COVID and the housing market | Page 136 | GTAMotorcycle.com

COVID and the housing market

nobbie48 said:
A guy flogging his book on YouTube was pushing the concept of not paying off the mortgage and holding some liquid assets in case things crash and you need money to tide things over. If there is a price drop the bank may not be interested in adding to the loan. He referred to Evergrande and their situation because of a change in government policies.

I'm more like @Allistonfjr. My home is not part of my investment portfolio but I know a few people that have done very well by using their houses as investment vehicles.

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I would never advocate for the strategy I proposed at a level where you would end up underwater (mortgage vs home value). At 40% equity, even a "big" home correction should be fine (although your ratio would obviously be much worse). Mentally, I don't like using a home as an ATM. Looked at from an investment perspective, most home owners are far too overweight in real estate. The baseline portfolios of xx percent equities and xx percent bonds didn't anticipate that your home equity could be far higher than your invested assets (in many cases 4:1 or more).

Looked at another way, if you had a dwelling that kept you dry and safe, you can get that for xxx k dollars, the difference between that number and the actual value of your home is an investment in real estate that you get to enjoy. I've never seen any investment advice that pushed for more than half of your investible money to be in real estate.
 
I got a decent job offer closer to home but I don’t want to leave my current job. Now gas is increasing and moving would mean higher rent 😭😭 😭
 
george__ said:
I got a decent job offer closer to home but I don’t want to leave my current job. Now gas is increasing and moving would mean higher rent 😭😭 😭
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Congrats. Get the job that follows the right path for your life, worry about the short term finances after. Don't worry about the long term finances yet. Taking the right job will have a far bigger return than investing a few dollars.

My second job out of school had me renting a room in a house while crushing a car loan. I had $50 a month for gas and entertainment (including any meals out). Thankfully, the car didn't need much fuel and work was close to the house. Got the car paid off and things got a lot better (I was paying car off at $1000 a month to get it over with). That job did not turn out as I expected but it was worth a shot.
 
Pity the fools that bought it. Thier neighbor is a rental (mostly weekends) with a pool and huge deck. Cops and bylaw are there every weekend in nice weather.
Unless it was bought by the owner of the rental place. Time to leave!
 
Wingboy said:
Pity the fools that bought it. Thier neighbor is a rental (mostly weekends) with a pool and huge deck. Cops and bylaw are there every weekend in nice weather.
Unless it was bought by the owner of the rental place. Time to leave!
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They can property ladder into something else soon and rent it out .
 
For me it's weird. At this point I think I've become somewhat jaded and think a detached house under 1,000,000 is pretty reasonable. On the other hand with minimum down you would need close to $200,000 income to qualify for a mortgage, even with 20% down would need probably $150-160,000 to qualify.

Not impossible but not easy either.
 
blackcamaro said:
For me it's weird. At this point I think I've become somewhat jaded and think a detached house under 1,000,000 is pretty reasonable. On the other hand with minimum down you would need close to $200,000 income to qualify for a mortgage, even with 20% down would need probably $150-160,000 to qualify.

Not impossible but not easy either.
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I was laughing at a new townhouse development in vaughan starting from 1.35. That's approaching my definition of the last place I would want to live and without an existing property to sell I couldnt afford it.
 
killvino said:
Related:
Real estate agents caught on hidden camera breaking the law, steering buyers from low-commission homes

Not surprising at all. The system is wrong the way it is. We have gamed the system in the past by not using a buying agent.
Have heard of many scummy tactics being used.
Also a big factor why housing prices are where they are, higher prices = higher commission. No real checks and balances to prevent this from continuing.
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If the real estate board was truly interested in fixing this instead of being a pr body to bury everything, they could just remove the commission from the presales database. If you are looking out for your clients best interests, that is useless information. After they buy the right house for them, you find out the commission. Done. Problem solved. Could be implemented easily tomorrow.

Since they'd still be dirty and inquire off the record , make asking or disclosing the rate sn offence that suspends your license for a year.
 
GreyGhost said:
I was laughing at a new townhouse development in vaughan starting from 1.35. That's approaching my definition of the last place I would want to live and without an existing property to sell I couldnt afford it.
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Around $4500 mortgage payment with 20% down for a townhouse in Vaughan...yeah no thanks. I work in Vaughan, its good for some people and I'm not going to knock it but I want to get out of here as quickly as possible every day.

My Dad sold his place in Schomberg and bought further north. He's renting a townhouse in Vaughan for $3000/month which I guess seems cheap in comparsion to the development you mentioned. Still stupid expensive for rent.
 
Wingboy said:
Pity the fools that bought it. Thier neighbor is a rental (mostly weekends) with a pool and huge deck. Cops and bylaw are there every weekend in nice weather.
Unless it was bought by the owner of the rental place. Time to leave!
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This right here is why whenever we put in an offer and we’re going through the motions of financing and home inspections we would go to the house in the evening and walk around the neighbourhood. Ideally Friday / Saturday night to get a feel for the neighbours.
 
killvino said:
Related:
Real estate agents caught on hidden camera breaking the law, steering buyers from low-commission homes

Not surprising at all. The system is wrong the way it is. We have gamed the system in the past by not using a buying agent.
Have heard of many scummy tactics being used.
Also a big factor why housing prices are where they are, higher prices = higher commission. No real checks and balances to prevent this from continuing.
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NO ONE is on the side of the buyer. The more the house sells for the more everyone makes, except for the buyer.

If we were looking at commodities a person could hire a buyer to shop for better deals and I'm sure that is the case for true investors but the market is so screwed up one has no idea of true value. It's worth what it sells for.
 
They're building a bunch of townhouses just north of me (St Marys). The price is north of 500K and the individual footprint is about 20ft x 40ft. The basement and main floor both lose the garage footprint so the main and top floor are about 1200sq ft combined. Almost no lawn.
A half million dollars doesn't go very far any more.
 
developers sure love townhomes. maximum profits. can squeeze so many into small spaces. especially the back to back ones with no backyard. I'm sure the city doesn't mind either with all of the new property tax revenues. My buddy in Ancaster paying 4K a year taxes in a back to back tiny single garage townhouse like the ones you mentioned. his lawn is about 2ft by 4ft. he paid 450 for it two years ago, they going for about 680 now. just stupid.

my other buddy bought a semi just around the corner from him 3 years ago for 430k and just sold it for 960k. he upgraded to a double garage semi just down the street for 1.2 mil. when he purchased his single garage semi for 430k in the fall(3 years ago), the builder only released one side of the street for sale, and was waiting until the next spring to release the other side of the street for sale and was going to add 100k to each home. Just because he could.
 
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north americans are spoiled rotten.
Such an inefficient use of space with all these giant detached houses and big lawns
 
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