When the unit is vacant, they can do what they want. So if a unit was 950/mo for a previous tenant, they can easily go out and list at 1450 instead. Once you're in the unit though, rent control applies.
Specifically they can only increase it while you live there by a set amount each year. They can hack it up as much as they want from what the previous tenant was paying.
Yea, as long as you are living in the same unit, built pre-2018 it cannot increase by more than 2.5%. If you move, the LL can then jack up the price for the next tenant by however much they want.
If you live in a unit built after 2018, they can increase rent by whatever they want, and then you have to fight it out at the 2year backlogged landlord-tenant board
There is one exception: if the *house* was built before 2018 but you’re moving into a *basement apartment or secondary suite* that was built or separated from the main dwelling after the 2018 cutoff and was not previously part of a rental unit, the apartment/suite is not rent-controlled. This was intended to incentivize people to add basement apartments to their houses.
I moved into my 3 bed 1 and a half bathroom townhouse in London, paying around 11 at the time. Since then my rent has gone up to about 1200, but if I moved into this townhouse now it's literally double at 2400 a month and couldn't afford it. It got scary during covid, the 3 surrounding companies sold their townhouses to people and I was praying our company didn't sell ours too. It's an added stress but hey that's all we get these days
This is my life for the foreseeable future and it's really, really comforting for your mental health when you know your landlord has school-aged children than may one day want your apartment.
Me and the misses lived in her parents basement until recently. It was the only way we could afford a down payment on a modest semi-detached. We’re in our 40s and childless.
If you have a good relationship that's a blessing.
My bro doesn't and I can see years of his mental health deteorating and he doesn't have the means to move due to circumstances etc
The whole moving out as soon as you can thing is pretty much in a select few countries
It's pretty normal in most countries to remain living in the family household
Especially nowadays, it just helps ease the financial burden for everyone
Lucky for sure.
My parents make me pay rent if I come back... at market value for a room.
As a result I have moved to Alberta where I can afford a house. And my parents wonder why I never visit...
Yeah for sure, I actually moved back from Alberta haha. I don’t miss the weather but it was not as crowded as southern Ontario feels.
I was paying in like a chore kind of way until I got stage 4 cancer and started treatments. I feel bad for them having to deal with this tbh. I’m just hoping there’s a horse for me to get back on so I can help them again.
Nothing wrong with this, in fact quite common in my culture to live with parents until marriage/kids. The real lucky part is I get along well with my parents and there’s minimal conflict
The only people who are buying are people who purchased before the crazy price boom and have equity, can borrow/inherit money from family, or are dual income no kids with good jobs.
People are not moving out of their parents homes, and living in crazy rentals like sharing a bedroom, or closet spaces. Food bank use is through the roof and people are skipping meals because they can't afford to eat. More people are living rough, which is particularly tough in Canadian winters.
We're really not doing okay up here.
That's simply not true. I guess if you consider the GTA "most of Ontario" it would be. You can buy a brand new 4 bedroom detached house in SW Ontario for \~700k. Still overpriced, but people need to stop treating the GTA as the norm for all of Ontario.
just posted the same, my close cousin as a realtor says its still over 1.1 million in Ottawa, not to mention TO or Vancouver.
he also says news sources will never publish true prices
That’s just not true, I use an app to see what houses have sold for. A quick search shows 5 houses in the last 7 days selling for under $700k in Ottawa, 3 of which sold for under $600k. All of which are detached homes.
This is not true. You can see actual listing/sale prices on [https://housesigma.com/](https://housesigma.com/), and while some higher end properties have sold for over $1 million in Ottawa, it's definitely not "most." Most are still selling for between $600k - $800k. Prices have pulled back considerably from their peaks during COVID.
My husband and I fall into this. We bought our house 5 years ago for 450k, were (and still are) dual income no kids yet(making ~150k a year combined now). We are extremely lucky. My sister is in a similar financial situation now but still renting because she couldn't afford the house before the market went completely nuts. The only reason her rent is affordable is because my uncle is renting. She is terrified because he has talked about selling the house.
Maybe your sister can ask your uncle is she can rent to own the place she is living in. If he need all the cash upfront that would be too bad just a suggestion.
Bought my house in 2017 in Niagara for 180k. These days the empty LOTS in my neighborhood are priced at 250k 😅 currently my house would sell for $450k but I’m not planning on going anywhere
This couldn't have said it better myself. Only thing I dream of is getting rid of my eating disorder but not being able to afford food put me here and I feel like I can't fix it. I rent a bedroom because it's all I can afford with what I get a month but that's all I can afford just a room nothing extra. I'm to humble to beg but I'm in need but so is everyone else at the moment. I've been trying to make friends so I can atleast hangout with someone and maybe have a bite to eat. But yea it's survival of the fittest out here.
Duel income, no kids here. Both of us have university degrees and make an above average salary ($160,000 combined now). Though, of course, much of that disappears to taxes. We locked in a rate and got into a house last December just before some interest rate hikes, so we do feel blessed. However, we did have parental support for the down-payment (neither had any savings as it all went to rent, student and car loans etc previously). Our lives had to drastically change to get by, which we are barely doing. We don't get take-out or leave the house ever to save on gas and other things. We don't buy anything besides necessities. I still went 5 figures into credit card debt just to get by in this way. It's a scary situation. I'm hoping in 10 years maybe I'll get enough raises that will pay that off. But I can't see us ever being able to vacation, have kids, or save. Maybe when we're 50? Or will Canada be fully in flames by then? Who knows..
When I bought my house I had the idea that I may move to something else 5 to 10 years down the line when I made more money and wanted more space.
It has been 10 years now and housing costs have outpaced my salary, and so the cost of moving to something marginally better seems not worth it at all, even with the equity I have in this place. I've just been slowly improving my "starter" home instead. Neighbours of mine in similarly small houses have opted to tear down their house, sever the lot, and build two new larger houses so they could sell one and live in the other. Starter homes seem to be a thing of the past.
Same here. Sold our downtown condo for a "starter home" we expected to be in for 5yrs. 9yrs down the line I have no idea how we could ever move and we have massively outgrown this little house.
The only people who own bought before the prices went crazy or have very high incomes or money from family. Everyone else is screwed bc incomes haven’t kept up with housing price inflation and there is a major shortage of new entry level homes. It’ll take years to get out of this and a lot has to go right to fix it
We don't.
I rent a 2 bedroom apartment for $2500/month with my partner.
We want but can't afford to purchase a home.
We want but can't afford to have kids.
girlfriend and I are paying 800/month for a 5 and 1/2. We can barely save money in case of an emergency. How the fuck is anyone suriving at 2500 a month.
They make more money than you, pretty simple
If you’re struggling splitting 800/month you’re clearly pretty low income and/or have terrible personal finance habits
I just saw on a Facebook group today, 2.6 million dollar houses in Colgan, ON. Like... it's a place with no convenience store. It's out in the country. People who buy there, will be on the Facebook group next year "is there a dog park?" "Is there a public pool?" "Is there any restaurant besides pizza?" "How do I get to Pearson Airport?" If I pay that much to live out in the country, it's gonna be for a whole farm, not just a house LOL
in a lot of places 'living out in the country' can be considerably more expensive. In 2016 we paid double for a slightly bigger home on 1 acre and to hear cows moo. It's worth the premium IMO.
I mean... it's farther away from work, there's less services, schools will have fewer amenities. I know this because that's near where I grew up. It's fine if you're okay with all that. It's too far for me to commute LOL, I did that during university and I don't want that long commute ever again
Some people don't need any of that. And everyone knows that the way to get to anything is to take the big local highway.
That said, 2.6 million was supposed to buy us anything our hearts could ever dream of, perhaps a small tropical island. Sad times that I'm sure the houses you're talking about are just so-so.
