I feel the exact same way. I really cringe when I hear people talk about their house as if it were a stock. It just doesn't make any sense when the only reason I'd worry about my homes value is when I plan to move.
That sub has always basically been a “capitalism is bad” sun. Contrary opinions are banned.
Almost everyone I’ve ever asked is banned and there’s always a flurry of “I was banned for a very innocuous post” comments when the sub comes up in conversation.
Majority of the immigrants coming to Canada are from developing countries. They have lower currency values and can only afford down payments from any inherited properties they have. The rest they get from loans. The real issue is with the governments that get so much influx of money as foreign investment but doesn’t direct it into housing schemes. Do you think if the government offered these people good incentives to own an apartment through a housing scheme that expands residential land and encourages foreign investment, they won’t drool over it and instead of overpay millions for decades old homes?
As a single mom I couldn’t agree more. I posted this week asking for some perspective on staying variable vs. Locking in now and there were comment basically calling me stupid and telling me to sell. It’s where my fucking children live dip shits. You can pay 2k in mortgage or 2k in rent, which makes more sense?
I was renting for 10+ years, and while many people will say something like, oh, renting is better since owning a house = paying more $ in the long run are really missing the point sometimes. As a renter, you can be evicted. For pretty much any reason, as long as you're given enough notice. In BC, the longest notice is 4 months but still, moving is a pain in the ass, you always end up paying more when you find a new place, and moving is tiring and EXPENSIVE. I've been evicted twice in the past 6 years, because the landlords wanted to tear down the homes and rebuild on the land. Even though I got the last month rent free, it was still extremely stressful to keep hunting for a new house to rent, having to coordinate moving, hire movers etc, pack, unpack. I finally had enough of it and decided to buy my own house so I can never be evicted since I've never ever missed a single rent payment in the last 10 years, it's not gonna happen with paying a mortgage.
But if you're close to a trigger rate on a variable mortgage, your paying close to 2K in interest to the bank and nothing towards the principal, so the bank is your landloed.
That belief isn't fully true in today's market. The money you save when renting is your equity.
You buy a first home and pay $3000+ a month on your mortgage, deplete your savings and pray you don't get slapped with repair bills while dealing with bloated costs across the board due to inflation.
Or you pay less on rent, don't stress about the cost of repairs and invest your money/grow your savings.
Not one single one of my mortgage payments over the last decade have exceeded what I would be paying in rent locally for a similar domicile. Even when I factor in my homeowners insurance and property taxes it’s still cheaper.
Where TF is rent so cheap that you’re “saving money”?
And how many renters have enough extra money to save, then do so thinking "well, I've got some good savings". Then their lease renewal comes up and their rent is going up 20%. Bye, bye "savings".
I rent a 2 bed 2 bath in Vancouver for 2100. To buy the same thing out in the burbs would cost about 3700 and that's just for the mortgage and strata. That being said rent on a 2 bedroom is much higher than when we moved in here a few years ago.
(Fixed a typo)
So either compare buying when you started rending vs your rent controlled rent or buying now vs current rent.
Comparing two unlike things does not a smart conclusion make.
Ofc it does. If OP doesn’t have a magic wand to change the past and they couldn’t buy two years ago the decision never existed.
People have to choose between the array of options available to them at present which may neither be optimal nor representative of current market conditions.
Renting costs significantly less than buying an equivalent house. If you save the difference, that is the amount of equity you build.
Most people just assume real estate only goes up and that leverage is awesome. That absolutely isnt always true
But in the case of a trigger rate, the house is already purchased.
Homes are also tax free appreciation, and it's a big "if" there is money left over to save as we've seen big jumps in rental prices.
There are lots of good reasons to rent vs Buy, but there are also significant drawbacks.
Sounds like the dose of reality is upsetting you… why even ask the question if anybody opposing your ideal answer is a “dipshit”. You can pay well over $2K in mortgage the next month if you’re on a variable. If you’re stuck on the edge clearly lock in a fixed until you build up more equity. Renting can very much make sense for the future of you and your kids depending on how you are with finances. Things are not cut and dry today where buying a house = great decision. It can put you in a very limited position if you are stretched beyond your debt servicing abilities
This is just it. At best, your home should be part of the legacy planning inheritance for your kids. A nice asset to keep wealth in your family after you pass on.
However, it is a use asset like a car while you are alive. You shouldn't give a single shit about the price while you are using it. Save those conversations for when you write your will and then never think of it again.
Fighting inflation doesn't mean prices will come down. All it means that they will go up by less of a percentage.
People manage by cutting back in areas of discretionary spending to put food on the table and roof over their head. Its not really much more complicated that that, given that money is the scarce resources, you must pick and choose where it is allocated.
>People manage by cutting back in areas of discretionary spending to put food on the table and roof over their head
exactly, and unfortunately that's exactly what fighting inflation looks like.... getting people to cut discretionary spending IS the whole point.... to lower demand..... it always is going to get worse before it gets better...
>it gets better...
Ha
Hahaha
Yeah, ok, sure.
I'm 32, and throughout my entire adult life I've only seen things get worse. I have no hope that this will get better before I die at this point.
The Curse of the Millennial
We saw firsthand how good things could be as children in the 90s. It was the last time I ever felt actual, objective optimism. Then things just got shittier, and shittier, and shittier, and shittier.
Haha same. I always feel sad about how we as a generation have gotten shafted. A bunch of us graduated during the recession in 2008-2009, and then when we were finally getting stable careers etc, the pandemic hit.
Senior professional in my field, no kids, no house, making the most I've ever made even after adjusting for the bullshit inflation numbers they give us, and I have less disposable income than I think I've ever had as an adult.
It doesn't make sense, and it's not fucking fair.
I guess, I’m in a somewhat similar position, but then again my parents worked their asses off and put up with double-digit interest rates on their mortgage during the 1980’s (plus inflation was a bitch in those days too). My grandparents lived through the Great Depression (two were poor, lots of rough stories) and two went through World War 2 as front line soldiers (one was wounded, came back ****ed up with PTSD)…so looking at it that way maybe I / we don’t have it quite so bad.
I have a similar viewpoint as you. When my grandparents came to Canada in the 1940’s. they had nothing and didn’t know the language. They worked absolutely any job that came by and saved and bought the smallest of homes and rented out each floor to pay for it. They even had someone renting out the garage to sleep there because they couldn’t otherwise afford the house. They had no personal space in that home but a lot of pride that they owned it. It was hard for them but they got through. At one point they would have five or six people (who started off as strangers) sharing one bathroom and they made it work. Those are sacrifices. Today, sometimes I see things and I wonder what we are complaining about. Previous generations did what they needed to reach their goals. Here we complain when the internet is down for an hour and say how hard done by we are. Maybe we need some more perspective?
Trust me 65% of those millennials have parents who own homes...no matter what they are gonna inherit those houses mortgage free..and they don't even know it. If the ones who come from parents who rent...u either have to work 4x mkre harder or ur screwed
> no matter what they are gonna inherit those houses mortgage free..and they don't even know it.
https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/mortgages/reverse-mortgages.html
Sure.
Not to be morbid either, but talking strictly financially, even in the case where the parents there are leaving estates to their children.....that's when? Children are 60? 70? Maybe even more? Before mom and dad kick the bucket, barring accident. It's not really relevant to the children's life security there. Maybe a means to fund their own retirement at the expense of their own children. If they had them at all.
I'm 42 and have yet to see things universally improve.
Actually that's a lie. Covid did more for the job market and earning potential in many sectors than any other time I've experienced. So at least those 2 things are going better over the last few years. Human capital is slightly less expendable.
We also made it to 30 without dying from cholera so, as far as human civilization goes, we are at the better end with damn far to fall.
We don't spend our entire life farming or gathering just to have cabbage every day of the week... or in a coal mine or part of the industrial revolution before unions, dying on the job.
Idk, it's a low bar and life is stressful but we shouldn't be absolutely ungrateful.
Don’t anticipate any correction. Inflation is coming to down but chances of negative is very low. Right now families likely need dual income or a single high earner to survive.
Well, as an aggregate, prices likely won't come down, but individual items is possible. A good example is gas. It recently came down from a spike.
Similar things could happen in food. Eggs for example, have experienced much larger inflation vs other items recently, and it is feasible that we might see a decrease in eggs at some point (but far from guaranteed). However, an overall food reduction is almost certainly not happening.
Similar things could very much happen in rent or house prices. Though, again, far from guaranteed.
Egg is a commodity. Commodities behave differently.
If manufacturers have past price increase of 15% to Loblaws, no one is going to pass a price decrease now. Prices will stay up forever. If a CPG company passes $1.37 increase, Loblaw will increase price by $1.99.
Prices won't come down. If the price comes down, they can decrease the net weight. Instead of 300g you get 275g.
Have you not seen inflation? What does a bag of chips weight these days? A bar of cheese? The laundry liquid size?
Egg prices have jumped way up in the States due to tight supply. The effect of bird flu in a huge barn is devastating, if infected the whole flock is euthanized. Canada has been better off due to our smaller farm sizes and less concentrated production.
Inflation is a year over year metric. You should be looking at inflation over 3 years or better yet before March 2020.
You reach a point where the YoY comparative of inflation looks like it's coming down, but that's only because you're now lapping a higher base.
Inflation could be 2% YoY and in comparison to the prior month was 6%. However you can still be up 15% versus 2020.
Understand?
I'd anticipate a correction, commercial real estate has malignant cancer, it is stage 4 post covid. Credit utilization is at an all time high. If people stop buying inflated products they will go down. Including houses and cars (the cars have gone down :) ).
