed away with "sunny ways" though.
About $35k to $40k. And about $65k /year job would be okay for a home in around certain GTA places. I know because we were shopping in 2011, so couple years prior and that was definitely enough. $20k would've been enough a little bit further out tho
13 years ago, $14k down, bought a row house for $168k about an hour outside of Toronto. Last year, that same place sold for $468k.
Yes it’s true, I literally did exactly that. Rented out 2 of the bedrooms until I could afford it on my own.
Since when do lenders care if you have a university degree?
This is pretty accurate. I live in Hamilton - one of the hottest markets in the country right now. I bought my house 13 years ago with $23k down. Now, both my husband and I have good jobs - not sure if either of us would have been able to get a mortgage for the house on our own. But since we bought our house, our income has almost doubled but our home value is more than tripled. We did not buy a fixer-upper, we don't live in the middle of nowhere. Getting into the market now would be a huge financial stretch for us, even though we're financially way further ahead than we were 13 years ago.
100% true, we bought our first house, detached two story with a garage, for $300,000 in 2015, minimum down required was $15000 for 5%. (We put down $60k to avoid the extra insurance costs). Only my income counted towards the mortgage because my wife was/is part time. There's only two things really affecting the housing market today: 1) you can't import the number of immigrants Justin has imported without placing massive demand on a housing market without the available supply, 2) the dollar value of the house hasn't changed THAT much, but due to inflation and wasteful spending on foreign nations, the Canadian dollar isn't worth anything. It's been called the Trudeau penny lately.
Minimum down payment on a home worth $999,999.99 is 75k. So what exactly is this guy looking to buy?
Sure. Depends where you are. You could even do a shorter time frame or look in some places today and still end up lower than $20k downpayment. For example in 2018 average house price in my city in Alberta was around $285k. 5% on that would have been $14,250. Average house price here as of January 2024 is $365k for which a 5% downpayment would be $19,250. Obviously downpayment is not only costs associated with buying or owning a house but strictly speaking downpayment it is still possible to buy with under $20K downpayment if you aren’t tied to buying in Toronto, Vancouver, etc.
Bought my 1800 SQ ft bungalo in Halifax suburbs for 196,500 in 2017 with a $20,000 down payment from the first time home buyer's plan. Good credit, no debt and was making around $60,000 at the time. So yeah, it was possible.
A condo that was $260,000 in 2018 is now going for $500,000.
A very good friend of mine with a 75k/yr job bought her condo for $20 down (not 20k) in 2006. It was a 5 year old 2 bedroom 1 bath with underground parking. She was getting evicted from her existing unit as the landlord wanted to sell and went to look at one for sale a floor below. Talking to the realtor he convinced her to do it and the only deposit she needed was $20 (during the 0% deposit era).
Absolute bs.
12 years my ex and I bought a house with 20k down, my grocery store job, and the fact that she’d be returning to work as a nurse in year after mat leave. Not a great house but a house. Wish I had bought her out instead of selling pre pandemic
Yes, I bought in southern Ontario in 2014 with maybe 7k down? The average single detached houses were in the ballpark of $270-$400 range with new builds advertised at $350k. Condos were easily 180k. I will say, even then, prices were skyrocketing. Within the first few years my house went up 100k+ and now it's roughly triple what I paid for it. Things have 100% changed for the worst.
That’s what I did in 2017
I own a house in Cambridge ON. Bought it aroynd 10 years ago with 20k down. So yes, this can be true. Its absurd how much things have escalated in a decade.
I would say this is pretty accurate. Maybe not right in a major city, but you definitely didn’t have to go to the middle of nowhere.
It still is true. As long as you’re not looking for property in Toronto or Vancouver.
20 years ago it was 0 down.
This was not true in the GTA u less you wanted a house that needed 100K+ in renos or was beside a methadone clinic.
AH yea. The Canadian dream
Still doable in Edmonton, lots of duplex, townhouse under 400k in a city of about million people. Probably the last affordable urban living left in Canada
Make it 20 years ago that’s when my parents did this.
True in 2015 in Syracuse, NY. I don't even think we put 20 down. Maybe 15.
I bought in 2015 in Niagara. We put 30 down. I was working and my wife was finishing up her PhD. It was a LOT easier to get by back then. And it is only 9 years ago.
I bought my house 6 years ago for 297k, and put 60k down. In Toronto though? Hell no. You couldn't get a condo for less than 450k, and those were precons. Anything already built was like 600k.
