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COVID and the housing market
- Thread starter mimico_polak
- Start date
Easier said than done.
There's no perfect place on Earth. There might be other things you give up to gain a cheaper cost of living. You might be getting worse pollution, crime, government inefficiency/corruption, discrimination, poor healthcare and safety standards, the list goes on and on. Better to go in with open eyes than to make a decision based on *one* criteria which blinds you to all the other factors that you probably wouldn't like about a different place to live.
In all the places we've visited, we've met a lot of ex-pats who have done quite well, away from their country of origin. The common denominator that I can see is that most of them have moved *towards* something that they love , instead of running *away* from something they hated. They can easily articulate all the things they like about their new home, and not just that "It's cheaper than where we came from".
And the ones who move just because it is cheaper, most of them end up coming back home when they can't learn the language well enough to get beyond buying groceries and asking for directions. They return when they realize they miss all the creature comforts of a "nanny-state" government that's actually on top of things like garbage disposal, sewage, roadworks and construction.
It takes a special kind of person to give up the familiar and thrive in a foreign environment where everything around you is targeted to... well, not you. From the labeling, to advertising, to TV programs, to the way people greet you and react to you on the streets.
There's a reason why a lot of people talk about moving, but never do. Easier to just ***** about where you live, and point at people that have made the move with a "that guy's got the right idea". If it was truly a no-brainer, *everyone* would be doing it.
Grass is greener, yadda yadda yadda.
I know a few people that have moved way up north or down east only to come back because they miss the "standard of living"
But kudos to them for actually trying instead of just arm-chair philosophizing about it.
You'll never know if you're the type of person who will thrive in a new environment until you actually try it.
bigpoppa
Well-known member
of course, its more than just cost of living, you want to live life, and keep enjoying the things you like
They got lucky. I know people that made smaller moves (eg gta suburb to more distant gta suburb) and realized they hated it but price gap had further widened and they couldn't get back.
Yep, that's the gamble, that such a move might be a one-way trip, past a point of no return, financially speaking.
There are a lot of ex-pats who made the move because of the low cost-of-living. But low-cost isn't zero-cost. If you're bad with money management back home, you're probably still going to be bad at money management in a low-cost-of-living country. And good luck getting a job if you haven't mastered the local language.
In Thailand, one of the cheapest countries to live in, there are so many news stories of broke westerners who sleep on the beach and evade the police because their tourist visa has run out, because they can't even afford a flight back to their country of citizenship.
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Really depends on the location. If you move to the rural area and expect to have a tim hortons on the corner. sry not going to happen.
Where we are right now, we're loving the nature and the outdoors. Not loving the fact that we have to drive four hours away to do any kind of real shopping, or that packages in the mail take two weeks longer to get here than in the city.
Give and take.
Green Meenie
Well-known member
The other thing one needs to consider in moving to some of these 'cheaper housing markets', even within Canada is what your requirements might be 10 years out, as you age. They likely won't be the same as right now.
10 years? What about 10 months from now?
There seem to be a lot of WFHers who have cashed out and moved out to the sticks - so sure they are that work will never call them back to the office.
But if that happens, then what? A 4-hour commute to and from Owen Sound to the GTA, every day?
Yikes.
bigpoppa
Well-known member
I hear many people out in remote areas cant get specialist appointments or treatment etc
They can't keep doctors in the remote area. Although some doctors do make rounds every once and awhile.
Very true. About a decade ago my company asked if I'd be interested in moving to a hydro project in Northern Ontario. Camp job. Friends in the GTA thought I was crazy to move up there in my 20s, and I had never even been north of Barrie at the time, mostly GTA. Negotiated a decent uplift and went. Spent time around Wawa, Montreal River, Sault Ste Marie, Echo Bay when off site. Took a while to adapt but after 6 months or so, loved it. Met lots of really friendly down-to-earth people in 2 years there and got to know the Ontario beyond Barrie. I might have hated it, but as you say, you don't know until you try it - doing nothing leaves you without the experience to judge, only speculate.