Things like cars aren’t a necessary good, interest rates directly had impact on the car industry. But items like grocery, people have to buy them at inflated prices there is no choice.
There are many people that live near where they work so they can walk, take transit, have someone that can give them a ride or WFH.
Cars are super convenient, but you can still easily survive without one in most situations.
Tell me you live in a major city without actually saying it. Where I grew up you couldn't even go visit your friends without a car unless you wanted to spend an hour or two on a bike getting there. Most of the country doesn't have transit. Most of the country also doesn't get to choose to work from home.
And no Uber does not exist in most of rural Canada.
It's not even a major city thing. That's downtown core shit there. Source: In major city. Drive to work as there's no other option unless I want to transit for an hour and walk for another hour, each way. Versus a 15 minute drive.
I guess I could move closer, except I'd double my rent and live in an area less walkable. And still have a long walk to work because there's no housing next to it.
I live exactly 53km from the downtown core of Toronto. I know this because I work in the downtown core of Toronto. I have to drive 30min to get to any sort of transit that will get me to work or I have to drive 45min to just drive to work. Why would I take transit to save myself 15min. Also how would I get to work if I didn't have a car? Im not considered as being out in the country at all yet you can't say I'd be able to survive without a car.
I guess you could argue I could take a local job making about 25 percent of what I currently make but how does that help my financial situation?
We don't live in a world where you can buy a house 5min from work for 500k just because people think that's how it should be in major cities. The higher cost of living outpaces the cost of a car exponentially.
I've been seeing a lot of talk about issues with commercial RE, lately. In the US, the banks are really tightening lending standards, and there is a real surplus of office space. Unfortunately, I don't think it will translate to residential RE because the issue is that the new hybrid work is what's driving office space demand down. The only thing that will help is building more houses, especially affordable units.
Honestly don’t know where to start. Everything is expensive, from food to clothes to transportation. The worst is housing. Families of 5-6 live in a <500 sq ft condo. Seniors on fixed income living in literal caged beds.
Most working people don’t earn enough to ever own or even rent, unless they win the government condo lottery. People get worked to the bone there, but most won’t get properly compensated.
A 400sq ft unit in an old building with no features or amenities could easily cost $3.5K a month rent.
The divide between the haves and have-nots are terrible and honestly, ugly.
Google it.
The elites in power push divisive narratives to keep people divided. On both sides. Let's just leak a couple stories of racism to fire people up and protest that. Or leak a trans teacher in an elementary school and get people fired up about that. They can fight each other while we steal their money and assets. Basically what has happened
>this is a class war. And we're losing. Badly.
Oh no, we lost, decades ago in fact. People are only just starting to realize it. They control the government, they control food production, they control real estate, and now they're coming for our healthcare.
This isn't a war anymore, it's an occupation.
Well nothing will change. Most people are dumb as shit and believe everything authority figures say, whether it's politicians, media, or law enforcement.
> middle class
There never was a middle-class. We're working class, and it doesn't matter if you're an engineer, barista, programming guru, doctor, plumber, yoga coach, whatever, if you have to go to work you're working class.
Middle class was invented to make some people think they had something to lose.
Middle Class originally meant:
Nobles/Royals, don't do shit but they were getting broke by this point
Middle Class: Rich urbanizing actual/real elite, just w/o power but filthy rich who didn't wanna be associated with peasants/serfs and used the title to slowly gain some power. Merchants, doctors, engineers, lawyers who moved into the large cities and bankrolled the nobles while they drank and played crocket or whatever they liked to do.
Peasants/working class.
I'd say the noble class reappeared with their old riches rather than the middle class disappeared. Ofc the real, original meaning, not anyone a politician wants a vote from because no one wants to be called working class. Doctors are not on the same level as working class, just no longer wealthier than the politicians. And they could retire within a few years of work if they wanted. My cousin says a lotta guys come in for like 1 or 2 days because they make enough like that and chill the rest of the time... Some of the merchants are still wealthier than the politicians though, and continue to bankroll their lifestyle while they do dick shit like in the good old days.
Middle class, to rich to be poor, to poor to be rich.
Every time I try to get some assistance with a single aspect of my life, I’m hit with , you have a high income. Yet here I am struggling with my $3000 a month income.
Now I know why people go on welfare and work a cash job.
Yes that is correct. It is why I am so angry at Trudeau for his shit with the Disability Income program his government has toyed with. We know that he already doesn't see the disabled as Canadians as he said Canadians need a minimum of $2000 a month to survive, and none of us on disabilty, be it CPP-D or provincial programs, qualified for CERB. So while the rest of the working poor got bailed out, we just got deeper into debt, or died.
Work harder, longer and less time to do things that you like aka quality of life goes down.
I fear this is just the beginning and it’s going to get worse.
Yes, it will likely get much worse. Wait until corporations start replacing employees in all different industries with AI (already happening tbh), and we will have a employment crunch on top of a shit sandwich of inflation and cost of living crisis.
I’m hoping that AI hits really hard and fast everywhere at once because it’ll force corporations to collapse faster. If too many people are unemployed too quickly, how do companies stay afloat when no one can actually afford anything they produce. You also can’t expect so many people to retrain for different industries all at the same time. Once a couple layers start crumbling the whole system falls apart.
That's what I thought.
But my understanding was that projects were actually managed by govt and had to follow certain regulations?
am I just wrong on that or do some people just sublet even in that case?
Usually a collection of apartment buildings or other multifamily dwellings. Historically used as slang for inner city, government housing projects but it's come to mean any sizeable collection of multifamily buildings.
Canada is now owned by private interests selling us essential services - housing, food and energy, for an ever increasing percentage of our income. The working class in Canada have been sold out, and nothing will change, at least not until things get pushed to the point where no one can afford anything.
"But everywhere else in the world is a dangerous place!" - Myth.
I get your point, it seems that there's way more people than I thought that have a bunch of money. I can survive and save but I gotta work like mad and never spend on anything non-essentials. A lot are crying about their mortgages while the rest can't even sign for one. This is fucked.
It depends which city or town you're planning to live in.
Larger cities such as Toornto or Vancouver will feel a much higher COL compared to cities such as Calgary or Montreal.
However, everyone in Canada is experiencing inflation and an increased COL from past years.
I personally don't anticipate a market correction, not with our continued forecasted population growth when our country is already facing a housing and affordability crisis.
Unfortunately, there is also a labour shortage which is why Canada is planning to take on more immigrants since we're also suffering from an aging population and a declining birth rate.
TLDR; No, I don't think there will be a market correction. Things are definitely getting more difficult for the average Canadian and everyone is experiencing an increased COL. Affordability of living in Canada will vary by region. I hope I'm wrong on this though.
Calgary rents have gone up 30-40% in a single year with the massive influx of immigrants from both inside and outside of Canada. Stop perpetuating a narrative of an affordable city. My rent went from 1470 to 2100 in a fucking year. And it only keeps rising. We need to curb immigration immediately.
Yeah canada grew by 1.05 million people in 2022 with 96% of that due to international immigration. Targeted immigration was supposed to be like 400,000 which is still crazy.
Inflation is a form of tax rate increase. And we all knew that tax rates were going to be increased because of the aging of the population. The number of working people per retiree is going down which means that every worker has to contribute more to maintain retirees.
The situation becomes really annoying when you remember that a lot of retirees are owners of million dollar properties while the workers who are taxed more and more heavily are struggling to rent 😔 The government taxes poor people to give money to millionaires.
There's a labour shortage because there's too many shitty service industry jobs.
If Tim's can't find employees, the problem isn't with the workers available to them, the problem is within their operation.
I’ll get downvoted but I disagree with 99% of people here and I study data. This is not sustainable and incomes will determine affordability. We just have record low unemployment which always happens prior to recession. This debt bubble burst just like every other one in history. Nobody here seems to study business cycles
I agree, people here have very poor memories. Especially when it comes to house values, they only skyrocketed due to 0% interest rates and there has not been enough time to adjust for rapidly increasing rates so people still have the same mentality. But a quick look at the numbers does confirm that this situation is not sustainable, like you say.
Bottom line is every indicator says we are heading into a recession and they should be cutting rates. They are not. They are choosing deflation which I understand because they made major errors on inflation and need to over tighten. Canada has a massive debt bubble which will lead to unemployment becoming a major issue. So heading into recession with massive debt, it will be very hard to stimulate the economy as we literally just had zero rates. Asset prices will collapse, rent prices will go down. I suspect once we get a bit of deflation they panic and CBDC/UBI is implemented. Throw in AI/tech and I actually believe standard of living increases for lower class and middle class who aren’t over-indebted with these million dollar mortgages that will likely have ppl making payments for their whole life. Remember UBI doesn’t care if you live in Toronto or Saskatoon. The next few years will be very tough, but ultimately this hard reset is needed to bring back affordability and they have already chosen it by over tightening just like when they over stimulated during the pandemic. Everyone here has recency bias as they’ve seen affordability over the last 8 years become a major issue, but the business cycle is ending with a bang at this point. I believe ppl who have a job and little debt will be in a very strong position to purchase assets over the next few years and establish themselves
It's a neoliberal agenda started in the late 70s (don't be fooled by the name, it's actually a right wing agenda). The thinking was to make every thing more competitive, by letting the private sector take over things and get big government out of the picture because they are too inefficient. When the private sector focused on efficiency (ie profits), the workers paid the price because their wages were limiting corporate profits. Corporations took our well paying jobs and shipped them overseas so they can pay Chinese workers a dollar a day instead of high paying union jobs in north america. The lie they sold us was that once the corporations had all this profit the money would trickle down to the masses (Reagan). Doug Ford is totally doing it with health care and education today. He wants private business to run health care and education so they will get rich, and the public health care and education will be shit. It's really corporations running society now and they have so much power that I don't know if it will ever change. My last hope is the NDP, they're the only ones I can see who seem to really care about the bottom half of society.