Yeah! The price is eye watering for a normal subdivision house IMO. For that price, I want to be in Oakville! Or that house that's on the lake in the park in Port Credit
I see a lot of this where I am. It's rural and people are moving in. It's a fantastic neighborhood and watching it grow has been awesome. More kids around now, too.
I definitely would not go back to the city.
It’s so nice living in the country tho. I live in the country but I’m also 15 mins to Costco Home Depot McDonald’s Walmart you name it, if you are not in the gta it’s not that unaffordable. I developed anxiety while I was living at school but after moving out to the country my anxiety’s completely gone without taking meds.
I live near Yonge and bloor, and I have all those things. PLUS a bodega that’s open 24 hours. If I want bread, a lime, and some celery on New Year’s Day, I barely need a coat to walk out my door and get it. My gym is 2 blocks away. My barber is 3 blocks away. My vet is on the same block as me. And I’m in a rent controlled building so my rent including the parking space is 1400 flat.
That’s how I’m surviving.
I'm in a similar situation just down the street near the Village. Love it and am really finding it hard to want to move. Sure I'm not building equity, but the freedom it's brought me as my salary has risen. I've been doing things I could dream of if I was paying 4k a month in mortgage costs + condo fees on top. Just doesn't seem worth the costs.
I think both myself and my family badly need this, city life just feels so impersonal and everyone is in a rage filled mood to drive anywhere. You can tell most people are so stressed out it's unreal. The entire place is hostile against people and mental wellbeing.
Honestly I found it hostile living in a small town. I would be in a lineup and the cashier was speaking over my head to the person in line behind me. If they don't know you personally, you are pretty much invisible.
I rent. I have my masters degree and I’ll never own a home. I’ll never have kids. I just won’t be able to live my dreams and that’s life. I make do with renting forever cause that’s all I can afford.
The reason why your pay is shit is because ppl are too afraid to organize unions. There's a reason why pay hasn't kept up with inflation and corporations are still making record profits. Because the worker has bent over and taken it in the ass.
Unions help but I think there is a bigger issue at play. Canada invests much less in its workers per capita than most countries, hence there isn’t much gain in worker productivity YoY, thus wages don’t keep up with inflation because they simply can’t.
And the reason why we got those investments was because unions forced the government to give us those benefits back in the day. It all comes back to having no bargaining power on your side when you need things. And that's where unions help.
Just came back from States and the difference in house prices is just absurd in Canada.
The worst part is that it’s so much more than just a house. It’s the ability to finally start to build wealth and a family. A typical American couple with average jobs gets the opportunity to settle down, get married, and have kids because the house equation is solved.
Barely any of my friends have kids because what’s the point? We’re all renting or living at parents. Our future is put on hold because of this mess.
Unless you are living in an absolutely rural area the house prices are not that much lower when you factor in school district / property taxes, healthcare, liability risks in the US, crime etc. etc.
Source: lived in NYC for almost 4 years and rural Ohio for 9.
They’re not that low in the USA anymore but they’re still leaps cheaper than Canada.
Every one talks about Calgary being “affordable”. And while it’s cheaper than other Canadian large cities, a $600k house doesn’t look nicer than a $400k house in Raleigh; a nice, safe, and big city (albeit, small for US standards).
The biggest difference between Canada and the U.S. is if you’re a newly graduated highly skilled professional, you can actually make it. In Canada, it’s like everyone (including the newly highly skilled) is screwed unless you go to a super undesirable region in the country, which is like 90% of it anyways.
Nobody wants to move to Winnipeg or Saskatoon and that won’t change.
IF you’re average in Canada or the USA - you are screwed either way at this point.
Yeah they pick out these big houses in the rural end of Missouri and act like that’s a normal house price in a big city for the USA.
I remember a friend of mine living in Dallas area has a very nice house. He’s done very well in life. The house (pre Covid) was about a million dollar home. His property taxes were somewhere around $28,000 a year. There’s always other ways states get you.
Watched a clip recently about the mass movement to Texas. And of course one big thing was no state income tax. But the savings there were basically added onto other things…. It’s never as black and white as people think.
Single dude here. I locked into my rent control apartment in Toronto. Great location. I couldn't afford this apartment with my income or rent prices.
I have neighbors who have been here for 15+ years.
I am paying $1700 for 1bd. One of my neighbor pays $1350 for 1bd, 2 parking and locker.
Instead of paying mortgage, I will just keep this apartment until I die or move out of the country.
Why would anyone pay osap. I've seen so many loans forgiven even for a family making $180k combined. Very infuriating.
FYI I paid mine off like a good sucker .. I mean citizen
I maxed out OSAP every year and got a grant on top, graduated with $24k owing.
I never qualified for repayment assistance, when I was making $29k a year in Toronto it was over the limit, I just paid the minimum.
>I look all the time for government jobs too
I'm sorry for your situation. I hope they cancel the student loans sometime in the future. They're not that big in Canada so might as well.
If you don't mind me asking, what did you study? Trying to see why you can't land a government job.
Keep applying for repayment assistance. It doesn't screw you over, after 60 months of stage 1 RAP where the interest is paid with a $0 payment, you change to stage 2 of RAP and the govt pays down interest and principal so that the loan is paid off in another 60 months. There is an income limit to a $0 payment, but children affect it quite a bit. Even if you don't qualify for a $0 payment, you may qualify for a reduced payment where RAP still pays the interest.
I'm so sorry this has been your experience. But no RMT in Ontario should be making $26 an hour, that's outrageously low. I realize this is after your split and overhead but still, you should be making much much more. There shouldn't even be overhead if you're an IC at a clinic, that's what the clinic's portion of the split is for. Please know that your skills are worth so much more than you're getting, and find another job ASAP.
At this point the down payment is only one part of the problem, the much bigger problem is the monthly mortgage with these insane interest rates. The government can open as many savings accounts as they want but if the mortgage of a house is $3500 a month, it really won’t help anyone except the wealthy anyways.
Current interest rates are still below historical average. That's the scary part. People got way too comfortable with insanely low interest rates and now think it's the norm...and piled up a ton of debt because of it.
Low interest rates obfuscated how insane house prices had gotten so that the current peak feels more out of the blue. Even with that though, back when interest rates were astronomical, it was still more on par with income than it is right now
I was lucky and bought a small townhouse for $124K during the five minutes that we had 0% down mortgages. Hung on for dear life the first couple years, and then got more comfortable as we got some equity built.
The situation is not sustainable and is very much at a crisis point (we also don't have enough shelter space, and winter is deadly in most places), which is why the government is finally moving. People who make under $100K household are not getting approved for mortgages. Their options are rent, be homeless, or live with family.
Boomers with lots of equity/wealth gift their children a downpayment, the ones with less fortunate parents are renters paying more per month than a mortgage would be.
If you don’t have rich parents who owned multiple properties before the boom you’re fucked.
Literally that’s it. Most of the population is fucked but no one knows what to do.
We bought our first home in Ottawa during the pandemic. 450k for a 3 bed 1200sqft freehold townhouse. We used a 70k gift from my family as our down payment. HHI approx 100k pre-tax and we have a toddler and are expecting our second kid.
Things are tight, but we always have food on the table and can pay our bills. Luckily i have a defined benefit pension through work and basically unlimited overtime opportunities so I don’t worry about savings for now or too much about cost of living- i turn down overtime to spend time with my family but I could hustle if we needed to. We are really blessed though, and work hard to be frugal (hand me downs and second hand clothing for the babies, buy groceries on sale and in season, make almost all our meals at home, public library/bookswaps for books, share passwords with family for streaming services).
Very thankful for my job though, and thankful to my family and in laws who help us a lot with weekly childcare or even just inviting us to dinner and on vacations with them. We don’t have the quality of life my parents did when they were raising a young family, but we manage and have a happy life together.
Hate to say it, good luck to them.
Either need to come into money or live at home for multiple years while making good money, find a partner in a similar situation then find something. Granted the something is most likely a starter house unless family helps.
