Just want to cry...

Basically, can't afford to buy property here unless it's absolutely terrible... and in the boonies away from anything that I care about, so ... I'm thinking about leaving my family behind. I am single and don't have anyone to move away with even. Don't know how people deal with this.

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HOPELESS

Aug 4, 2021 at 8:27am

This is absolutely my story and probably that of so many others. If you find a solution please pass it on as I am all out of ideas. Feeling rather hopeless myself!

16 9Rating: +7

Anonymous

Aug 4, 2021 at 9:04am

It is not a right to be financially able to own property anywhere one may choose, even if you happened to be born there. I'm in my mid-30's and it shocks me how many people my age whine about this topic when they themselves lived through a 0% down 40-year amortization market in the '06-'08s. If you couldn't get on the property ladder then, I don't know what to tell you.

If this is as nice a place to live as you imply (by wanting so bad to own here) then high prices should be accepted. Maybe go be a road warrior based in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, or rural BC for a couple of years, bank some cake, and come back and get a place. There are high paying jobs in less desirable markets. Take one, do well, and leap frog back.

Sometimes it takes a long game and a bit of blood and sweat... not just tears.

Think twice for sure

Aug 4, 2021 at 9:09am

You will hear a lot of people pressing you to leave. It doesn't work for everyone. I left 6 years ago and still struggle without family and friends nearby. Sure, I've made new friends, resettled etc., but I still feel I left the life I loved behind, close to the people I loved, and I don't think my mental health is the better for it. It's nice here, but it's not home.

25 6Rating: +19

Ugh

Aug 4, 2021 at 9:12am

We rent. Rent and suffer endless housing insecurity. Those of us born on the non-capital owning side of the equation never had any illusions. Sounds like you actually just need to hang in until you inherit a house though, which means you have it way easier than most of us. Time to get some perspective and realize how fortunate you are.

The Scandinavian countries

Aug 4, 2021 at 9:59am

Have legislated affordable housing and zero homelessness. Yes they pay higher taxes, but this makes total common sense and dollars & ¢ because it costs society much less in medical, judicial, police and prison cost$ as well as much less in collective anxiety. What the hell is wrong with our gov't? Me thinks its time to let the original people here - the Indigenous - have their input. Hey, pre-colonialization, they weren't perfect ... who is? But they took care of their own and there was zero homelessness or have-nots.

Broader perspective needed?

Aug 4, 2021 at 4:08pm

How do we deal with it? Like billions of others worldwide, we rent. It's hardly the end of the world and offers a tremendous amount of freedom (as well as some insecurity.)

14 9Rating: +5

Can I tell you a story?

Aug 4, 2021 at 5:06pm

In the early 1990's, my mom bought a shit-hole rancher in Surrey for about $250K. It was poorly built with no insulation. But it was on a large lot. As a single parent with a working class salary, she scraped together a down payment and housed two kids along with extended family.
Today, the best you could hope for with that budget is a noisy, phone-booth sized condo. No yard, but lots of strata drama. The only other alternative is an old condo with gigantic strata fees.
My mom sold her old house and bought a newly built one that is now valued at over $1 million dollars.
She worked as a waitress and janitor.
I have a university degree but can't find a decent job because I don't have "previous experience" or the right connections. I struggle to save for even a tiny junior condo. But even if I could, I probably couldn't afford the mortgage AND all the fees. I don't think it's actually cheaper to live in a condo.
People get upset when we say that younger generations got a raw deal when it comes to housing. Prices skyrocketed all over the lower mainland but WAGES remain stagnant. $15/hour doesn't help when 1/3 of your annual salary is deductions.
Also, the suggestion that you should just move to the interior doesn't help because prices have gone up there as well. Not to mention you actually need to have a job there first because commuting to a job in Vancouver wouldn't be feasible.
So I sympathize with you OP. I don't know what the solution is either. My ECON professors told us that government intervention is always bad so apparently people like us should just get used to living peasants.

32 6Rating: +26

Good luck

Aug 4, 2021 at 5:59pm

"Don't know how people deal with this."
As one of those people, I deal with this by knowing that if I can't afford something I don't get it. I keep working until I can afford it or some luck comes my way. Don't sulk, dude. That's for little boys and girls. Drop those balls and be a man. Suck it all up and continue in life. If this is your worst worry then you must be real young and haven't had life throw you any curve balls yet. My god, dude. You have it coming for you.

Anonymous

Aug 4, 2021 at 9:20pm

Is property ownership vital to your existence??

21 9Rating: +12

Do The Math

Aug 4, 2021 at 11:01pm

If you carry a mortgage for decades, you're paying for it 50-70% over again in interest.
Plus paying property taxes, strata fees, mandatory expensive insurance and you'll most likely have to cough up tens of thousands of dollars to fix leaks, plumbing for the building, water heater, etc etc etc.
In the last 2 years alone, people I know who bought condos had to pay, for each condo: one at $75k to replace all the windows and seals, another $80k to seal the underground parking, and a couple others $65k and $45k to repair leaky condos. All of these bills devastated them, and AFAIK they had to take out second mortgages to pay the repairs.
On this last sentence...refer back to my first sentence.

I was lucky to sell my condo and make a little, and rent in Burnaby before the prices shot up-and a year later it was a leaky condo for $55k in repairs.
What I pay now in rent, used to be what I paid in: strata fees, property taxes, and insurance. And all the rest I would have paid by owning- I invested and educated myself in the markets and made 100 times what I would have by owning and selling at a peak.
BTW if i moved out of my apartment, they'd rent it out for 70% more than what I'm paying now.

So there's more than one way to do things

I

27 9Rating: +18

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