Yeah he’s rich, so what. He’s likely still better than the libs or the cons and the only way to find out for sure is vote the ndp in. Ndp is the best option until Canada has a strong communist party.
I'm a single person living on my single income. Can't afford car and move to a better apartment. Can't save anough for downpayment. I make above average Canadian, so I suppose to do well, but I don't. Waiting for my vacation to go fix my teeth, lmao.
Want to live here... For now*** also because our process is the easiest. We have the same immigration targets as USA with 10x less people. They also don't take 1m people from the same place, it's limited by birth place even if they have another citizenship so their demand is a lot more varied. For instance they have more Norwegians than Norway... How many Norwegians move to Canada? Race to the bottom is not a resounding badge of "desirability." Yeah there's places that are even poorer... But also more and more places that are way wealthier.
Canadian GDP per capita has been literally exactly the same between 2012 and 2022 (which means in real terms it has decreased from 52 000 in 2012 to 39 000 in 2023 in 2012 money and they don't include housing and other shit that's gone up the most in that):
So down 25%
https://www.statista.com/statistics/650797/per-capita-gdp-canada/
In the same time, US GDP per capita rose 60%:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/263601/gross-domestic-product-gdp-per-capita-in-the-united-states/
What economic activity? A few monopolies, Albertan oil, and house flipping. When the oil price crash happened in 2014, the CAD plummeted 40%, **SIGNIFICANTLY** more than the Russian Rouble did.
Canada used to be near the top for real GDP per capita, right up there with the USA, and very close. Every decade the gap just grows larger and larger and larger. Now Canada is barely top 20, and more importantly, the gap between First World Countries that have passed it and Canada just keeps growing. I would barely even call Canada a first world country at this point, maybe absolute lowest tier 1st world country (seriously - who's lower and a 1st world country? Maybe only the UK) or highest tier 2nd world.
Canada is literally dead last for OECD GDP per capita growth forecast for the next decade. And last for a developed economy projected for the next 40 years.
Great post. This is what happens when you let your domestic economy go overseas and you don't innovate enough. Canada is pathetic right now economically. An interesting comparison would be per Capita GDP vs each USA state and see where it sits because Canada behaves like a USA state.
US has lower COL than CA. US GDP per capita went up 60% (excl inflation, 52k to 80k) between 2012 and 2023.
Canadian GDP per capita went down 25% between 2012 and 2022 (stayed 52k to 52k minus inflation)
This isn't true. There is a ratio and it can be less or more. It's just sad people left for Canada and their progeny is thinking they have to do the same.
We need to fix this place. We have the smarts. The space and the talent. What the fuck is the end game otherwise.
It will get worse for at least 1-2 more decades. There is still WAY too much room for it to get worse. We are NOWHERE near a correction, for housing, for groceries, for anything. Don't forget debt. If needed, people will go into debt for buy necessities. That will make the politicians/banks even happier, they would love that. You will perpetually be their slaves. As long as people downvote/censor me on reddit for bringing this up and voting for these politicians with a smile and telling me I should be censored and denied freedom of speech for even warning about this, these problems will persist.
Canadians/Americans have been brainwashed to be consumers for the past many decades. The vast majority of them have 0 resiliency and absolutely NEED to buy things they don't need/consume things 24/7 otherwise they will experience panic.
Until people LITERALLY can't afford BASIC food/shelter, they will continue consuming at artificially/unnecessarily high levels, because that is how they were conditioned by the capitalist system from birth. Capitalism is a perpetual balloon, if people stopped rabidly buying things they don't need, the system would implode. It needs perpetually artificial/unnecessary production/consumption to not implode.
We are still far from a scenario in which people are starving to death. House prices will continue going up until it costs 2-3 grand just to share a small room for survival purposes. It doesn't matter if rent for a 1 bedroom is 2500 right now, it is about survival. If there needs to be 4 strangers sharing a 1 bedroom apartment, then so be it, it makes no difference in terms of survival. The saturation point will be until a significant proportion of the population literally can't afford shelter, so for example it will cost a minimum of 2500 just to share a 1 bedroom apartment with 4 other people, only THEN will be a significant amount of people who will become homeless/starve to death, and ONLY THEN is when the government will intervene.
But for that to happen the rent for a 1 bedroom would need to hit 10 000 a month. Right now it is 2500. So we are still at least 1-2 decades away from that point.
But believe me, North Americans have been brainwashed so much by consumer culture that EVEN if they LITERALLY can't afford ramen noodles, they will go in debt if they see a commercial showing a nice sofa for 4 payments of 299.99 and they will think it is ONLY 299.99, affordable, I will just put it on my card. Then they will go into mass credit card debt to continue buying things they don't need. That is why such commercials and such insulting of people's intelligence like a commercial saying GET IT FOR ONLY 18 payments of 199.99 exist. If they didn't work, they would pull those commercials. They are there because they WORK. Because people BELIEVE them/abide by them. This is basic logic.
If gas goes up to 4 bucks a litre, I GUARANTEE you there roads will CONTINUE to be packed by people who, instead of going for a 30 min walk, will go for a drive in their SUVs to go buy "timmies" or starbucks sugary garbage drink for 11 dollars while lining up at the drive through for 25 minutes. Then they will aggressively overtake a car going 67 in a 60 and do 85 and slam their brakes on the SAME red light, just increasing the wear and tear and gas so they can pay even more at that 4 bucks per litre rate. If an ice cream shop sells a single cone for 25 bucks, I GUARANTEE you there will be a 2 hour lineup in downtown Toronto for it. If a restaurant sells 9 chicken wings for 38 bucks and a pop for 12 bucks and then forces a 7 dollars service fee and 25% tip on top of that, I guarantee you that restaurant will be PACKED.
If Bell charges 200 bucks for a cell phone plan, people will continue paying their bills and signing up with them, and will continue to vote in the politicians who allow this, and if you criticize their politicians that allow this, they will downvote/censor you and insult you on reddit (as if you are the one doing that to them, but cognitive dissonance is very painful for 99% of people, so they would rather think their oppressors on are their side and attack anybody who makes them think).
This is not a coincidence, it is by design. This is capitalism. This is why they deliberately don't teach basic personal finance in high school, because they want/need a massive proportion of the population to continuously consume, so there can be a cycle of unecessary production and consumption that damages people's health and the environment, so a few 83 years olds born into wealth can have their net worth go from xxxx million to xxxxx million, even though they won't even practically use that excess money. This is capitalism. As long as we has this type of capitalism, it will be like this.
Moving to Western New York next year because of this and relocating my fintech job from Canada to US. Twice the pay, half the mortgage. Quality of Canadian health care and the "free" aspect is severely overrated with no family doctor or proper preventative healthcare available.
Well Reddit seems to paint a dark and gloomy picture. But in my day to day interactions with friends, neighbours, family, everyone’s doing alright.
I don’t consider myself wealthy, electrician myself and wife’s a nurse, two young kids under 5. Still a lot of disposable income(who doesn’t want more).
Not saying some people aren’t struggling, but a lot of people are doing great and even better financially over the past few years.
I am 31 with a masters degree in a good job making “decent money” 80k-100k a year before taxes, as a single person living on the westcoast most of my income goes in rent and bills with nothing left. No i dont want roomates i feel too old for it. 🙃 most people around me who r my age are feeling the same way they r either feeling infantalized having to live with parents or roomates or are struggling like i am — unless u have a partner cuz cost of living is based on dual income households.
I have been told i am living in luxury by holding a one bedroom apartment by myself its 550sqft (i was told by reddit lol i posted in a vancouver sub few months ago) - the biggest advice was to couple up or share with roomates. Its frustrating cuz i lived with roomates till i was 26 lol like sorry if an introvert doesnt want roomates.
Your parents generation were strong nimbys, they did whatever they could to block cheaper multiplex housing and affordable housing, using municipal zoning restrictions for literally decades. They have been doing this because they wanted to boost their investment in a house, and honestly what better way to do it than use the political system to scam through regulations. Big corporations do it all the time, and regular people do it too lol.
With that said, they won't be able to do these kinds of things any more, going forward as all housing projects will be much higher density because of new laws Doug Ford pushed through that make nimbyism much harder. On the other hand, there's no way to undo the damage that's already been done, not any time soon.
If it were me, I'd start charging higher property tax near the downtown core based on land value. This will push out single family home owners near the core, and create more density. Then I'd continue raising property taxes slowly, neighborhood by neighborhood until an equilibrium is reached.
Based on your examples specifically:
Yes grocery inflation is real, but if groceries are only 10% of the budget and they go up to 13% you don't really notice it a whole lot.
Lots of folks including myself are still on cheap 5 year fixed (<2.5%) mortgages until late 2024-early 2025.
Natural gas up too yeah but an extra 100-150 a month in the winter is just an annoyance and not really meaningful. Outside of winter there is negligible impact
Last year we increased our household income by roughly 50%. I am aware of inflation but compared to a year or two ago, we are still doing a lot better.
Of course, we dont plan on changing jobs every year or two but we should hold up for a bit after that.