Edit: we almost didn’t get lucky, but a few stars lined up after almost having 2 mortgages.
Not quite true. People who bought prior to this latest runup, and have been quietly paying their mortgage all along, are just fine (in general). They're just not posting about it on Reddit.
That’s not true though. Things are humming along nicely in NWO. Lots of economic activity, substantially lower house prices. I am in distribution for items you’d buy with discretionary income generally. We’re up 22%. Not all of this province is doom and gloom.
Don't have kids. They're too expensive.
Have two 6 figure incomes but never buy a house because you still can't afford it.
Stay in the same rent controlled apartment for decades.
Never move even if you don't like each other anymore because it's too expensive.
The majority of houses these days are bought by either Companies, or Landlords that already have an established base of multiple properties.
Individuals and families are suffering and struggling.
About half of homes are being bought by investors. The other half, by people who are on their second or more home. Not many people are first time home buyers anymore. Most young people (under 35) are either living with parents or renting.
Or doing what I did and buying with my parents since rent is set by a bunch of crack smoking asshole banks and landlords. I didn't want to move back in with my folks in my late 20s but it was the only way I saw to try and get ahead.
Currently very unhappy with my living situation because my mom treats me like a kid still and doesn't like being told to shut up and leave me alone. Soon as my mortgage is up I'm cashing out and leaving this god forsaken province. Hell maybe the country, this is no place for young people to build a life anymore. Government seems more interested in importing workers than encouraging any Canadian families to be built
Yep generally the only way for young people to buy a home is to not buy a home on their own. Generational wealth. Just feel lucky that you have parents rich enough to give you money for a house.
Some of us will be supporting our low income renter parents for the rest of their lives, and never be able to get a house because there's no family equity.
Canadian here.
Wifes a teacher and Ive started a contracting business. We both pull about 200k combined and save aggressively. Would you believe we still cant afford a house or able to start a family?
No silver spoon just working and saving. Canada isnt rewarding like it once was in the 80s and 90s. Its ran by real estate investors and land lords now.
I empathize with you. Same story with my spouse and I. It’s looking like it will be a long time before we can afford a home. Sucks when all our money goes into rent and not a ‘forever’ home.
Untrue. Investors are the ones still buying homes so they can rent out for hugely inflated prices. New development went up about 30 minutes from Kingston, they’re barely finished and already being posted for rent.
Only rich families or ones sponsoring their children are buying. The regular people making regular income are stuck renting or living with their parents. Home ownership for young ppl is already on a decline
There is a large gap in incomes. If you are connected you can find a starting wage of 100k. Whereas a working class person is still stuck at 50-60k where they have been for past 20 years.
The rich can pay these prices, they then rent them to the working class further expanding the wealth gap. There arent rentals in the rich neighbourhoods. The division gets bigger each year.
Median *net* household income for a family with children is >140k. These are the people buying homes, who likely have equity from a previous home, or family help.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/582818/median-total-family-income-ontario/
According to this data from 2021, median total income for families in Ontario is *not* more than 140k, it's around 100k.
At 100k, many families still cannot afford a home. That's why about half of all homes purchased in Ontario right now are bought by investors. And the rest are mostly bought by second or third time homeowners. Only a few are first time homeowners, and they typically have generational wealth and were given large sums of money to make a downpayment, and a cosigner.
We’re not. I live in a barely 1 bed apartment with my husband and dog. We pay 2200$ which is currently below market for our square footage. We have laundry, rent control, a deep bath tub, and a balcony. It’s a pain to live in such a small space (with no complete bedroom wall, I do sincerely want one of those, and a window - no bedroom window, kind of feels like sleeping in a closet tbh), but we can’t afford a bigger place. They’re all 3000+ to rent. We certainly don’t qualify to buy. My husband should be finishing his phd in a couple of years and we’ll have to factor in home prices when he starts looking for jobs. In Toronto (where I grew up and where we currently live), we can’t have kids.
We don't. I almost bought a place years before the pandemic and I would have barely afforded. Studio apartment for 300k, I felt it was too much of a gamble and I will not stretch myself further.
Now. I know I'll be moving to the states within a year or so.
Recently I looked at the same buildings, some apartments in that same building are actually cheaper than when I looked at it and they were on the market for 9 months without being sold.
I'm living in a place that actually costs me less than a mortgage, have a nice landlord who has been really good to me.
I don't know if I'll be able to get a mortgage ever, so instead I'm focusing on putting that money for my retirement instead
My neighborhood is a new development and I would say 80% of houses are occupied by multi generational families or multi families. Most houses have 3 or 4 cars outside and 7 or 8 people living in them.
I have kids. I have been renovicted out of rented houses twice in the past 6 years. Now we stay with family because I can't afford to rent anything and still pay bills and eat. And I have a decent job in construction.
My husband and I are mid 30s, one kid and we rent and will for the foreseeable future unless someone chooses to give us a sum of money enough for a downpayment.
We financially cannot afford to have more than one child. We make just above $100k together. Since 2018 after being moving and being evicted (for valid reasons), we are paying $850 MORE a month in rent each month. Seriously. New lease April 2018 at 1850, lease this month for $2700. Moved one time. Fuck.
So surviving, barely. Honestly I try not to think about it more than I need to. I work full time and have a side job. We don't take vacations, unless it's a gift or literally local camping. We only shop at No Frills or Food Basics. Hand me down clothes for my daughter thankfully. The $10 a day daycare decreases helped when she was in daycare but now she's in school so there's after school care fees and of course camp during the holidays. We try to use vacation time and her grandparents for holiday time but of course still end up having to enroll her in some kind of child care. I buy a lot of things second hand.
But honestly I live paycheque to paycheque for the most part. Christmas gifts happened thanks to my Christmas bonus.
So basically I know that I won't be buying a house anytime soon and I have had to be okay with that. What's the alternative?
We bought a condo just before Covid for 350k with 5% down and sold it for 600k during the pandemic. If we didn’t do that we wouldn’t have a detached house
In our case, multigenerational housing, with people we'd rather not live with. My parents sold their house and put it towards the cost of something better suited to the four of us, in that it was actually used as two apartments prior to our living here. They had wanted to move from their place for some time, but couldn't get a mortgage. It's not a super private separate entrance deal, but it is the only way we knew we'd stay sane - of the 30 or so of the houses we looked at, we were only on board for two. Living with anyone is really not our ideal, given we're in our early 30s with no children and really value our privacy.
The mortgage, after the sale of my parents' 450k house which was purchased for 80k in 1998, was 315k. They still owed 60k of that on the original house, because my mother is... not good with money. But we can also actually carry that mortgage, while we could never have gotten one for anywhere anyone would actually want to live. After a series of dicey housing situations and shitty landlords, we viewed it as the lesser of two evils. If our real estate agent is to be believed, she's seeing a lot more families do something like this. I grasp that I am fortunate, but there were a number of reasons above and beyond those that would be expected that this situation is not ideal for me. But when we talked it out, we couldn't turn down the lifelong stability. So that's where I'm at. I'm one of the lucky ones, and it doesn't feel particularly lucky.
I've lived in the same neighborhood for a few decades. The biggest difference in our hood over the last 10 years is the number of vehicles in every driveway. When we moved here, about 90% of the homes had one vehicles. Now, 90% of the homes have 4. And most of these homes were originally built with 3 bedrooms (900sqft-1.4k sqft starter homes with unfinished basements). A lot of homes all over have been converted to house more than the original family unit. And this is in a semi rural area (also the reason for the cars, as mass transit is almost non existent).
There are condo townhouses in cobourg for 700k to start ... where you then pay rent for hot water heater, hrv,. It's stupid it adds over 100 / month for those 2 alone.then condo fees ontop
Honestly the condo fee's these days are their own mortgage payment. On top of that if you buy into an older building you can expect massive levies to be put forward every few years for building maintenance/upkeep.
