Really ! Since when is government us , them ? I was taught that government is , us .
The Financialization of Housing
- Thread starter Nick Danger
- Start date
The market is also us . Do you not have investments in your RRSPs ?
Yes, I do, but I count myself among the lucky that I have been able to find a few extra bucks to tuck away. It's kind of discouraging to see the challenges facing young families today when it comes to finding those few extra bucks with living expenses going the way they are. The gap between the "haves" and "have-nots" is growing steadily, and the ration between the two groups is more than ever slanted in favour of a very, very few at the top of the pecking order.
I own a tired old shack that was ready for the wrecking ball years ago, but it sits on a large lot. I have sold to a developer who will take possession in the spring with the intent of knocking it down and building some sort of multi-unit money maker. He'll do fine, housing supply is low here and it's a sellers market. I did okay, I'll get out of here with enough for a modest condo and a healthy chunk in the bank that will give me a comfortable retirement income. I won't be hopping on jets and buying Tommy Bahama shirts all the time, but I'll be fine. What I'm watching now is people trying to get into the market with prices always hovering just out of reach. "The Market" makes it very, very hard for these people. I kept a renter in an extra room while I was commuting to camp in Alberta so the house wouldn't sit empty while I was gone. I was pretty generous with the rent I cahrged as I saw some value in the added security of having the house steadily occupied. She's been casting about looking for a place to move to in the new year, and it's been an eye-opener for both of us, she'll be going from "artificially low" rent to what might be best described as "rapacious". The rental market here for one bedroom apartments takes about $1200/month to get out of the "junk" range, and the going rate for anything livable is $1400/month and up. If you can find one. Our current vacancy rate is less than 1%.
The idea that "the market is us" tends to say we're a greedy bunch. Most of the places she is looking at are corporate owned, outfits like Broadstreet Properties who have a large inventory of local units, call themselves "community minded" and charge rents that need a $60K/year income to support.
It was always thus . I was priced out of the housing market until my fifties , but that was solely my own fault . If I didn’t spend like a drunken sailor with champagne tastes and a beer budget . The same have nots have always been in society and who ever said life was fair . Who said it was going to be cheap and easy to live in the sunny Okanagan when so many want to live their . Rent is cheap in Greenwood .
Well there ya go, "the market" is what is is, and fair to those without disposable cash is not part of the formula. I probably could have got there sooner had I passed on a lot of the enjoyments I had along the way, but that was then and now is now. It hurts that even living frugally and making the right decisions is not enough to get past the cost of living here. My kids will do okay, they'll just have to wait until I go into the ground for that kick-start they need to get a jump on things.
I don't know what the rest of the country is doing, but in BC there are tax implications on doing this. Especially the hot spots like Vancouver that have a vacancy tax and a foreign owners tax. House flipping in Canada doesn't work like it does in the US either, again because of the tax implications. BC also has reoviction laws and the Landlord/Tenant Act, that is very lopsided in favour of tenants.
Interest rates are still low , rents in many instances are more then a mortgage payment . Start with a small condo and build equity . It takes a sacrifice to scrap together an initial down payment , but one can still make the big bucks if willing to leave town . My complex is full of young families that somehow found a start .
Too many people think they have to start with a million dollar house like on their favourite tv show. My first place was a house trailer. I even moved it twice before building and selling the trailer.
Yeah, I forgot to mention that the scheme is also used to launder money. Which I'm pretty sure is not a property owner's right.
Oh hell, that's the plan don't 'cha know? By 2030, individually owned property will not be allowed. It's part of the Agenda 2030 that the UN & their Communist friends are promoting. Ask AOC or any of her cohorts. According to them, we'll then have "equality" cuz no one will own anything (well except for those promoting it - they'll own, you won't).