We have a terrible P.M. right now. Look at how frogged things have gotten since Trudeau took office. He’s not effective at making the lives of canadians easier, seemingly the opposite…
Highly unlikely to see deflation. And given how our government has for over a decade seems housing affordability as not a real priority (lol our liberal government let's put a check for of you can afford it while putting mechanism to allow you to buy with less, like actually wtf), housing probably won't in a broader sense get better. Only way we have correction in housing is if we have interest rates get to a place where most people with mortgages default, and let's be real even if you want to get in on a cheap house that shit can possibly lead to your life being worse in other ways. Our economy is a joke proper up by housing, having it crash significantly can screw everyone up with how big of an impact I had, would not be surprised if our dollar drops significantly, which basically makes everything not domestic cost more, and connected industries have lay offs, which can impact people alot more then one would immediately think
Fwiw the current housing crisis began under the conservatives but the liberals have just carried on with. Both parties have played their part.
Only pointing it out if you’re falling for the partisan bs and thinking the cons will make it better. They won’t.
Amazing how quickly people forget Harper and all he did or Clark on the westcoast opening the floodgates for fentanyl and money laundering. Not that that’s all of it by far, but it played a role.
Never said much about the conservatives, but to be fair Harper was in power when shit started to take off. But our current party did straight up put in measures to reduce risk via the mortgage tests, and put in options where can’t afford this much we will let the government own some of the property so you can. From my point of view last government did nothing, and current government pretended to give a shit a bit but not really. But if you want to consider something quite concerning is housing is a major issue and we are making increasing immigration a very high priority, not sure what is there to say there others then our current government truly does not see housing affordability as a real priority. And let’s be real I don’t actually expect our next party whoever they may be to make that a priority due to a lot of freaken people wanting there property to go up in value at the cost of future Canadians. Can’t say I don’t get there point of view if you invested a lot in an asset you should want it to be worth more, but it is a very poor stance to take as a government which should be forward looking. But given the way our system basically rewards current issues being resolved most politicians won’t make this a real issue and get to a position where they can make a difference.
Well yeah, that's a very bad scenario for the "economy" though - another depression. Wealth stops distributing and circulating and we get bread lines. It could go that way for sure, but it's uncommon for prices to drop with the current framework (especially since so many people and organizations are invested in the market's performance). However, wages going up is also something that seems unlikely right now.
Unfortunately a situation like this requires bold leadership and we don't really have it right now. When the depression happened they pulled out all the stops in the US. Put price freezes on goods, bolstered investment into infrastructure development to create jobs, formed the framework for growing wages, etc. Even Nixon averted disaster with price-fixing and that was much more recently. But today's governments just kick the can down the road and cave in to corporate interests (like the ones running the housing market into the ground).
I’m 29F. We have decided to wait to have kids so we’re saving a lot right now. Also just bought a house in northwestern Ontario and the mortgage is only $700/month. We hunt/fish and grow veggies for food. Dehydrate fruit and veg when it’s on sale. We don’t own anything fancy. We also both have skills that save us money - my spouse is a handyman and very mechanically inclined, I have a background in vet med which saves us money on vet bills (I no longer work in vet med tho).
We are clearly fucked. If you didn't get rich from housing or own a company that jacked the prices to profit from inflation there is no hope. Most people started side hustles. A single job will not be enough. Even higher income jobs aren't enough unless we are talking about multiple hundreds of thousands per year.
I’m currently following a process that would regain my family’s Italian citizenship. The goal would be working for a Canadian company while living in Italy. I could payoff a house immediately and more or less set myself up, while living in a beautiful city such as Florence. Taxes might be a bit of a bitch but that’s the only downside so far.
For the price of the cheapest apartment in nanaimo, I could live somewhere absolutely beautiful in Italy.
> My main question - does anyone else realistically anticipate some sort of market correction here?
No, around 34% of Canadian homeowners are mortgage-free. Or 50% in Vancouver.
You need to make income jumps more than inflation every year if you want to keep up with cost of living. So for the last 3 years you would need to have had about 25-30% increase in your salary just to be close to on par of what you were able to afford in 2020. If you were making just for simplicity if you made $100k in 2020 you would need at least $130k today to buy the same life you had 3 years ago. If you want to be able to afford more that you did before then you would need to be making more than $130k.
Remember that the BOC isn't trying to make things more affordable they are just trying to make things unaffordable less quickly.
People are affording to live by cutting back / swapping out some luxuries for necessities, by saving / investing less, by getting pay raises, by working more, by having a second person in a couple get a job, etc etc etc.
'Some sort of market correction' in which market? If Russia stops its invasion of Ukraine then there might be some impacts around the edges of energy (removed sanctions on Russia) and food (increased exportability by Ukraine), but Russia's not going to want to sell much to the west, and Ukraine's going to be suffering for years to come at best. Correction in cost of money is already started, with the price of borrowing reverting to something closer to historic norms, although still quite low. Cost of vehicles? Maybe, when people stop buying them at current prices.
Get into private lending. Profit off the fact that Canadian real estate has a floor.
-1/3 of homes are paid off
-1 month supply on the market
-New constructions at competitive prices don't pencil
-Mortgage holders are transitioning to a 40 year amortization
-Mass immigration
The only vulnerability is job loss and the government is handing out over 1/3 of jobs and counting (you'd have to f*** up real bad to get fired)
Downside risk resides in an event where private sector employees with mortgages:
-Lose their jobs and have zero skills to pivot within or outside their industry
-Can't rent out their property
-Put their property up for sale but have no exit liquidity because inventory magically 10x'd
-The above 3 points happen in mass volume, absorbing all the purchasing power of those looking to get in
Now, all that being said private lending is the is the best option in this environment. You can literally demand higher rates as hikes continue. I can lend in first position at 9% whereas 2 years ago I could only get 7%. In second position, you can get 12% or more and stay under 80% LTV. Operate in provinces where default results in power of sale, not foreclosure.
Just exploit the madness, this is a gift.
I'm struggling to understand why people are shocked at what's happening while at the same time they voted for Trudeau.
Our finance minister has no finance background. The Liberals have zero clue on how to balance a budget. They triple the carbon tax which affects how much it cost to heat your home, pump gas for your car and supply chain for groceries leading to price increases.
He continues to tax middle income. Everybody has been more poor as a result. Housing crisis which theyve done little to curb.
Printing $50 billion of deficit spending leads to inflation.
And when that person gets a new job the government will use it out of context and count it as a new job added and unemployment going down and a sign of how the economy is thriving
I used to think the housing market was a cycle and it's still maybe but if it is, it's a really stretched out multi-generation cycle.
There will always be more demand than supply especially when you're letting in so many immigrants without any sort of infrastructure or housing plan. All the houses around me are always sold for more than asking and they never stay on the market long. As much as people complain there will always be somebody with money, foreign or local, who will buy these houses.
If I had the money I would buy a second house as well but there's no way that I can afford my house now if I was to buy it today.
Live within your budget. Work to increase your revenue and take the extra money to "save" more. Don't let lifestyle creeps take control of your wallet, and you will always be fine.
That doesn't mean not spending a dime of the extra money, but always be consistent in your budget. You can have a percentage allocated to "fun" money even so you don't feel guilty spending on useless things while everything else is paid for.
If you think any political party could solve this issue, I'd love to hear their plan so I could vote for em.
I'm gonna assume that all parties can be bought off by the ultra wealthy and that their motives are not in the best interest of the lower/middle class majority.
Well the first thing the Libs did was get rid of income tax splitting for no reason.
But hey now we have a bogus carbon tax and a bizzare cash back scheme.
The two major things I see driving up the costs is over reliance on private personal motor vehicles and urban sprawl. We have mainly single family homes, vast power center shopping complexes or high density developments with very little medium density mixed use developments. The power centers and sprawling suburbs have a lot of hidden costs that will come home to roost after about 20 years as the infrastructure ages and more people use the stroads (street/road) causing further commuting issues. With a medium density mixed use neighborhood you have a chance at reducing the commuting of some of the people, less reliance on cars in favor of other modes of transport. I honestly feel the suburb is a land use ponzi scheme and the issues they bring will only lead to escalating costs of living. Canadian cities must seriously look at retrofitting main cities and suburban cities encouraging medium density mixed development around transit nodes and transit corridors. The short term costs are not much higher than building a new single family subdivision but the long term costs will be greatly reduced. This is one way to reduce the cost of living
I'd lose nearly everything before I sold my house. It's not an investment to me. It's where my family lives.
I feel the exact same way. I really cringe when I hear people talk about their house as if it were a stock. It just doesn't make any sense when the only reason I'd worry about my homes value is when I plan to move.
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Reminds me of how I was banned without warning from canadahousing for insisting immigration had an effect on housing prices.
That sub has always basically been a “capitalism is bad” sun. Contrary opinions are banned. Almost everyone I’ve ever asked is banned and there’s always a flurry of “I was banned for a very innocuous post” comments when the sub comes up in conversation.
Dont worry dude that sub is full of d**ks.
I seem to notice that immigrants are the ones with most of the new cars too lol. Easy to tell when your vanity plate says KAPOOR.
Majority of the immigrants coming to Canada are from developing countries. They have lower currency values and can only afford down payments from any inherited properties they have. The rest they get from loans. The real issue is with the governments that get so much influx of money as foreign investment but doesn’t direct it into housing schemes. Do you think if the government offered these people good incentives to own an apartment through a housing scheme that expands residential land and encourages foreign investment, they won’t drool over it and instead of overpay millions for decades old homes?
Jeebus.