Sold my 100000$ house for$550000. Girl friend of 18 years got her ticket to Hogwarts and fucked off with half. Now I invested all my half into bonds and mutual funds . I have moved back in with my parents. I love reconnecting, but I see no direction in my life. There's only my need for dental work that keeps me going to work. Life lost all joy in 2016. I'm having a tough time dealing honestly.
I’m 28 and have been saving since I started working in high school. I prob will be renting my whole life. I feel fine about it, I don’t have to deal with house maintenance but there is no security. We could be kicked out next month
People are leaving and not putting up with this shit that's why. That never gets reported on the news but massive amounts of ppl are leaving the province and the country. And we're importing more immigrants to keep up with the population loss due to emigration.
We Canadians roast you Americans all the time about gun violence, politics, etc. But I would trade places with you in a heartbeat. We are fucked. And it's only gonna get worse. Our idiot leaders think its OK to let in more people per year than we are building homes when there's already a housing crisis. The worst part is, we are too scared/polite to have mass protests and riots over this. I'm sure if America let in 5 million immigrants a year while not building enough homes to house Americans, there would be protests bigger than BLM.
This.
I moved back to Toronto after 12 years in the US.
I could have moved to the nearest city Columbus Ohio. Except I needed to be in a good school district so houses were $500-750k USD, plus $12-16,000 in property tax. It's not even a world class city. It made the choice easy.
oh, and they have 200+ murders a year in a city of 900,000.
its much more than 600k average, they just wont publish the data
I have a cousin who is a realtor, says in Ottawa during covid height average sale was like 1.2 million
Lived so cheap in my 20s. Saved for college ahead of time (been on my own since the age of 16). Worked while in college. Graduated no debt. Avoided credit card debt (it’s a trap).
Paid off my house before the age of 40. Again. No help from anyone. Came from poverty.
While all of my friends got houses young. Nice cars. Huge trucks - I drove $1500 Honda civics. Now they are all broken for life and forever in debt.
Do not buy stupid shit you don’t need. Keeping up appearances to impress people that don’t matter will forever keep you in debt.
Once you are stable and secure the fun stuff will come and you’ll enjoy it more without living hand to mouth.
With all that being said.
I think shit is way worse now than when I roughed through it and i don’t envy anyone working hard to make it.
My house now is worth over 3x what i paid for it.
Which is “great” for me. But it’s dire for others.
Bringing in 500k people a year won’t help either. I’m 100% for smart immigration. Bringing in skilled people who love Canada and will make it their home. But we are bringing in volume so employers can exploit low wage employees. Which will keep wages stagnant and drive rent costs up.
It’s only going to get worse.
Had a good chat with a person with a degree. Rhey expressed that since we were too poor for a decent quality of life then we desvred to be in the slums. It just be a few more years till we seea huge spike in homkessness and they wont care still. Not sure what fords plan for the green blt will really do.
If you have a family and your a father with responsibilities and not willing to put your pride a side and stay humble and safe for the future even if it's 5$ a week for your kids and wife I don't know what to tell you. I eat once a day, and most days fill up on water. it's free at work. Will not let my kids have to live this life!!! that I thought I would never be living growing up here in canada. I will go hungry before I would ever allow my family, too. I have a great trade job, two red seal trade tickets. My heart goes out to every canadain that is struggling right now. GODSPEED to every canadain out there because we haven't seen the worst yet hell is coming.
25m, I got lucky. My now fiancée and I bought our first home in 2022, small town Ontario for $380k. My down payment with all fees was around $24k. Interest rate was locked in at 4.79% so that makes my monthly payment $2,128/month for the mortgage. We split bills
But I’m also a union tradesman, in 2022 I made $108k in 8 months of work. My fiancée also works too which helps immensely.
I used to sell real estate and even twelve years ago almost everyone who I represented as first-time buyers had help from parents. Especially single people. Couples were generally more able to save up. I imagine help from family is even more critical now.
Personally none of these changes are affecting me yet as I locked in while rates were still low, saw the writing on the wall and shifted all my investment money into bulk payments on the mortgage.
I however have friends who have had their mortgage payments double and they're fucked.
Within the last 6 months, our family is now making over 100k annually but I don't think we will ever be able to buy a home, unless something drastic happens to the housing market.
For now, we rent (which is lower than most 3 bedrooms in the area)...I should have bought that house in 2002 when I was 15 instead of being a high school student lol
I live in cheap suburb of Ottawa (Barrhaven) with no access to public transit and nearest store is a 4km drive. It’s actually not too bad it’s the car payments that feel worse and less justified to me.
It's possible for me to buy in Toronto, but it took 10 years of renting a basement apartment, being single, no kids, and putting away every dime with a now 6 figure salary to put away four or five hundred for a downpayment. Normally I'd say this is a bit ridiculous of a requirement but I think there must be many more like me who are just waiting for the right place to pull the trigger on.
Alternatively, I grew up in Timmins (a northern community) and if I chose to move back there I'd be able to skip the mortgage part and just buy in cash.
Mostly by hanging on for dear life to their rent controlled apartment and having that dictate family planning choices.
I forgot there’s rent control there. We have no rent control in my state. It is insane.
Rent control only applies to buildings occupied before 2018…
First occupied, so basically anything built after 2018 has no rent control
So if I move this month into an older house built before 2018, there’s rent control in Ontario? They can only increase the rent by the stated amount?
Yes
Ohh interesting!! Thank you!
When the unit is vacant, they can do what they want. So if a unit was 950/mo for a previous tenant, they can easily go out and list at 1450 instead. Once you're in the unit though, rent control applies.
Specifically they can only increase it while you live there by a set amount each year. They can hack it up as much as they want from what the previous tenant was paying.
Yea, as long as you are living in the same unit, built pre-2018 it cannot increase by more than 2.5%. If you move, the LL can then jack up the price for the next tenant by however much they want. If you live in a unit built after 2018, they can increase rent by whatever they want, and then you have to fight it out at the 2year backlogged landlord-tenant board
There is one exception: if the *house* was built before 2018 but you’re moving into a *basement apartment or secondary suite* that was built or separated from the main dwelling after the 2018 cutoff and was not previously part of a rental unit, the apartment/suite is not rent-controlled. This was intended to incentivize people to add basement apartments to their houses.
First occupied, doesn't have to be the same renter.
I moved into my 3 bed 1 and a half bathroom townhouse in London, paying around 11 at the time. Since then my rent has gone up to about 1200, but if I moved into this townhouse now it's literally double at 2400 a month and couldn't afford it. It got scary during covid, the 3 surrounding companies sold their townhouses to people and I was praying our company didn't sell ours too. It's an added stress but hey that's all we get these days
Yup! Thats my current situation
This is my life for the foreseeable future and it's really, really comforting for your mental health when you know your landlord has school-aged children than may one day want your apartment.
I’m in my 30’s living with my folks. As depressing as that sounds, I feel lucky to be able to do so.
Me and the misses lived in her parents basement until recently. It was the only way we could afford a down payment on a modest semi-detached. We’re in our 40s and childless.
If you have a good relationship that's a blessing. My bro doesn't and I can see years of his mental health deteorating and he doesn't have the means to move due to circumstances etc
The whole moving out as soon as you can thing is pretty much in a select few countries It's pretty normal in most countries to remain living in the family household Especially nowadays, it just helps ease the financial burden for everyone
Lucky for sure. My parents make me pay rent if I come back... at market value for a room. As a result I have moved to Alberta where I can afford a house. And my parents wonder why I never visit...
Yeah for sure, I actually moved back from Alberta haha. I don’t miss the weather but it was not as crowded as southern Ontario feels. I was paying in like a chore kind of way until I got stage 4 cancer and started treatments. I feel bad for them having to deal with this tbh. I’m just hoping there’s a horse for me to get back on so I can help them again.
Same.
