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COVID and the housing market
- Thread starter mimico_polak
- Start date
DownUnder
Well-known member
Pretty much what we did, not a huge lot but put in a pool and redid the entire backyard, we like the area, kids like their school and friends so no point moving. Also helps if we get lockdowns again, having somewhere to chill and enjoy time together.
I am assuming they mean condo towns?
They are actual attached townhouses like you see in KW but they are "condos" so you must pay monthly fees. Bullsh8t
FOR example
$698,000 + $651 Monthly
In KW..
$739,900 - no fees
Check out this listing
$700k - no fees
Went to a kids bday party on the weekend. F me. Beautiful spot. Big house, five acres surrounded by nature, pool, pool house/bar, diesel pusher, big travel trailer, multiple toy trailers, garage big enough to hold the bus and a bunch of cars. Because they could, they brought in a bouncy castle and ~30' inflatable water slide. Nice place but I don't have 3 or 4M to consider it.
Normally done to bypass some municipal stupidity. You can install a smaller road for instance which makes more room for houses/yards. Sometimes they have underground parking as well which is a nice amenity. You need the condo corp to own and maintain those common elements (could maybe create a Co-op but getting a mortgage on a coop is a nightmare and expensive). There are some upsides to condo towns. Normally monthly rate is cheap and you don't need to own/maintain/store lawncutting/snow clearing machinery. Given the postage stamp lawns in many, storing the lawnmower wastes 10% of your yard.
We actually dropped the ball when we bought. There were houses on similar lots with pools for cheaper...but wife didn't want a pool.
Now we want an inground pool lol. Maybe I'll just learn how to excavate it myself with time.
They are actual attached townhouses like you see in KW but they are "condos" so you must pay monthly fees. Bullsh8t
FOR example
$698,000 + $651 Monthly
In KW..
$739,900 - no fees
Check out this listing
$700k - no fees
We lived in a condo town before. But our fees started off around $270/month and were $330/month by the end of our 3 year stay there.
There's freehold towns, and condo towns. Both have their pluses and minuses.
Our maintenance fees included: insurance for common elements, roof (not inside in case of mould), structure, landscaping, water, and everything that's common area to be maintained. Everything within the 4 walls was our responsibility. Theirs ended at the water shut off in the unit...which is good because it promptly started leaking once we moved in.
As they should (sort of). They eat up monthly cash flow. That being said, if mortgage applications were reasonable and balanced they would include a similar amount for maintenance/insurance required on a freehold. Pretending that budgeting for expenses somehow gives you less money to pay the mortgage than waiting for a huge surprise bill is disingenuous.
Well that's the point...they're an expense of owning a house.
Owning a house is NOT only a mortgage....there's maintenance, insurance, utilities, and a host of unexpected surprises.
Oh yes....BoC just raised their rate by 1%...
I'm now officially higher than my 2.95% that I renewed from. Damnit. Talk about bad timing / call on my end.
Totally normal. I've even seen some detached homes on tighter roads with tiny setbacks with laneway fees.
Even freehold townhouses often have laneway fees. Ours is not much $60/mo and just covers garbage, some grass cutting and snow removal for the laneway behind.
If you don't want to pay anything, find a freehold with no shared spaces or amenities.
You had quite a few months where you paid off more principal. Who knows how long it will stay high (relatively, I know it's not high historically)? It may run up quickly to throw ice on people purchasing properties and then back off before too many start being unable to pay existing mortgages.
Ya I'm not overly worried yet...but still sucks!
Maybe the cost of toys will start to temper and even lower down slightly as those that are leveraged to the chin will start feeling the pinch.
You're still paying, it's just different. Freehold is normally a bunch more up front (you get to avoid the hassle of a condo and more specifically condo board). Take the extra 100K the freehold would have cost, throw it in dividend stocks and it should kick out your condo fee every month passively. Same money, just organized differently. Most (but not all) people probably get the condo because they couldn't afford the price gap to freehold. That impacts long-term net worth as that 100k is not invested and generating returns (but you didn't have it so that makes sense).