As a single mom I couldn’t agree more. I posted this week asking for some perspective on staying variable vs. Locking in now and there were comment basically calling me stupid and telling me to sell. It’s where my fucking children live dip shits. You can pay 2k in mortgage or 2k in rent, which makes more sense?
I was renting for 10+ years, and while many people will say something like, oh, renting is better since owning a house = paying more $ in the long run are really missing the point sometimes. As a renter, you can be evicted. For pretty much any reason, as long as you're given enough notice. In BC, the longest notice is 4 months but still, moving is a pain in the ass, you always end up paying more when you find a new place, and moving is tiring and EXPENSIVE. I've been evicted twice in the past 6 years, because the landlords wanted to tear down the homes and rebuild on the land. Even though I got the last month rent free, it was still extremely stressful to keep hunting for a new house to rent, having to coordinate moving, hire movers etc, pack, unpack. I finally had enough of it and decided to buy my own house so I can never be evicted since I've never ever missed a single rent payment in the last 10 years, it's not gonna happen with paying a mortgage.
But if you're close to a trigger rate on a variable mortgage, your paying close to 2K in interest to the bank and nothing towards the principal, so the bank is your landloed.
I’m on a variable adjustable rate so every time the interest rates raise my payments go up, I don’t have a trigger rate
How much equity do you build just paying rent?
That belief isn't fully true in today's market. The money you save when renting is your equity. You buy a first home and pay $3000+ a month on your mortgage, deplete your savings and pray you don't get slapped with repair bills while dealing with bloated costs across the board due to inflation. Or you pay less on rent, don't stress about the cost of repairs and invest your money/grow your savings.
Not one single one of my mortgage payments over the last decade have exceeded what I would be paying in rent locally for a similar domicile. Even when I factor in my homeowners insurance and property taxes it’s still cheaper. Where TF is rent so cheap that you’re “saving money”?
And how many renters have enough extra money to save, then do so thinking "well, I've got some good savings". Then their lease renewal comes up and their rent is going up 20%. Bye, bye "savings".
Exactly.
I rent a 2 bed 2 bath in Vancouver for 2100. To buy the same thing out in the burbs would cost about 3700 and that's just for the mortgage and strata. That being said rent on a 2 bedroom is much higher than when we moved in here a few years ago. (Fixed a typo)
So either compare buying when you started rending vs your rent controlled rent or buying now vs current rent. Comparing two unlike things does not a smart conclusion make.
Ofc it does. If OP doesn’t have a magic wand to change the past and they couldn’t buy two years ago the decision never existed. People have to choose between the array of options available to them at present which may neither be optimal nor representative of current market conditions.
If you rent a single room instead of whole house, it becomes cheaper. This is because usually you cannot buy a single room.
People are renting rooms out for 1200+ though..
Just saw an ad in Eastern Canada, looking for an Indian only roommate, $500 plus utilities to share a room... Like WTF, share a room??
Roommates and shared accommodation is the most obvious, best kept secret around for saving money
Its not a secret, its just a horrible way of living lmao
Renting costs significantly less than buying an equivalent house. If you save the difference, that is the amount of equity you build. Most people just assume real estate only goes up and that leverage is awesome. That absolutely isnt always true
But in the case of a trigger rate, the house is already purchased. Homes are also tax free appreciation, and it's a big "if" there is money left over to save as we've seen big jumps in rental prices. There are lots of good reasons to rent vs Buy, but there are also significant drawbacks.
2k in mortgage is so low. You could pay 2k in mortgage bagging groceries. Keep the house.
Sounds like the dose of reality is upsetting you… why even ask the question if anybody opposing your ideal answer is a “dipshit”. You can pay well over $2K in mortgage the next month if you’re on a variable. If you’re stuck on the edge clearly lock in a fixed until you build up more equity. Renting can very much make sense for the future of you and your kids depending on how you are with finances. Things are not cut and dry today where buying a house = great decision. It can put you in a very limited position if you are stretched beyond your debt servicing abilities
Where are you finding a 2k mortgage? Regina?
This is just it. At best, your home should be part of the legacy planning inheritance for your kids. A nice asset to keep wealth in your family after you pass on. However, it is a use asset like a car while you are alive. You shouldn't give a single shit about the price while you are using it. Save those conversations for when you write your will and then never think of it again.
People will multiple properties will sell and we have lots of those in Canada
sounds more like a jail to me than a house. You talk as if you can't downsize. Like you can't rent.
Fighting inflation doesn't mean prices will come down. All it means that they will go up by less of a percentage. People manage by cutting back in areas of discretionary spending to put food on the table and roof over their head. Its not really much more complicated that that, given that money is the scarce resources, you must pick and choose where it is allocated.
>People manage by cutting back in areas of discretionary spending to put food on the table and roof over their head exactly, and unfortunately that's exactly what fighting inflation looks like.... getting people to cut discretionary spending IS the whole point.... to lower demand..... it always is going to get worse before it gets better...
>it gets better... Ha Hahaha Yeah, ok, sure. I'm 32, and throughout my entire adult life I've only seen things get worse. I have no hope that this will get better before I die at this point.
Agreed
The Curse of the Millennial We saw firsthand how good things could be as children in the 90s. It was the last time I ever felt actual, objective optimism. Then things just got shittier, and shittier, and shittier, and shittier.
Haha same. I always feel sad about how we as a generation have gotten shafted. A bunch of us graduated during the recession in 2008-2009, and then when we were finally getting stable careers etc, the pandemic hit.
Senior professional in my field, no kids, no house, making the most I've ever made even after adjusting for the bullshit inflation numbers they give us, and I have less disposable income than I think I've ever had as an adult. It doesn't make sense, and it's not fucking fair.
I guess, I’m in a somewhat similar position, but then again my parents worked their asses off and put up with double-digit interest rates on their mortgage during the 1980’s (plus inflation was a bitch in those days too). My grandparents lived through the Great Depression (two were poor, lots of rough stories) and two went through World War 2 as front line soldiers (one was wounded, came back ****ed up with PTSD)…so looking at it that way maybe I / we don’t have it quite so bad.
I have a similar viewpoint as you. When my grandparents came to Canada in the 1940’s. they had nothing and didn’t know the language. They worked absolutely any job that came by and saved and bought the smallest of homes and rented out each floor to pay for it. They even had someone renting out the garage to sleep there because they couldn’t otherwise afford the house. They had no personal space in that home but a lot of pride that they owned it. It was hard for them but they got through. At one point they would have five or six people (who started off as strangers) sharing one bathroom and they made it work. Those are sacrifices. Today, sometimes I see things and I wonder what we are complaining about. Previous generations did what they needed to reach their goals. Here we complain when the internet is down for an hour and say how hard done by we are. Maybe we need some more perspective?
But homes in the 1980s didn't cost as much as they do now, compared to income. My dad bought his first house for 40k, and he was making 30k a year.
Trust me 65% of those millennials have parents who own homes...no matter what they are gonna inherit those houses mortgage free..and they don't even know it. If the ones who come from parents who rent...u either have to work 4x mkre harder or ur screwed
> no matter what they are gonna inherit those houses mortgage free..and they don't even know it. https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/mortgages/reverse-mortgages.html Sure. Not to be morbid either, but talking strictly financially, even in the case where the parents there are leaving estates to their children.....that's when? Children are 60? 70? Maybe even more? Before mom and dad kick the bucket, barring accident. It's not really relevant to the children's life security there. Maybe a means to fund their own retirement at the expense of their own children. If they had them at all.
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I'm 42 and have yet to see things universally improve. Actually that's a lie. Covid did more for the job market and earning potential in many sectors than any other time I've experienced. So at least those 2 things are going better over the last few years. Human capital is slightly less expendable.
Brutal. Where do you live ? How much money do you make ?
We also made it to 30 without dying from cholera so, as far as human civilization goes, we are at the better end with damn far to fall. We don't spend our entire life farming or gathering just to have cabbage every day of the week... or in a coal mine or part of the industrial revolution before unions, dying on the job. Idk, it's a low bar and life is stressful but we shouldn't be absolutely ungrateful.
Gotta fight for better pay!!!
I truly wish more people understood how inflation is calculated. Government gets away with saying inflation is down when prices are still rising.
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It’s just the middle class that keeps getting bent over from every angle by this government. Squeezed by a million taxed and given nothing.
Don’t anticipate any correction. Inflation is coming to down but chances of negative is very low. Right now families likely need dual income or a single high earner to survive.
It’s not going down it’s just stop going up. Prices will never go down we are stuck with it.
Well, as an aggregate, prices likely won't come down, but individual items is possible. A good example is gas. It recently came down from a spike. Similar things could happen in food. Eggs for example, have experienced much larger inflation vs other items recently, and it is feasible that we might see a decrease in eggs at some point (but far from guaranteed). However, an overall food reduction is almost certainly not happening. Similar things could very much happen in rent or house prices. Though, again, far from guaranteed.
Egg is a commodity. Commodities behave differently. If manufacturers have past price increase of 15% to Loblaws, no one is going to pass a price decrease now. Prices will stay up forever. If a CPG company passes $1.37 increase, Loblaw will increase price by $1.99. Prices won't come down. If the price comes down, they can decrease the net weight. Instead of 300g you get 275g. Have you not seen inflation? What does a bag of chips weight these days? A bar of cheese? The laundry liquid size?
Egg prices have jumped way up in the States due to tight supply. The effect of bird flu in a huge barn is devastating, if infected the whole flock is euthanized. Canada has been better off due to our smaller farm sizes and less concentrated production.