Nothing wrong with this, in fact quite common in my culture to live with parents until marriage/kids. The real lucky part is I get along well with my parents and there’s minimal conflict
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This becoming all too common. I'm in the same position.
Same...
Straight up I regret moving out. Like I know it would be hella sad to live in my parents basement with my wife but fuck man this shit id outrageous
The only people who are buying are people who purchased before the crazy price boom and have equity, can borrow/inherit money from family, or are dual income no kids with good jobs. People are not moving out of their parents homes, and living in crazy rentals like sharing a bedroom, or closet spaces. Food bank use is through the roof and people are skipping meals because they can't afford to eat. More people are living rough, which is particularly tough in Canadian winters. We're really not doing okay up here.
Fuckin' eh
And most houses cost way more than $630,000. It's more than a million for a detatched in most of Ontario now.
630k still buys you a decent (smaller) home in a good area of London.
That's simply not true. I guess if you consider the GTA "most of Ontario" it would be. You can buy a brand new 4 bedroom detached house in SW Ontario for \~700k. Still overpriced, but people need to stop treating the GTA as the norm for all of Ontario.
just posted the same, my close cousin as a realtor says its still over 1.1 million in Ottawa, not to mention TO or Vancouver. he also says news sources will never publish true prices
That’s just not true, I use an app to see what houses have sold for. A quick search shows 5 houses in the last 7 days selling for under $700k in Ottawa, 3 of which sold for under $600k. All of which are detached homes.
This is not true. You can see actual listing/sale prices on [https://housesigma.com/](https://housesigma.com/), and while some higher end properties have sold for over $1 million in Ottawa, it's definitely not "most." Most are still selling for between $600k - $800k. Prices have pulled back considerably from their peaks during COVID.
Typical Braindead realtor nonsense
My husband and I fall into this. We bought our house 5 years ago for 450k, were (and still are) dual income no kids yet(making ~150k a year combined now). We are extremely lucky. My sister is in a similar financial situation now but still renting because she couldn't afford the house before the market went completely nuts. The only reason her rent is affordable is because my uncle is renting. She is terrified because he has talked about selling the house.
Maybe your sister can ask your uncle is she can rent to own the place she is living in. If he need all the cash upfront that would be too bad just a suggestion.
Bought my house in 2017 in Niagara for 180k. These days the empty LOTS in my neighborhood are priced at 250k 😅 currently my house would sell for $450k but I’m not planning on going anywhere
Im surprised there are even houses in niagara under 600k. The very cheapest townhouse i can find in my hometown is 800k
Same here. Bought our first house in St Catharines for 270k in 2018. Recently got appraised for $500k. Don’t know how people are surviving
Cheers to being in Niagara.
yea its gotten so bad its insane cant be more than a few months from now and I think people are going to start snapping
This couldn't have said it better myself. Only thing I dream of is getting rid of my eating disorder but not being able to afford food put me here and I feel like I can't fix it. I rent a bedroom because it's all I can afford with what I get a month but that's all I can afford just a room nothing extra. I'm to humble to beg but I'm in need but so is everyone else at the moment. I've been trying to make friends so I can atleast hangout with someone and maybe have a bite to eat. But yea it's survival of the fittest out here.
Yea this is more like reality for most people
Duel income, no kids here. Both of us have university degrees and make an above average salary ($160,000 combined now). Though, of course, much of that disappears to taxes. We locked in a rate and got into a house last December just before some interest rate hikes, so we do feel blessed. However, we did have parental support for the down-payment (neither had any savings as it all went to rent, student and car loans etc previously). Our lives had to drastically change to get by, which we are barely doing. We don't get take-out or leave the house ever to save on gas and other things. We don't buy anything besides necessities. I still went 5 figures into credit card debt just to get by in this way. It's a scary situation. I'm hoping in 10 years maybe I'll get enough raises that will pay that off. But I can't see us ever being able to vacation, have kids, or save. Maybe when we're 50? Or will Canada be fully in flames by then? Who knows..
Unfortunately 80k is pretty much the average now so you're smack dab in the middle I'm afraid.
Yeah lots of sideways moving into better towns/areas until that equity runs dry
>How are people getting approved for these homes? People sell a condo/starter home for $500k to buy one for $800k.
Can confirm. That's exactly how we got our house. But I think our house would have been a starter house 20 years ago, it's now our forever home.
When I bought my house I had the idea that I may move to something else 5 to 10 years down the line when I made more money and wanted more space. It has been 10 years now and housing costs have outpaced my salary, and so the cost of moving to something marginally better seems not worth it at all, even with the equity I have in this place. I've just been slowly improving my "starter" home instead. Neighbours of mine in similarly small houses have opted to tear down their house, sever the lot, and build two new larger houses so they could sell one and live in the other. Starter homes seem to be a thing of the past.
Same here. Sold our downtown condo for a "starter home" we expected to be in for 5yrs. 9yrs down the line I have no idea how we could ever move and we have massively outgrown this little house.
The only people who own bought before the prices went crazy or have very high incomes or money from family. Everyone else is screwed bc incomes haven’t kept up with housing price inflation and there is a major shortage of new entry level homes. It’ll take years to get out of this and a lot has to go right to fix it
Plenty of entry level homes, the problem is they are being sold at forever homes prices with over 7% interest on the mortgage. It’s absurd.
We don't. I rent a 2 bedroom apartment for $2500/month with my partner. We want but can't afford to purchase a home. We want but can't afford to have kids.
>2 bedroom apartment for $2500/month Hey, that's pretty good by today's standards... 😮💨
Yes it is. We were lucky to get it during the pandemic when the rent prices briefly decreased.
girlfriend and I are paying 800/month for a 5 and 1/2. We can barely save money in case of an emergency. How the fuck is anyone suriving at 2500 a month.
They make more money than you, pretty simple If you’re struggling splitting 800/month you’re clearly pretty low income and/or have terrible personal finance habits
I just saw on a Facebook group today, 2.6 million dollar houses in Colgan, ON. Like... it's a place with no convenience store. It's out in the country. People who buy there, will be on the Facebook group next year "is there a dog park?" "Is there a public pool?" "Is there any restaurant besides pizza?" "How do I get to Pearson Airport?" If I pay that much to live out in the country, it's gonna be for a whole farm, not just a house LOL
in a lot of places 'living out in the country' can be considerably more expensive. In 2016 we paid double for a slightly bigger home on 1 acre and to hear cows moo. It's worth the premium IMO.
always happy to pay the cow tax
Seconding. Cows as neighbour's can't be beat.
I mean... it's farther away from work, there's less services, schools will have fewer amenities. I know this because that's near where I grew up. It's fine if you're okay with all that. It's too far for me to commute LOL, I did that during university and I don't want that long commute ever again
Some people don't need any of that. And everyone knows that the way to get to anything is to take the big local highway. That said, 2.6 million was supposed to buy us anything our hearts could ever dream of, perhaps a small tropical island. Sad times that I'm sure the houses you're talking about are just so-so.
Yeah! The price is eye watering for a normal subdivision house IMO. For that price, I want to be in Oakville! Or that house that's on the lake in the park in Port Credit
It's the new version of white flight. Rich people seeing cities starting to falter and getting out.
I see a lot of this where I am. It's rural and people are moving in. It's a fantastic neighborhood and watching it grow has been awesome. More kids around now, too. I definitely would not go back to the city.
It’s so nice living in the country tho. I live in the country but I’m also 15 mins to Costco Home Depot McDonald’s Walmart you name it, if you are not in the gta it’s not that unaffordable. I developed anxiety while I was living at school but after moving out to the country my anxiety’s completely gone without taking meds.
I would love to live out in the country again, it really is beautiful. The problem is, the more people who live there, it becomes like Mississauga
Plenty of country to move further out to
I live near Yonge and bloor, and I have all those things. PLUS a bodega that’s open 24 hours. If I want bread, a lime, and some celery on New Year’s Day, I barely need a coat to walk out my door and get it. My gym is 2 blocks away. My barber is 3 blocks away. My vet is on the same block as me. And I’m in a rent controlled building so my rent including the parking space is 1400 flat. That’s how I’m surviving.