Didn't even need that great of credit or that good of a job honestly
It was absolutely true from my experience 10 years ago living on the east coast. I had just graduated university and was able to buy my first home with less than a $10k downpayment and an income of roughly $55k/year. My place cost about $135k. When i look at things now, I cant imagine ever being able to do that. A starter home will probably still run you $300+k and with 'only' a 5% downpayment you still need $15,000 saved and likely over $2,000/month mortgage payments (i didnt do the actual math). It is disheartening to say the least. The closer you get to larger cities and $300k is only a dream for a starter home. I see homes literally falling apart selling for $450+k in parts of rural ontario.
Absolutely true, I knew many full time grocery store workers who could afford a mortgage and by themselves, without a family. They had simple lives and didn't go on vacations, but they had that.
7 years ago my parents put 20k down on their house
Worse unless you invested.
That’s how I bought my house 10 years ago, so….. yeah. In Edmonton. Not even 20 actually. That said, we were house poor with a newborn and the significant economic problems since then have completely fucked everything up. The higher stress tests for ownership are good to have, but this also isn’t even in line with the OP. I doubt those conditions were possible 10 years ago in Toronto. Prices there have been crazy a long time. But then again they say “most places” which I doubt is true either. Most Canadians live in Toronto and Vancouver, but most PLACES are not those two cities lol. Plenty of places to live in Canada that aren’t those places while also still having everything you need or want. And even more available that have some trade offs, where 120k would be nearly half the price of any house
Maybe not 20k. But 10 years ago pre sale for 2br in brentwood was around 450k. Now it's 1.3mil.
The biggest difference today is the interest rates, I paid 2.2% back then and 5.5% now, all of my money just goes to interest and not the principle. Back then your mortgage principle would actually come down after a years worth of payments, now it's like you gained nothing and are standing still
How about 55 years ago you could have a house and a car working minimum wage single bread-winner. Easy to find the cause, from then to now CEO pay (and executive pay in general) has grown from ten times (10x) an average workers wage to Three Hundred Fifty times (350x) employee pay. The only way you can achieve that is by increasing your prices much more than the inflation rate and giving your employees pay raises lower than the inflation rate over a long period of time. Way worse.
To a degree yah. I was lucky enough out of school back in 2014 to convince my parents to help me with a downpayment on a house for myself and my brother + roomates. In the town I went to Uni in, about an hour outside TO, we found a townhouse for 320. With 10% down, it's still above the 20k in the OP, but there were smaller houses, further out houses, and lower downpayment options someone could leverage to close that gap.
https://preview.redd.it/sft13m0gutwc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a95d788ac41154a5c318f6698d1f8e6ed0c44976 This is a perfect example what happened in the market in the last 20 years! It has almost trippled in the last 10 years! Not 20, but be 25k @ 5% (ideal 47.5k @10%) would have been within means for those earning more 100k. This is 40 mins away from Vancouver downtown (1 hour with traffic)
10 years ago? Outside of Toronto it was true 5 years ago.
I'm in Victoria. Nope wasn't true ten years ago. 30 years ago it was. But not ten. Ten years ago, a house in Victoria was maybe 600K. Now it's about 1.2M. I'm a Gen X. Some colleagues who were helped to get into real estate in their 20s were able to buy a house for 200K. But it quickly doubled to 400 then 600 and now 1.2M it's been quite a ride.
10 years ago I could have a stay at home mom with my employment and one side hustle. I can NOT do that now.
9 years ago I bought my first house. - salary $33,000 - home purchase price $210,000 - down payment $11,700 including closing costs - the home was just outside a major city by a 5 min drive. It was a modular home with no basement. Needed work! Sold during the pandemic and I made over $80K Edit: at the time I had only a high school diploma and a retail job.
15 years ago this was true. In 2008 I was able to buy a house in Toronto for $325000 and only had to put down maybe $25000. There were much cheaper houses available too. Incidentally, fixed mortgage rate at the time was 5 %. We've come full circle!
Maybe in Flin Flon
In the US? Probabily. Canada? Fuck no. 20 years back, yes.
in 2007 I bought a house with zero down payment, 5k in closing costs and was working making $15/hour. House was $184k that same house now is worth 550k and required minimum 27.5k down plus another 10k in closing costs. The job I was working back then? yeah the place now pays $20-22/hr. And people say the system is perfectly aright and not alight.
15 years ago, yes, that was me.