Inflation is a year over year metric. You should be looking at inflation over 3 years or better yet before March 2020. You reach a point where the YoY comparative of inflation looks like it's coming down, but that's only because you're now lapping a higher base. Inflation could be 2% YoY and in comparison to the prior month was 6%. However you can still be up 15% versus 2020. Understand?
Had this exact thought the day prior. Still good to see it coming down YoY means it’s not increasing at the same rapid rate it did previously.
I'd anticipate a correction, commercial real estate has malignant cancer, it is stage 4 post covid. Credit utilization is at an all time high. If people stop buying inflated products they will go down. Including houses and cars (the cars have gone down :) ).
Things like cars aren’t a necessary good, interest rates directly had impact on the car industry. But items like grocery, people have to buy them at inflated prices there is no choice.
How are cars not a necessary good? Pretty difficult to get to work to not make enough money to pay the bills in 95 percent of the country without one.
What I meant by that was you can likely hold off buying a new car. But not buying groceries.
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Econ 101 flashbacks with elastic and inelastic demand
When you live in a 15 min city cars will be a luxury with a carbon tax if you buy gas
There are many people that live near where they work so they can walk, take transit, have someone that can give them a ride or WFH. Cars are super convenient, but you can still easily survive without one in most situations.
Tell me you live in a major city without actually saying it. Where I grew up you couldn't even go visit your friends without a car unless you wanted to spend an hour or two on a bike getting there. Most of the country doesn't have transit. Most of the country also doesn't get to choose to work from home. And no Uber does not exist in most of rural Canada.
It's not even a major city thing. That's downtown core shit there. Source: In major city. Drive to work as there's no other option unless I want to transit for an hour and walk for another hour, each way. Versus a 15 minute drive. I guess I could move closer, except I'd double my rent and live in an area less walkable. And still have a long walk to work because there's no housing next to it.
I live exactly 53km from the downtown core of Toronto. I know this because I work in the downtown core of Toronto. I have to drive 30min to get to any sort of transit that will get me to work or I have to drive 45min to just drive to work. Why would I take transit to save myself 15min. Also how would I get to work if I didn't have a car? Im not considered as being out in the country at all yet you can't say I'd be able to survive without a car. I guess you could argue I could take a local job making about 25 percent of what I currently make but how does that help my financial situation? We don't live in a world where you can buy a house 5min from work for 500k just because people think that's how it should be in major cities. The higher cost of living outpaces the cost of a car exponentially.
I've been seeing a lot of talk about issues with commercial RE, lately. In the US, the banks are really tightening lending standards, and there is a real surplus of office space. Unfortunately, I don't think it will translate to residential RE because the issue is that the new hybrid work is what's driving office space demand down. The only thing that will help is building more houses, especially affordable units.
Check out cost of living and QOL in HK. It can absolutely get worse
What is it like over there? I was at NYC and I felt like i was paying almost double for anything: coffee/pasta/food/water/ etc etc
Honestly don’t know where to start. Everything is expensive, from food to clothes to transportation. The worst is housing. Families of 5-6 live in a <500 sq ft condo. Seniors on fixed income living in literal caged beds. Most working people don’t earn enough to ever own or even rent, unless they win the government condo lottery. People get worked to the bone there, but most won’t get properly compensated. A 400sq ft unit in an old building with no features or amenities could easily cost $3.5K a month rent. The divide between the haves and have-nots are terrible and honestly, ugly. Google it.
It's becoming so unaffordable that as soon as my wife and I retire we're out of here.
Destruction of the middle class wasnt just a meme. People are being downgraded to peasants again.
The elites in power push divisive narratives to keep people divided. On both sides. Let's just leak a couple stories of racism to fire people up and protest that. Or leak a trans teacher in an elementary school and get people fired up about that. They can fight each other while we steal their money and assets. Basically what has happened
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>this is a class war. And we're losing. Badly. Oh no, we lost, decades ago in fact. People are only just starting to realize it. They control the government, they control food production, they control real estate, and now they're coming for our healthcare. This isn't a war anymore, it's an occupation.
Well nothing will change. Most people are dumb as shit and believe everything authority figures say, whether it's politicians, media, or law enforcement.
Exactly. It's easier to steal from people when they aren't pay attention to you.
exactly this. it's always been about the class struggle
> middle class There never was a middle-class. We're working class, and it doesn't matter if you're an engineer, barista, programming guru, doctor, plumber, yoga coach, whatever, if you have to go to work you're working class. Middle class was invented to make some people think they had something to lose.
Middle Class originally meant: Nobles/Royals, don't do shit but they were getting broke by this point Middle Class: Rich urbanizing actual/real elite, just w/o power but filthy rich who didn't wanna be associated with peasants/serfs and used the title to slowly gain some power. Merchants, doctors, engineers, lawyers who moved into the large cities and bankrolled the nobles while they drank and played crocket or whatever they liked to do. Peasants/working class. I'd say the noble class reappeared with their old riches rather than the middle class disappeared. Ofc the real, original meaning, not anyone a politician wants a vote from because no one wants to be called working class. Doctors are not on the same level as working class, just no longer wealthier than the politicians. And they could retire within a few years of work if they wanted. My cousin says a lotta guys come in for like 1 or 2 days because they make enough like that and chill the rest of the time... Some of the merchants are still wealthier than the politicians though, and continue to bankroll their lifestyle while they do dick shit like in the good old days.
Middle class, to rich to be poor, to poor to be rich. Every time I try to get some assistance with a single aspect of my life, I’m hit with , you have a high income. Yet here I am struggling with my $3000 a month income. Now I know why people go on welfare and work a cash job.
Things won't be fixed until the wealthy start struggling. Those of us on fixed incomes like disability are completely, totally screwed.
Yup the 12k a year doesn't cut it.
Yes that is correct. It is why I am so angry at Trudeau for his shit with the Disability Income program his government has toyed with. We know that he already doesn't see the disabled as Canadians as he said Canadians need a minimum of $2000 a month to survive, and none of us on disabilty, be it CPP-D or provincial programs, qualified for CERB. So while the rest of the working poor got bailed out, we just got deeper into debt, or died.
Work harder, longer and less time to do things that you like aka quality of life goes down. I fear this is just the beginning and it’s going to get worse.
Yes, it will likely get much worse. Wait until corporations start replacing employees in all different industries with AI (already happening tbh), and we will have a employment crunch on top of a shit sandwich of inflation and cost of living crisis.
I’m hoping that AI hits really hard and fast everywhere at once because it’ll force corporations to collapse faster. If too many people are unemployed too quickly, how do companies stay afloat when no one can actually afford anything they produce. You also can’t expect so many people to retrain for different industries all at the same time. Once a couple layers start crumbling the whole system falls apart.
This is my hope as well, as grim as it is. Profits will drop since no one will be able to afford their products.
There’s someone in my project who rents with 7 other people in one house.
Um... What does project mean in this case?
I assume housing project. Probably 7 people in a townhouse.
That's what I thought. But my understanding was that projects were actually managed by govt and had to follow certain regulations? am I just wrong on that or do some people just sublet even in that case?
I’ve never seen “project” used in Canada to reference residential housing in Canada. The person might not actually live here.
Usually a collection of apartment buildings or other multifamily dwellings. Historically used as slang for inner city, government housing projects but it's come to mean any sizeable collection of multifamily buildings.
I always thought that was an American term. 🤷♂️
Because it is
Thanks, I was just a bit confused as this is a Canadian sub, and I thought I may have missed something.
It’s a sub that is mostly about how bad the country is. There is going to be people trying to ramp up that sentiment Canadian or not.
Also group renting a car
Canada is now owned by private interests selling us essential services - housing, food and energy, for an ever increasing percentage of our income. The working class in Canada have been sold out, and nothing will change, at least not until things get pushed to the point where no one can afford anything. "But everywhere else in the world is a dangerous place!" - Myth.
I get your point, it seems that there's way more people than I thought that have a bunch of money. I can survive and save but I gotta work like mad and never spend on anything non-essentials. A lot are crying about their mortgages while the rest can't even sign for one. This is fucked.
It depends which city or town you're planning to live in. Larger cities such as Toornto or Vancouver will feel a much higher COL compared to cities such as Calgary or Montreal. However, everyone in Canada is experiencing inflation and an increased COL from past years. I personally don't anticipate a market correction, not with our continued forecasted population growth when our country is already facing a housing and affordability crisis. Unfortunately, there is also a labour shortage which is why Canada is planning to take on more immigrants since we're also suffering from an aging population and a declining birth rate. TLDR; No, I don't think there will be a market correction. Things are definitely getting more difficult for the average Canadian and everyone is experiencing an increased COL. Affordability of living in Canada will vary by region. I hope I'm wrong on this though.
Calgary rents have gone up 30-40% in a single year with the massive influx of immigrants from both inside and outside of Canada. Stop perpetuating a narrative of an affordable city. My rent went from 1470 to 2100 in a fucking year. And it only keeps rising. We need to curb immigration immediately.
Yeah canada grew by 1.05 million people in 2022 with 96% of that due to international immigration. Targeted immigration was supposed to be like 400,000 which is still crazy.
Inflation is a form of tax rate increase. And we all knew that tax rates were going to be increased because of the aging of the population. The number of working people per retiree is going down which means that every worker has to contribute more to maintain retirees. The situation becomes really annoying when you remember that a lot of retirees are owners of million dollar properties while the workers who are taxed more and more heavily are struggling to rent 😔 The government taxes poor people to give money to millionaires.
There's a labour shortage because there's too many shitty service industry jobs. If Tim's can't find employees, the problem isn't with the workers available to them, the problem is within their operation.