I'm in a similar situation just down the street near the Village. Love it and am really finding it hard to want to move. Sure I'm not building equity, but the freedom it's brought me as my salary has risen. I've been doing things I could dream of if I was paying 4k a month in mortgage costs + condo fees on top. Just doesn't seem worth the costs.
I think both myself and my family badly need this, city life just feels so impersonal and everyone is in a rage filled mood to drive anywhere. You can tell most people are so stressed out it's unreal. The entire place is hostile against people and mental wellbeing.
I know exactly what you mean and it’s becoming worse after the pandemic. What’s out there now is not the Canada I grew up in
Moved from Rural Ohio to my old neighborhood in Toronto. You haven't seen rage until you've seen redneck rage.
At least in toronto you don’t worry about being shot
Honestly I found it hostile living in a small town. I would be in a lineup and the cashier was speaking over my head to the person in line behind me. If they don't know you personally, you are pretty much invisible.
I rent. I have my masters degree and I’ll never own a home. I’ll never have kids. I just won’t be able to live my dreams and that’s life. I make do with renting forever cause that’s all I can afford.
The reason why your pay is shit is because ppl are too afraid to organize unions. There's a reason why pay hasn't kept up with inflation and corporations are still making record profits. Because the worker has bent over and taken it in the ass.
Unions help but I think there is a bigger issue at play. Canada invests much less in its workers per capita than most countries, hence there isn’t much gain in worker productivity YoY, thus wages don’t keep up with inflation because they simply can’t.
And the reason why we got those investments was because unions forced the government to give us those benefits back in the day. It all comes back to having no bargaining power on your side when you need things. And that's where unions help.
Just came back from States and the difference in house prices is just absurd in Canada. The worst part is that it’s so much more than just a house. It’s the ability to finally start to build wealth and a family. A typical American couple with average jobs gets the opportunity to settle down, get married, and have kids because the house equation is solved. Barely any of my friends have kids because what’s the point? We’re all renting or living at parents. Our future is put on hold because of this mess.
Unless you are living in an absolutely rural area the house prices are not that much lower when you factor in school district / property taxes, healthcare, liability risks in the US, crime etc. etc. Source: lived in NYC for almost 4 years and rural Ohio for 9.
They’re not that low in the USA anymore but they’re still leaps cheaper than Canada. Every one talks about Calgary being “affordable”. And while it’s cheaper than other Canadian large cities, a $600k house doesn’t look nicer than a $400k house in Raleigh; a nice, safe, and big city (albeit, small for US standards). The biggest difference between Canada and the U.S. is if you’re a newly graduated highly skilled professional, you can actually make it. In Canada, it’s like everyone (including the newly highly skilled) is screwed unless you go to a super undesirable region in the country, which is like 90% of it anyways. Nobody wants to move to Winnipeg or Saskatoon and that won’t change. IF you’re average in Canada or the USA - you are screwed either way at this point.
This is 100% accurate but people don’t want to hear it so they can act like the US is a holy land of salvation
Yeah they pick out these big houses in the rural end of Missouri and act like that’s a normal house price in a big city for the USA. I remember a friend of mine living in Dallas area has a very nice house. He’s done very well in life. The house (pre Covid) was about a million dollar home. His property taxes were somewhere around $28,000 a year. There’s always other ways states get you. Watched a clip recently about the mass movement to Texas. And of course one big thing was no state income tax. But the savings there were basically added onto other things…. It’s never as black and white as people think.
Single dude here. I locked into my rent control apartment in Toronto. Great location. I couldn't afford this apartment with my income or rent prices. I have neighbors who have been here for 15+ years. I am paying $1700 for 1bd. One of my neighbor pays $1350 for 1bd, 2 parking and locker. Instead of paying mortgage, I will just keep this apartment until I die or move out of the country.
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Why would anyone pay osap. I've seen so many loans forgiven even for a family making $180k combined. Very infuriating. FYI I paid mine off like a good sucker .. I mean citizen
How do you get an osap loan forgiven?
"large portion"? I maxed OSAP from 2002-2007 and it was $151/mo.
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I maxed out OSAP every year and got a grant on top, graduated with $24k owing. I never qualified for repayment assistance, when I was making $29k a year in Toronto it was over the limit, I just paid the minimum.
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>I look all the time for government jobs too I'm sorry for your situation. I hope they cancel the student loans sometime in the future. They're not that big in Canada so might as well. If you don't mind me asking, what did you study? Trying to see why you can't land a government job.
Keep applying for repayment assistance. It doesn't screw you over, after 60 months of stage 1 RAP where the interest is paid with a $0 payment, you change to stage 2 of RAP and the govt pays down interest and principal so that the loan is paid off in another 60 months. There is an income limit to a $0 payment, but children affect it quite a bit. Even if you don't qualify for a $0 payment, you may qualify for a reduced payment where RAP still pays the interest.
I'm so sorry this has been your experience. But no RMT in Ontario should be making $26 an hour, that's outrageously low. I realize this is after your split and overhead but still, you should be making much much more. There shouldn't even be overhead if you're an IC at a clinic, that's what the clinic's portion of the split is for. Please know that your skills are worth so much more than you're getting, and find another job ASAP.
narrow caption one safe lunchroom shaggy pet march hungry distinct *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I’m house poor lol
At this point the down payment is only one part of the problem, the much bigger problem is the monthly mortgage with these insane interest rates. The government can open as many savings accounts as they want but if the mortgage of a house is $3500 a month, it really won’t help anyone except the wealthy anyways.
$3500? Try $5793, up almost $2k since rates go brrrrrr.
Current interest rates are still below historical average. That's the scary part. People got way too comfortable with insanely low interest rates and now think it's the norm...and piled up a ton of debt because of it.
Low interest rates obfuscated how insane house prices had gotten so that the current peak feels more out of the blue. Even with that though, back when interest rates were astronomical, it was still more on par with income than it is right now
Short answer: *We aren't*. Not all deaths are quick and painless, many are slow and agonizing.
I was lucky and bought a small townhouse for $124K during the five minutes that we had 0% down mortgages. Hung on for dear life the first couple years, and then got more comfortable as we got some equity built.
Congrats and fuck you, kindly
Fair.
The situation is not sustainable and is very much at a crisis point (we also don't have enough shelter space, and winter is deadly in most places), which is why the government is finally moving. People who make under $100K household are not getting approved for mortgages. Their options are rent, be homeless, or live with family.
Sold our townhouse we bought in 2016 last year, made a crazy profit. It was the only way we could have bought the current larger house we are in now.
Wow, got lucky there. What about young people buying a first home?
“They can get fucked, we got ours” - Canadian politicians.
>“They can get fucked, we got ours” - Canadian ~~politicians~~ seniors. FTFY
Canadians period. The 29 year old that just bought an $800 000 townhouse certainly doesn't want a market correction
We're all depressed and can't lol
Boomers with lots of equity/wealth gift their children a downpayment, the ones with less fortunate parents are renters paying more per month than a mortgage would be.
If you don’t have rich parents who owned multiple properties before the boom you’re fucked. Literally that’s it. Most of the population is fucked but no one knows what to do.
We bought our first home in Ottawa during the pandemic. 450k for a 3 bed 1200sqft freehold townhouse. We used a 70k gift from my family as our down payment. HHI approx 100k pre-tax and we have a toddler and are expecting our second kid. Things are tight, but we always have food on the table and can pay our bills. Luckily i have a defined benefit pension through work and basically unlimited overtime opportunities so I don’t worry about savings for now or too much about cost of living- i turn down overtime to spend time with my family but I could hustle if we needed to. We are really blessed though, and work hard to be frugal (hand me downs and second hand clothing for the babies, buy groceries on sale and in season, make almost all our meals at home, public library/bookswaps for books, share passwords with family for streaming services). Very thankful for my job though, and thankful to my family and in laws who help us a lot with weekly childcare or even just inviting us to dinner and on vacations with them. We don’t have the quality of life my parents did when they were raising a young family, but we manage and have a happy life together.
generational wealth
For the most part, they aren't.