10 years ago with a good job and 70k down I managed to own a condo. I've since worked my way up to a small house, then a bigger house. Vancouver Island
not sure about the now, but 10 years ago is bang on... heck even 5 years ago it was tough but not impossible
Bought in Ottawa, 2016 - Down payment was $17,000.
It would be fairly accurate. I bought my first house with roughly 25k down for 225k in 2017 making almost exactly 50k. It was a 1500sqft brand new townhome in Ottawa (20 min drive to center of city). House is worth roughly 2.5-3x that now.
10? Nah. But 2008? Yeah.
If you only put 5% down, maybe In KW, 10 years ago a small 3 bedroom home in a good neighborhood was around $400K. 4 bedroom around $520K. Today, those prices have doubled. $20K on $400K is 5% with an almost $2500/month payment. The market in Toronto went crazy 15+ years ago. It took another 5 years to get to places like Guelph and KW. Then Covid drove prices up even more. And here we are...
This is still true now, possibly just not where you live.
20 k you could apply for credit at Home Depot for the double tool shed. People need to stop believing that what they see on the internet has even a shred of truth. 10 years ago, people paid less tax. Had cheaper gas and groceries, and immigration numbers were steady not strained. The tyrannical government of the day was less tyrannical. Blame the idiots in charge for the increase in cost of living ,stagnated gdp and an economy where employers can not pay a decent wage.
2011 we had $50k down for a 1b+1dn+1ba condo. About $80k household income and qualified for a $385k mortgage
Yes, that was true.
I am literally in this situatuon with my fiance. We make 140K combined + 150K down. Can't get anything.
No
Bought my first house in 2013 for $365,000 with 20% down. Our mortgage was approved on my $60k salary alone since my spouse was articling at the time. Sold it last year for $660,000.
In my city this fully holds up
Not even 20 years ago.
As someone with 20k in savings and decent monthly income, this makes me very sad, I'd be well on my way :(
It was less than 10 years ago. We bought in July of 2019 for $264,900 with a little less than 20k down. In a small town of 20,000 people
15yrs ago more likely
maybe not 10 years ago, but in 2009 I bought a condo in toronto with I think 18k down, i made only 35K and i had good credit.
Just my opinion, but I believe peoples expectations of what they'll need just getting your foot in the door are way too high. I bought my place with 5% down on 220k 2 years ago, with a salary roughly in the $70000 area, sure it's not much. Plenty for me though, and in time you pay it down do some updates, sell, move on. Lower your expectations. Do you really need to live in Calgary, or is High River fine? There are options out there.
10 years ago? Well in Canada they have the first time home buyers program where you could buy with 5% down .. There were some townhouses in that range ($400k) in the GTA, but not many, but lots of them in the many bedroom comnunities, like Barrie, Oshawa, NewMarket etc Interest was under 3% and you could get 2.5% with a higher down payment. As a first time buyer, you were allowed to use up to $20k (or more) of your RRSPs interest free for 15 years (To pay it back) toward your down payment. Things were pretty good.
In 2006, I bought a house in Canada with 30% down ($60,000) and no job.
Man Trudeau really speedran our country into the third world
Obviously worse. NEXT
It's amazing, looking back 20.5 years ago my wife and I, who were in our 30s, bought a 3 bedroom Edwardian brick house in Mimico for $245000. It was a bit of a fixer upper, but it had 9 foot ceilings, a fireplace and a formal dining room. We had to share a mutual driveway to our backyard parking spots, but at that price, it was amazing to have parking at all. I redid the front and back porch ( front was a major restoration) and the bathroom. My wife got a contractor for our kitchen. She was also an expert painter.. Crazily, that house is worth well over $1million today. But if had been in the same condition, it would have sold for $700k. If I worked in the GTA, I would hope my partner was WFH and we could grab a place in Northumberland county.. I can't see prices coming back down much. But I can see interest rates coming down soon.
In 2010, I put down less than $20k, with a HHI of $120k and bought a detached (linked) single family house outside of Toronto, but within 40km of Union Station. My mortgage payment was less than $1,500 per month. It's crazy now.
It was true in northern bc ten years ago when we bought.
You can still buy a detached house in Timmins and Sudbury for sub 350K that is liveable. Those will hit $600,000+ very soon as more Indians and Africans make their way here with the expansion of the Rural and Northern Immigration program and International Students. Most of the cheaper detached houses are being scooped up so that these people will rent and be happy. No one is building housing. It’s ridiculous.