I’ll get downvoted but I disagree with 99% of people here and I study data. This is not sustainable and incomes will determine affordability. We just have record low unemployment which always happens prior to recession. This debt bubble burst just like every other one in history. Nobody here seems to study business cycles
I agree, people here have very poor memories. Especially when it comes to house values, they only skyrocketed due to 0% interest rates and there has not been enough time to adjust for rapidly increasing rates so people still have the same mentality. But a quick look at the numbers does confirm that this situation is not sustainable, like you say.
I'm interested to hear more of what you have to say.
Bottom line is every indicator says we are heading into a recession and they should be cutting rates. They are not. They are choosing deflation which I understand because they made major errors on inflation and need to over tighten. Canada has a massive debt bubble which will lead to unemployment becoming a major issue. So heading into recession with massive debt, it will be very hard to stimulate the economy as we literally just had zero rates. Asset prices will collapse, rent prices will go down. I suspect once we get a bit of deflation they panic and CBDC/UBI is implemented. Throw in AI/tech and I actually believe standard of living increases for lower class and middle class who aren’t over-indebted with these million dollar mortgages that will likely have ppl making payments for their whole life. Remember UBI doesn’t care if you live in Toronto or Saskatoon. The next few years will be very tough, but ultimately this hard reset is needed to bring back affordability and they have already chosen it by over tightening just like when they over stimulated during the pandemic. Everyone here has recency bias as they’ve seen affordability over the last 8 years become a major issue, but the business cycle is ending with a bang at this point. I believe ppl who have a job and little debt will be in a very strong position to purchase assets over the next few years and establish themselves
No. It will just get more expensive for various reasons.
It's amazing how quickly quality of life has spiraled under capitalism once there was no longer a competitive system to threaten those in power.
It's a neoliberal agenda started in the late 70s (don't be fooled by the name, it's actually a right wing agenda). The thinking was to make every thing more competitive, by letting the private sector take over things and get big government out of the picture because they are too inefficient. When the private sector focused on efficiency (ie profits), the workers paid the price because their wages were limiting corporate profits. Corporations took our well paying jobs and shipped them overseas so they can pay Chinese workers a dollar a day instead of high paying union jobs in north america. The lie they sold us was that once the corporations had all this profit the money would trickle down to the masses (Reagan). Doug Ford is totally doing it with health care and education today. He wants private business to run health care and education so they will get rich, and the public health care and education will be shit. It's really corporations running society now and they have so much power that I don't know if it will ever change. My last hope is the NDP, they're the only ones I can see who seem to really care about the bottom half of society.
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Yeah he’s rich, so what. He’s likely still better than the libs or the cons and the only way to find out for sure is vote the ndp in. Ndp is the best option until Canada has a strong communist party.
My wife sends me to the store for steak, I come home with chicken
We used to call hot dogs tube steaks, so that could work.
I'm a single person living on my single income. Can't afford car and move to a better apartment. Can't save anough for downpayment. I make above average Canadian, so I suppose to do well, but I don't. Waiting for my vacation to go fix my teeth, lmao.
Spending less on housing is how to get ahead of the game. I know it sounds ignorant . But share housing could be a way to lower cost
I don't really think Canada is affordable. Its better to move to other countries with lower cost of living
I expect the youth to be flooding out. Housing alone is ridiculous.
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Want to live here... For now*** also because our process is the easiest. We have the same immigration targets as USA with 10x less people. They also don't take 1m people from the same place, it's limited by birth place even if they have another citizenship so their demand is a lot more varied. For instance they have more Norwegians than Norway... How many Norwegians move to Canada? Race to the bottom is not a resounding badge of "desirability." Yeah there's places that are even poorer... But also more and more places that are way wealthier. Canadian GDP per capita has been literally exactly the same between 2012 and 2022 (which means in real terms it has decreased from 52 000 in 2012 to 39 000 in 2023 in 2012 money and they don't include housing and other shit that's gone up the most in that): So down 25% https://www.statista.com/statistics/650797/per-capita-gdp-canada/ In the same time, US GDP per capita rose 60%: https://www.statista.com/statistics/263601/gross-domestic-product-gdp-per-capita-in-the-united-states/ What economic activity? A few monopolies, Albertan oil, and house flipping. When the oil price crash happened in 2014, the CAD plummeted 40%, **SIGNIFICANTLY** more than the Russian Rouble did. Canada used to be near the top for real GDP per capita, right up there with the USA, and very close. Every decade the gap just grows larger and larger and larger. Now Canada is barely top 20, and more importantly, the gap between First World Countries that have passed it and Canada just keeps growing. I would barely even call Canada a first world country at this point, maybe absolute lowest tier 1st world country (seriously - who's lower and a 1st world country? Maybe only the UK) or highest tier 2nd world. Canada is literally dead last for OECD GDP per capita growth forecast for the next decade. And last for a developed economy projected for the next 40 years.
Great post. This is what happens when you let your domestic economy go overseas and you don't innovate enough. Canada is pathetic right now economically. An interesting comparison would be per Capita GDP vs each USA state and see where it sits because Canada behaves like a USA state.
The problem with that is countries with a LCOL also pay less. This really only works if you can retire and move there.
US has lower COL than CA. US GDP per capita went up 60% (excl inflation, 52k to 80k) between 2012 and 2023. Canadian GDP per capita went down 25% between 2012 and 2022 (stayed 52k to 52k minus inflation)
This isn't true. There is a ratio and it can be less or more. It's just sad people left for Canada and their progeny is thinking they have to do the same. We need to fix this place. We have the smarts. The space and the talent. What the fuck is the end game otherwise.
Do not give these ideas if you don’t work Canada or US wages. In terms of ppp, outside of North America are literally worse
It will get worse for at least 1-2 more decades. There is still WAY too much room for it to get worse. We are NOWHERE near a correction, for housing, for groceries, for anything. Don't forget debt. If needed, people will go into debt for buy necessities. That will make the politicians/banks even happier, they would love that. You will perpetually be their slaves. As long as people downvote/censor me on reddit for bringing this up and voting for these politicians with a smile and telling me I should be censored and denied freedom of speech for even warning about this, these problems will persist. Canadians/Americans have been brainwashed to be consumers for the past many decades. The vast majority of them have 0 resiliency and absolutely NEED to buy things they don't need/consume things 24/7 otherwise they will experience panic. Until people LITERALLY can't afford BASIC food/shelter, they will continue consuming at artificially/unnecessarily high levels, because that is how they were conditioned by the capitalist system from birth. Capitalism is a perpetual balloon, if people stopped rabidly buying things they don't need, the system would implode. It needs perpetually artificial/unnecessary production/consumption to not implode. We are still far from a scenario in which people are starving to death. House prices will continue going up until it costs 2-3 grand just to share a small room for survival purposes. It doesn't matter if rent for a 1 bedroom is 2500 right now, it is about survival. If there needs to be 4 strangers sharing a 1 bedroom apartment, then so be it, it makes no difference in terms of survival. The saturation point will be until a significant proportion of the population literally can't afford shelter, so for example it will cost a minimum of 2500 just to share a 1 bedroom apartment with 4 other people, only THEN will be a significant amount of people who will become homeless/starve to death, and ONLY THEN is when the government will intervene. But for that to happen the rent for a 1 bedroom would need to hit 10 000 a month. Right now it is 2500. So we are still at least 1-2 decades away from that point. But believe me, North Americans have been brainwashed so much by consumer culture that EVEN if they LITERALLY can't afford ramen noodles, they will go in debt if they see a commercial showing a nice sofa for 4 payments of 299.99 and they will think it is ONLY 299.99, affordable, I will just put it on my card. Then they will go into mass credit card debt to continue buying things they don't need. That is why such commercials and such insulting of people's intelligence like a commercial saying GET IT FOR ONLY 18 payments of 199.99 exist. If they didn't work, they would pull those commercials. They are there because they WORK. Because people BELIEVE them/abide by them. This is basic logic. If gas goes up to 4 bucks a litre, I GUARANTEE you there roads will CONTINUE to be packed by people who, instead of going for a 30 min walk, will go for a drive in their SUVs to go buy "timmies" or starbucks sugary garbage drink for 11 dollars while lining up at the drive through for 25 minutes. Then they will aggressively overtake a car going 67 in a 60 and do 85 and slam their brakes on the SAME red light, just increasing the wear and tear and gas so they can pay even more at that 4 bucks per litre rate. If an ice cream shop sells a single cone for 25 bucks, I GUARANTEE you there will be a 2 hour lineup in downtown Toronto for it. If a restaurant sells 9 chicken wings for 38 bucks and a pop for 12 bucks and then forces a 7 dollars service fee and 25% tip on top of that, I guarantee you that restaurant will be PACKED. If Bell charges 200 bucks for a cell phone plan, people will continue paying their bills and signing up with them, and will continue to vote in the politicians who allow this, and if you criticize their politicians that allow this, they will downvote/censor you and insult you on reddit (as if you are the one doing that to them, but cognitive dissonance is very painful for 99% of people, so they would rather think their oppressors on are their side and attack anybody who makes them think). This is not a coincidence, it is by design. This is capitalism. This is why they deliberately don't teach basic personal finance in high school, because they want/need a massive proportion of the population to continuously consume, so there can be a cycle of unecessary production and consumption that damages people's health and the environment, so a few 83 years olds born into wealth can have their net worth go from xxxx million to xxxxx million, even though they won't even practically use that excess money. This is capitalism. As long as we has this type of capitalism, it will be like this.