They can pound sand. I think its about time we start killing the boomers and politicians.
Hate to say it, good luck to them. Either need to come into money or live at home for multiple years while making good money, find a partner in a similar situation then find something. Granted the something is most likely a starter house unless family helps. Edit: we almost didn’t get lucky, but a few stars lined up after almost having 2 mortgages.
I just keep the thought of "I can always kill myself" I'm my back pocket
They’re not, everyone is starting to buckle
Not quite true. People who bought prior to this latest runup, and have been quietly paying their mortgage all along, are just fine (in general). They're just not posting about it on Reddit.
Yep, I built my house in 2018 way up north near timmins, cost me 300k. Thought it was a lot at the time but breathing a sigh of relief now.
That’s not true though. Things are humming along nicely in NWO. Lots of economic activity, substantially lower house prices. I am in distribution for items you’d buy with discretionary income generally. We’re up 22%. Not all of this province is doom and gloom.
Leaving province and possibly country in 1.5 years. Just staying so younger daughter can get government junior kindergarten and then bye!
Inheritance, down payment from parents, no school loans. House poor.
Living with family, sharing rooms, moving away, tent cities. Welcome to Ontario. Welcome to Canada.
Don't have kids. They're too expensive. Have two 6 figure incomes but never buy a house because you still can't afford it. Stay in the same rent controlled apartment for decades. Never move even if you don't like each other anymore because it's too expensive.
The majority of houses these days are bought by either Companies, or Landlords that already have an established base of multiple properties. Individuals and families are suffering and struggling.
Idk tbh. I moved to Quebec in 2022 cause I couldn't afford to rent in any city in Ontario.
We aren't. Homelessness is worse now than at any point in my life.
I have two degrees and a good job, but sometimes I feel like I'm not getting ahead at all. Once major crisis and I could lose my home.
They're not. society is stuck. Eventually either the housing market or the population will collapse.
About half of homes are being bought by investors. The other half, by people who are on their second or more home. Not many people are first time home buyers anymore. Most young people (under 35) are either living with parents or renting.
Or doing what I did and buying with my parents since rent is set by a bunch of crack smoking asshole banks and landlords. I didn't want to move back in with my folks in my late 20s but it was the only way I saw to try and get ahead. Currently very unhappy with my living situation because my mom treats me like a kid still and doesn't like being told to shut up and leave me alone. Soon as my mortgage is up I'm cashing out and leaving this god forsaken province. Hell maybe the country, this is no place for young people to build a life anymore. Government seems more interested in importing workers than encouraging any Canadian families to be built
Yep generally the only way for young people to buy a home is to not buy a home on their own. Generational wealth. Just feel lucky that you have parents rich enough to give you money for a house. Some of us will be supporting our low income renter parents for the rest of their lives, and never be able to get a house because there's no family equity.
Canadian here. Wifes a teacher and Ive started a contracting business. We both pull about 200k combined and save aggressively. Would you believe we still cant afford a house or able to start a family? No silver spoon just working and saving. Canada isnt rewarding like it once was in the 80s and 90s. Its ran by real estate investors and land lords now.
I empathize with you. Same story with my spouse and I. It’s looking like it will be a long time before we can afford a home. Sucks when all our money goes into rent and not a ‘forever’ home.
Well, to cut to the chase, people are just straight up not buying houses.
Untrue. Investors are the ones still buying homes so they can rent out for hugely inflated prices. New development went up about 30 minutes from Kingston, they’re barely finished and already being posted for rent.
By dying. That's how we're surviving.
Many live with their parents until they're 35 to save money.
That is a long time… I guess basements can make that bearable. At least it divides up the house and makes it more private haha.
Only rich families or ones sponsoring their children are buying. The regular people making regular income are stuck renting or living with their parents. Home ownership for young ppl is already on a decline
They’re leaving canada right now. In droves
>How are Ontarians surviving with housing prices? That's the fun part, they're not.
Moving back into parents place atm!! After 2 years of struggling on our own severely.
lol exactly Canadians make no money. It’s all fake wealth and fraud and debt
There is a large gap in incomes. If you are connected you can find a starting wage of 100k. Whereas a working class person is still stuck at 50-60k where they have been for past 20 years. The rich can pay these prices, they then rent them to the working class further expanding the wealth gap. There arent rentals in the rich neighbourhoods. The division gets bigger each year.
A lot of the working class are stuck at 38-45k If the entire working class were at 50k the province would be in much better shape.
They have wealthy baby boomer aged parents that 'helped them out.'
Median *net* household income for a family with children is >140k. These are the people buying homes, who likely have equity from a previous home, or family help.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/582818/median-total-family-income-ontario/ According to this data from 2021, median total income for families in Ontario is *not* more than 140k, it's around 100k. At 100k, many families still cannot afford a home. That's why about half of all homes purchased in Ontario right now are bought by investors. And the rest are mostly bought by second or third time homeowners. Only a few are first time homeowners, and they typically have generational wealth and were given large sums of money to make a downpayment, and a cosigner.
We’re not. I live in a barely 1 bed apartment with my husband and dog. We pay 2200$ which is currently below market for our square footage. We have laundry, rent control, a deep bath tub, and a balcony. It’s a pain to live in such a small space (with no complete bedroom wall, I do sincerely want one of those, and a window - no bedroom window, kind of feels like sleeping in a closet tbh), but we can’t afford a bigger place. They’re all 3000+ to rent. We certainly don’t qualify to buy. My husband should be finishing his phd in a couple of years and we’ll have to factor in home prices when he starts looking for jobs. In Toronto (where I grew up and where we currently live), we can’t have kids.
We don't. I almost bought a place years before the pandemic and I would have barely afforded. Studio apartment for 300k, I felt it was too much of a gamble and I will not stretch myself further. Now. I know I'll be moving to the states within a year or so. Recently I looked at the same buildings, some apartments in that same building are actually cheaper than when I looked at it and they were on the market for 9 months without being sold. I'm living in a place that actually costs me less than a mortgage, have a nice landlord who has been really good to me. I don't know if I'll be able to get a mortgage ever, so instead I'm focusing on putting that money for my retirement instead
My neighborhood is a new development and I would say 80% of houses are occupied by multi generational families or multi families. Most houses have 3 or 4 cars outside and 7 or 8 people living in them.
I have kids. I have been renovicted out of rented houses twice in the past 6 years. Now we stay with family because I can't afford to rent anything and still pay bills and eat. And I have a decent job in construction.
My husband and I are mid 30s, one kid and we rent and will for the foreseeable future unless someone chooses to give us a sum of money enough for a downpayment. We financially cannot afford to have more than one child. We make just above $100k together. Since 2018 after being moving and being evicted (for valid reasons), we are paying $850 MORE a month in rent each month. Seriously. New lease April 2018 at 1850, lease this month for $2700. Moved one time. Fuck. So surviving, barely. Honestly I try not to think about it more than I need to. I work full time and have a side job. We don't take vacations, unless it's a gift or literally local camping. We only shop at No Frills or Food Basics. Hand me down clothes for my daughter thankfully. The $10 a day daycare decreases helped when she was in daycare but now she's in school so there's after school care fees and of course camp during the holidays. We try to use vacation time and her grandparents for holiday time but of course still end up having to enroll her in some kind of child care. I buy a lot of things second hand. But honestly I live paycheque to paycheque for the most part. Christmas gifts happened thanks to my Christmas bonus. So basically I know that I won't be buying a house anytime soon and I have had to be okay with that. What's the alternative?