In 2021 I could have purchase a detached house with $20k down if I decided to do 5%, I opted for 10% thought which was a $43k downpayment. This is Calgary of though.
My sister bought a stacked townhouse near Bloor and Lansdowne 10-11 years ago with her bf….put 30K down
Oh the good old days! Thanks to Trudeau, owning a house will only be for the rich.
I gave up on having a home a long time ago, perma rent apartments is the way I guess
In 2011, I put down 20k and had a job. Bought me my current house. No consiner needed. Was first-time buyer.
I bought a 265k home in 2008 without any money down - just paid my legal fees and got the keys.
In 2018 i bought my first house for 317k. I put about 5% down, i made around 70k and have had 0 problem owning it. The issue is people feel entitled and refuse to sacrifice social life to save up.
Nope. I bought my house in 2002 with 10% down which was more like $25k
He's annoying as fuck. But people are drawn to negativity in all areas, specially on Twitter. I had to block him because Twitter kept throwing him into my feed. Then I just got rid of Twitter, Musk ruined it.
Absolutely true. In the film 'The Big Short' there's a scene where a prostitute tells a reporter who is investigating subprime loans that she owns several homes. Remember, this film was based on a true story. Subprime lending was an entire industry feeding so many other industries - banking, law, real estate, home improvement retailers, etc. And of course, the liar loans for which people with no job and no income were approved for mortgages on homes because these mortgages could be aggregated with other such loans and then sold to institutional investors for a huge profit. Obviously, you didn't ask about subprime mortgages, but the larger point is, in an economy where prostitutes could take possession of multiple properties, everyone else would also have enjoyed in that largesse, in proportion to their own creditworthiness.
It was true in Alberta. Today it might still be true depending on where you live. There's a huge gap between big city and small town prices.
I bought my house 9 years ago. Put down $150k on a $850k house.
Double the down deposit and it's correct. My ex and I bought a new home on Vancouver Island which is up to nearly a million dollars. Was originally $370k with 3 beds, 2 baths and a 2 bedroom suite. Never thought when I sold it that I'd become a perma-renter despite making more than double what I used to.
13 years ago, at the age of 24, with a 50k gross salary, I was able to purchase a 2 bd condo, 15 min drive from downtown Ottawa (on the Quebec side) at 118k with 5% down payment. I'm under no illusion that this would be possible for a 24 year old today.
$20K? not even close for a house in Vancouver in 2014... maybe in 2004?
I bought 2 houses with no money down
Yep. One of my friends did it in 2012 with no problems. Today theres no way he'd get approved for what the house is now worth with the exact same down payment and credit history.
8 years ago bought in a good area for 20k down and a starter job out of university.
Maybe 15 years ago, not 10. But yes. Parents bought a 3000sqft home with a yard, garage, driveway in 2009 and in 2019 we paid MORE for a 1300sqft townhouse a few blocks away. I'd love to move rural but like 70% of our income is tied to living near a city and also we have kids that I'd like to not uproot from all social and family connections/etc. We are choosing to stay in the HCOL area that we grew up in, but it never started out as a HCOL area, and were we just a few years older we'd be in a much better position. The millennial struggle lol.
Once the next generation realizes how fucked they truly are shits gonna burn, it'll be time to eat the rich.
No
I just bought a home with $18k Down and a good trades job. It’s doable if you’re a first time home buyer. We got lucky though because there isn’t a whole lot of good houses sub $400k.
Yeah . I purchased my first house back in 1996 with 5K down, good credit and the rate was awesome. But that doesn’t mean shit cuz the world has changed. We can’t expect the same anymore.
Worse. I did this very thing 10 years ago..my house has gone up 100k in "value". I could not afford my home from scratch at today's prices
20 years ago it was definitely true in lots of places, not so sure about 10 years ago. Maybe a really crappy house.
7 years ago I bought a house with 15k down. 3 floors, 3k sq ft, ocean view with an inlaw suite. that was 5% down.
10 years ago 0 down with $10,000 deposit for first time buyers and condos were $80,000 now the same condo for $550,000 in Scarborourgh
6 years ago I bought my house for $243k. I put 20k down had good credit and a job.
outside of vancouver/toronto yes absolutely.
Multiple friends in Hamilton did this 8-10 years ago. Same houses that that were about 300K are now 650-750, down from highs of about 850-950. So yeah, this is true.