Yep, as per Wingboy's anecdote and yours, moving away from what you know is not a one-size-fits-all story.
Some people are just more suited to it than others.
We lived in Latin America for over a year and a half. We rave about Mexico and Colombia to everyone we know. To this day, those are our two favorite countries. A couple we met in Calgary decided to the same thing we did, sell up and hit the road. Based on our ravings, they tried living in both Mexico and Colombia and absolutely hated it. Too dirty. Got sick from the food all the time. Homesick for four seasons instead of the endless summer. Of all the places they traveled to, the only one they liked was: Alberta.
Not everyone is suited to new environs. At least they tried.
bigpoppa
Well-known member
they got trucknut-sick
Friend of mine was looking to retire in Mexico (PV) but sadly died suddenly last year. PV was beautiful as was the areas that were close by but I don’t think I could live there. Same for Columbia which was beautiful. Met a few ex-pats in both country’s that were happy to be living there.
Costa Rica is one place I could retire to. I loved it there and there’s good motorcycle roads and plenty of dirt biking.
I have a few friends that have made “the move” , some further away and some less successfully. One fellow is WFH and is building a house in Nicaragua . All he needs is high speed internet and loves the place . Other guy is a mechanic at one of the bigger power sports dealers near Kelowna, rides /sleds a lot in some really nice roads , did have to buy a house WAY out of town but he loves the ride home. The ones that have moved to the cottage, they are never coming back to the gta , maybe they are smarter than I give them credit for .
Sent from my iPhone using GTAMotorcycle.com
Sent from my iPhone using GTAMotorcycle.com
My brother moved to Panama for a few years. Marrying a Panamanian that had moved to Canada made some of the transition easier but he didn't have a good financial plan and ran out of money trying to start a business.
He could speak a bit of the language but a lot of things don't translate well and he sometimes didn't know if the locals were laughing with him or at him. He was in the mountains, not Panama City. The ex-pats seemed to gather at restaurants and bars to converse in English and on economic pars.
He came back solo blaming everything on someone else.
A girl that I knew from high school has moved down there because she couldn't retire here with the lifestyle she wanted, the reason my brother went there. She is also in the mountains around David, renting a spot with her guy.
It was crazy cheap there according to my brother.
A friend up here bunged the bed of his Ram pickup and the tab was around $2500. My brother did the same to his Ram down there and it was $250.
A cleaning lady was a couple of dollars a day. A labourer was a dollar and hour and a tradesman two dollars. Fit and finish on the house they were building justified the rate. If door clearance kept small birds out it was considered OK.
A Honduran electrician I was working with recently said in Honduras he would be making $1.75 an hour.
We had a late Christmas with our daughter in Hamilton yesterday. House prices came up (She owns her place) but according to her, a basement apartment goes for $1800 a month.
The chick from my high school days will have trouble adjusting if / when she comes back. She retired from a decent government job so I expect a reasonable pension. IIRC she has at least two divorces in her history, my brother a lot more.
A friend's daughter and hubby have divorced but still live together (Milton) because they can't afford to buy each other out and splitting the proceeds of the sale wouldn't give either of them a workable down payment.
Elliot Lake is cheap to buy. A couple of hundred thou gets you a house but I don't think it's much of a job market. Don't expect too see the kids every weekend if they live in the south. Wintering in Florida got a shot in the groin by Covid.
Moving way out as you get older also means a change of friends. My mother and step father moved north of Barrie when he retired, figuring all their friends would come up and visit. Old people don't like to drive, especially at night.
I hate to say it but I feel it's going to get worse.
Good cross-section of examples.
If someone claims that this is such a sh!tty place to live in and it would be a much better idea to simply learn a new language and pick up to live in a different country and a completely different culture, then I'd ask them "So why haven't *you* done it already?"
And then prepare myself for the "Yabuts".
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