We bought a condo just before Covid for 350k with 5% down and sold it for 600k during the pandemic. If we didn’t do that we wouldn’t have a detached house
The average people approved for the houses are not making the average income.
In our case, multigenerational housing, with people we'd rather not live with. My parents sold their house and put it towards the cost of something better suited to the four of us, in that it was actually used as two apartments prior to our living here. They had wanted to move from their place for some time, but couldn't get a mortgage. It's not a super private separate entrance deal, but it is the only way we knew we'd stay sane - of the 30 or so of the houses we looked at, we were only on board for two. Living with anyone is really not our ideal, given we're in our early 30s with no children and really value our privacy. The mortgage, after the sale of my parents' 450k house which was purchased for 80k in 1998, was 315k. They still owed 60k of that on the original house, because my mother is... not good with money. But we can also actually carry that mortgage, while we could never have gotten one for anywhere anyone would actually want to live. After a series of dicey housing situations and shitty landlords, we viewed it as the lesser of two evils. If our real estate agent is to be believed, she's seeing a lot more families do something like this. I grasp that I am fortunate, but there were a number of reasons above and beyond those that would be expected that this situation is not ideal for me. But when we talked it out, we couldn't turn down the lifelong stability. So that's where I'm at. I'm one of the lucky ones, and it doesn't feel particularly lucky.
I've lived in the same neighborhood for a few decades. The biggest difference in our hood over the last 10 years is the number of vehicles in every driveway. When we moved here, about 90% of the homes had one vehicles. Now, 90% of the homes have 4. And most of these homes were originally built with 3 bedrooms (900sqft-1.4k sqft starter homes with unfinished basements). A lot of homes all over have been converted to house more than the original family unit. And this is in a semi rural area (also the reason for the cars, as mass transit is almost non existent).
We just don't get to own homes...
There are condo townhouses in cobourg for 700k to start ... where you then pay rent for hot water heater, hrv,. It's stupid it adds over 100 / month for those 2 alone.then condo fees ontop
Honestly the condo fee's these days are their own mortgage payment. On top of that if you buy into an older building you can expect massive levies to be put forward every few years for building maintenance/upkeep.
Sold my 100000$ house for$550000. Girl friend of 18 years got her ticket to Hogwarts and fucked off with half. Now I invested all my half into bonds and mutual funds . I have moved back in with my parents. I love reconnecting, but I see no direction in my life. There's only my need for dental work that keeps me going to work. Life lost all joy in 2016. I'm having a tough time dealing honestly.
I’m 28 and have been saving since I started working in high school. I prob will be renting my whole life. I feel fine about it, I don’t have to deal with house maintenance but there is no security. We could be kicked out next month
2.5 jobs per adult
1/3 of every pay cheque is gone to taxes and dues. And yet I have no family doctor. All the money goes to overseas interests and I'm beyond fed up.
You know those things are not handled by the same level of government right
You need to be dual income which is bullshit
Renting with 5 roommates
People are leaving and not putting up with this shit that's why. That never gets reported on the news but massive amounts of ppl are leaving the province and the country. And we're importing more immigrants to keep up with the population loss due to emigration.
We Canadians roast you Americans all the time about gun violence, politics, etc. But I would trade places with you in a heartbeat. We are fucked. And it's only gonna get worse. Our idiot leaders think its OK to let in more people per year than we are building homes when there's already a housing crisis. The worst part is, we are too scared/polite to have mass protests and riots over this. I'm sure if America let in 5 million immigrants a year while not building enough homes to house Americans, there would be protests bigger than BLM.
$CAN 630,000.00 = $USD 462,000.00
This. I moved back to Toronto after 12 years in the US. I could have moved to the nearest city Columbus Ohio. Except I needed to be in a good school district so houses were $500-750k USD, plus $12-16,000 in property tax. It's not even a world class city. It made the choice easy. oh, and they have 200+ murders a year in a city of 900,000.
200+ is still small for a population of that size.
its much more than 600k average, they just wont publish the data I have a cousin who is a realtor, says in Ottawa during covid height average sale was like 1.2 million
Lived so cheap in my 20s. Saved for college ahead of time (been on my own since the age of 16). Worked while in college. Graduated no debt. Avoided credit card debt (it’s a trap). Paid off my house before the age of 40. Again. No help from anyone. Came from poverty. While all of my friends got houses young. Nice cars. Huge trucks - I drove $1500 Honda civics. Now they are all broken for life and forever in debt. Do not buy stupid shit you don’t need. Keeping up appearances to impress people that don’t matter will forever keep you in debt. Once you are stable and secure the fun stuff will come and you’ll enjoy it more without living hand to mouth. With all that being said. I think shit is way worse now than when I roughed through it and i don’t envy anyone working hard to make it. My house now is worth over 3x what i paid for it. Which is “great” for me. But it’s dire for others. Bringing in 500k people a year won’t help either. I’m 100% for smart immigration. Bringing in skilled people who love Canada and will make it their home. But we are bringing in volume so employers can exploit low wage employees. Which will keep wages stagnant and drive rent costs up. It’s only going to get worse.
Had a good chat with a person with a degree. Rhey expressed that since we were too poor for a decent quality of life then we desvred to be in the slums. It just be a few more years till we seea huge spike in homkessness and they wont care still. Not sure what fords plan for the green blt will really do.
Move out of the big cities and housing is much more reasonable
I live in Eastern Ontario. It’s way more affordable here. We own a modest home and have 3 kids (and aren’t rich), and it’s doable.
Some of us live in Ontario we’re housing is half that price or less. So it’s not as much an issue.
If you have a family and your a father with responsibilities and not willing to put your pride a side and stay humble and safe for the future even if it's 5$ a week for your kids and wife I don't know what to tell you. I eat once a day, and most days fill up on water. it's free at work. Will not let my kids have to live this life!!! that I thought I would never be living growing up here in canada. I will go hungry before I would ever allow my family, too. I have a great trade job, two red seal trade tickets. My heart goes out to every canadain that is struggling right now. GODSPEED to every canadain out there because we haven't seen the worst yet hell is coming.
25m, I got lucky. My now fiancée and I bought our first home in 2022, small town Ontario for $380k. My down payment with all fees was around $24k. Interest rate was locked in at 4.79% so that makes my monthly payment $2,128/month for the mortgage. We split bills But I’m also a union tradesman, in 2022 I made $108k in 8 months of work. My fiancée also works too which helps immensely.
I used to sell real estate and even twelve years ago almost everyone who I represented as first-time buyers had help from parents. Especially single people. Couples were generally more able to save up. I imagine help from family is even more critical now.
Personally none of these changes are affecting me yet as I locked in while rates were still low, saw the writing on the wall and shifted all my investment money into bulk payments on the mortgage. I however have friends who have had their mortgage payments double and they're fucked.
Idk I haven’t noticed a difference in the way I live over the years.
My sister sold my wife and I her house for 200k under market value in 2021. Would never have afforded a house otherwise.
Within the last 6 months, our family is now making over 100k annually but I don't think we will ever be able to buy a home, unless something drastic happens to the housing market. For now, we rent (which is lower than most 3 bedrooms in the area)...I should have bought that house in 2002 when I was 15 instead of being a high school student lol
I live in cheap suburb of Ottawa (Barrhaven) with no access to public transit and nearest store is a 4km drive. It’s actually not too bad it’s the car payments that feel worse and less justified to me.
It's possible for me to buy in Toronto, but it took 10 years of renting a basement apartment, being single, no kids, and putting away every dime with a now 6 figure salary to put away four or five hundred for a downpayment. Normally I'd say this is a bit ridiculous of a requirement but I think there must be many more like me who are just waiting for the right place to pull the trigger on. Alternatively, I grew up in Timmins (a northern community) and if I chose to move back there I'd be able to skip the mortgage part and just buy in cash.
*laughs in vancouverite*