DownUnder
Well-known member
We went with fiberglass, they actually gave us a diy option to excavate ourselves and they just bring the pool and put it in the hole, you then find someone to do plumbing, electrical, gas etc etc. We didn't want to deal with it so got them to do everything. Then got our interlocker to do the coping and interlocking in the backyard, repair and redo the sod in the frontyard, i then built the deck and rebuilt the fence they had to tear down.
It's a long process and wait times for materials/pools and equipment are crazy atm.
MP has a good lot for fibreglass. Easy access so he doesn't need the huge expensive crane to swing it over the house. Our house came with fibreglass, some pluses and minuses. No floor drain sucks (for mixing and to save pump if water drops below skimmer or skimmer is blocked). It's hard but probably not impossible to add a floor drain to fibreglass but it would be a huge pain. Some parts of the pool aren't properly supported. I'm not sure if they didn't dig the hole perfectly or if something settled. On the upside the pool stays perfect until it is garbage. Lots of friends are replacing liners which is not an insignificant expense (and one has been down for two years with liner issues [order delayed, ripped on install, order delayed, etc]). Fibreglass install is much faster than than a liner pool.
Some things I have learned that I didn't realize before I had a pool.
- elevate the pool slightly from surrounding grade (one step is probably fine and deck at that height means it isn't an issue visually). That reduces worms/frogs/snakes in your pool by a few orders of magnitude.
- ideally install steps in the corners so if someone wants to swim the end walls have a place to swim to without crashing into steps. One on the weekend was a liner pool so they could do what they wanted. 9' deep in the middle, shallow ends on both ends (could play volleyball with adults in the middle and children standing). Interesting layout and almost anything is possible with a liner.
- small heat pump is doing the job for now. For the price of a large heat pump you could install a small heat pump and a gas heater to get cheap daily heat with a quick temp change when required. Bonus points if you suck the exhaust gas through the heat pump. It probably won't happen often enough to rot it out and it will increase efficiency.
- 4' of concrete around pool is nice and grippy and less maintenance than stone coping which requires gluing in place again every few years. Some stone looks nice but is slippery when wet. They won't tell you this before it is installed.
- pools near me now are solidly six figures (often plus six figures in landscaping) and are more than a year out.
- as for equipment wait time, shop around. Trying to find the heater recently, some stores were "no way are you getting it this year", others had stock.
Damn you both @DownUnder and @GreyGhost ... now I need to look into fiberglass pools and the DIY option! Damnit.
Wife already mentioned a few days ago:
- wouldn't it be cool to have a pool in the yard?
- hmmm...I know you mentioned these small camping trailers before...maybe they'd be fun for the kids....
FML
Wife already mentioned a few days ago:
- wouldn't it be cool to have a pool in the yard?
- hmmm...I know you mentioned these small camping trailers before...maybe they'd be fun for the kids....
FML
Priller
Well-known member
They are actual attached townhouses like you see in KW but they are "condos" so you must pay monthly fees. Bullsh8t
FOR example
$698,000 + $651 Monthly
In KW..
$739,900 - no fees
Check out this listing
$700k - no fees
Not bull$hit. Those fees go towards maintenance and upkeep of shared facilities, which in most cases includes the exterior of the townhouse, including big-ticket items like cladding, windows and the roof. It's not some cash grab, and nobody is taking a profit except the companies hired to manage the property or conduct maintenance or repairs. Risk is low on most townhouse complexes, unless there's a shared parking structure, particularly if it's underground. That's money you should be saving in a freehold situation anyway.
Each group is different. Some will spend lots on landscaping and seasonal floral updates, others will skimp on everything and wait until it's about to be condemned before acting (which inevitably costs exponentially more and usually involves a special assessment). Part of the purchase process is deciding if the plans fit what you want.
I'd be equally cautious about a freehold townhouse situation, as your neighbour's inability or unwillingness to maintain their home may impact you directly.
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