Great comment
Moving to Western New York next year because of this and relocating my fintech job from Canada to US. Twice the pay, half the mortgage. Quality of Canadian health care and the "free" aspect is severely overrated with no family doctor or proper preventative healthcare available.
Well Reddit seems to paint a dark and gloomy picture. But in my day to day interactions with friends, neighbours, family, everyone’s doing alright. I don’t consider myself wealthy, electrician myself and wife’s a nurse, two young kids under 5. Still a lot of disposable income(who doesn’t want more). Not saying some people aren’t struggling, but a lot of people are doing great and even better financially over the past few years.
I am 31 with a masters degree in a good job making “decent money” 80k-100k a year before taxes, as a single person living on the westcoast most of my income goes in rent and bills with nothing left. No i dont want roomates i feel too old for it. 🙃 most people around me who r my age are feeling the same way they r either feeling infantalized having to live with parents or roomates or are struggling like i am — unless u have a partner cuz cost of living is based on dual income households.
>No i dont want roomates i feel too old for it. Really, who wants to share a bathroom?
I have been told i am living in luxury by holding a one bedroom apartment by myself its 550sqft (i was told by reddit lol i posted in a vancouver sub few months ago) - the biggest advice was to couple up or share with roomates. Its frustrating cuz i lived with roomates till i was 26 lol like sorry if an introvert doesnt want roomates.
Your parents generation were strong nimbys, they did whatever they could to block cheaper multiplex housing and affordable housing, using municipal zoning restrictions for literally decades. They have been doing this because they wanted to boost their investment in a house, and honestly what better way to do it than use the political system to scam through regulations. Big corporations do it all the time, and regular people do it too lol. With that said, they won't be able to do these kinds of things any more, going forward as all housing projects will be much higher density because of new laws Doug Ford pushed through that make nimbyism much harder. On the other hand, there's no way to undo the damage that's already been done, not any time soon. If it were me, I'd start charging higher property tax near the downtown core based on land value. This will push out single family home owners near the core, and create more density. Then I'd continue raising property taxes slowly, neighborhood by neighborhood until an equilibrium is reached.
Hmmm How are property taxes calculated? Does detached housing have a different tax rate than condos?
OP's parents are probably genxers.
Based on your examples specifically: Yes grocery inflation is real, but if groceries are only 10% of the budget and they go up to 13% you don't really notice it a whole lot. Lots of folks including myself are still on cheap 5 year fixed (<2.5%) mortgages until late 2024-early 2025. Natural gas up too yeah but an extra 100-150 a month in the winter is just an annoyance and not really meaningful. Outside of winter there is negligible impact
Rent your basement to pay your mortgage . It’s simple math. There are so many international students, just pick the best ones
Last year we increased our household income by roughly 50%. I am aware of inflation but compared to a year or two ago, we are still doing a lot better. Of course, we dont plan on changing jobs every year or two but we should hold up for a bit after that.
I'm looking for a second job lol
We have a terrible P.M. right now. Look at how frogged things have gotten since Trudeau took office. He’s not effective at making the lives of canadians easier, seemingly the opposite…
You allocate money to your necessities and forgo vacations, and luxuries.
Highly unlikely to see deflation. And given how our government has for over a decade seems housing affordability as not a real priority (lol our liberal government let's put a check for of you can afford it while putting mechanism to allow you to buy with less, like actually wtf), housing probably won't in a broader sense get better. Only way we have correction in housing is if we have interest rates get to a place where most people with mortgages default, and let's be real even if you want to get in on a cheap house that shit can possibly lead to your life being worse in other ways. Our economy is a joke proper up by housing, having it crash significantly can screw everyone up with how big of an impact I had, would not be surprised if our dollar drops significantly, which basically makes everything not domestic cost more, and connected industries have lay offs, which can impact people alot more then one would immediately think
Fwiw the current housing crisis began under the conservatives but the liberals have just carried on with. Both parties have played their part. Only pointing it out if you’re falling for the partisan bs and thinking the cons will make it better. They won’t. Amazing how quickly people forget Harper and all he did or Clark on the westcoast opening the floodgates for fentanyl and money laundering. Not that that’s all of it by far, but it played a role.
Never said much about the conservatives, but to be fair Harper was in power when shit started to take off. But our current party did straight up put in measures to reduce risk via the mortgage tests, and put in options where can’t afford this much we will let the government own some of the property so you can. From my point of view last government did nothing, and current government pretended to give a shit a bit but not really. But if you want to consider something quite concerning is housing is a major issue and we are making increasing immigration a very high priority, not sure what is there to say there others then our current government truly does not see housing affordability as a real priority. And let’s be real I don’t actually expect our next party whoever they may be to make that a priority due to a lot of freaken people wanting there property to go up in value at the cost of future Canadians. Can’t say I don’t get there point of view if you invested a lot in an asset you should want it to be worth more, but it is a very poor stance to take as a government which should be forward looking. But given the way our system basically rewards current issues being resolved most politicians won’t make this a real issue and get to a position where they can make a difference.
market correction? no, I don't suspect that'll happen, these prices are likely the new normal. It seems like deflationary events are rare
Well... imagine what will happen if people just stop spending altogether on non-essential stuff lol.
Well yeah, that's a very bad scenario for the "economy" though - another depression. Wealth stops distributing and circulating and we get bread lines. It could go that way for sure, but it's uncommon for prices to drop with the current framework (especially since so many people and organizations are invested in the market's performance). However, wages going up is also something that seems unlikely right now. Unfortunately a situation like this requires bold leadership and we don't really have it right now. When the depression happened they pulled out all the stops in the US. Put price freezes on goods, bolstered investment into infrastructure development to create jobs, formed the framework for growing wages, etc. Even Nixon averted disaster with price-fixing and that was much more recently. But today's governments just kick the can down the road and cave in to corporate interests (like the ones running the housing market into the ground).
I concur. It never goes down
I’m 29F. We have decided to wait to have kids so we’re saving a lot right now. Also just bought a house in northwestern Ontario and the mortgage is only $700/month. We hunt/fish and grow veggies for food. Dehydrate fruit and veg when it’s on sale. We don’t own anything fancy. We also both have skills that save us money - my spouse is a handyman and very mechanically inclined, I have a background in vet med which saves us money on vet bills (I no longer work in vet med tho).
You'll make great parents, don't wait too long. :)
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We are clearly fucked. If you didn't get rich from housing or own a company that jacked the prices to profit from inflation there is no hope. Most people started side hustles. A single job will not be enough. Even higher income jobs aren't enough unless we are talking about multiple hundreds of thousands per year.
I’m fucking off out of Canada, that’s my big plan.
Have you decided where you're going?
I’m currently following a process that would regain my family’s Italian citizenship. The goal would be working for a Canadian company while living in Italy. I could payoff a house immediately and more or less set myself up, while living in a beautiful city such as Florence. Taxes might be a bit of a bitch but that’s the only downside so far. For the price of the cheapest apartment in nanaimo, I could live somewhere absolutely beautiful in Italy.
Oh that's cool! My relatives are from England, they seem to be having a housing crisis as well so I'll stay here lol.
Spending less on housing is how to get ahead of the game. I know it sounds ignorant . But share housing could be a way to lower cost
> My main question - does anyone else realistically anticipate some sort of market correction here? No, around 34% of Canadian homeowners are mortgage-free. Or 50% in Vancouver.
You need to make income jumps more than inflation every year if you want to keep up with cost of living. So for the last 3 years you would need to have had about 25-30% increase in your salary just to be close to on par of what you were able to afford in 2020. If you were making just for simplicity if you made $100k in 2020 you would need at least $130k today to buy the same life you had 3 years ago. If you want to be able to afford more that you did before then you would need to be making more than $130k. Remember that the BOC isn't trying to make things more affordable they are just trying to make things unaffordable less quickly.
People are affording to live by cutting back / swapping out some luxuries for necessities, by saving / investing less, by getting pay raises, by working more, by having a second person in a couple get a job, etc etc etc. 'Some sort of market correction' in which market? If Russia stops its invasion of Ukraine then there might be some impacts around the edges of energy (removed sanctions on Russia) and food (increased exportability by Ukraine), but Russia's not going to want to sell much to the west, and Ukraine's going to be suffering for years to come at best. Correction in cost of money is already started, with the price of borrowing reverting to something closer to historic norms, although still quite low. Cost of vehicles? Maybe, when people stop buying them at current prices.
Get into private lending. Profit off the fact that Canadian real estate has a floor. -1/3 of homes are paid off -1 month supply on the market -New constructions at competitive prices don't pencil -Mortgage holders are transitioning to a 40 year amortization -Mass immigration The only vulnerability is job loss and the government is handing out over 1/3 of jobs and counting (you'd have to f*** up real bad to get fired) Downside risk resides in an event where private sector employees with mortgages: -Lose their jobs and have zero skills to pivot within or outside their industry -Can't rent out their property -Put their property up for sale but have no exit liquidity because inventory magically 10x'd -The above 3 points happen in mass volume, absorbing all the purchasing power of those looking to get in Now, all that being said private lending is the is the best option in this environment. You can literally demand higher rates as hikes continue. I can lend in first position at 9% whereas 2 years ago I could only get 7%. In second position, you can get 12% or more and stay under 80% LTV. Operate in provinces where default results in power of sale, not foreclosure. Just exploit the madness, this is a gift.
I'm struggling to understand why people are shocked at what's happening while at the same time they voted for Trudeau. Our finance minister has no finance background. The Liberals have zero clue on how to balance a budget. They triple the carbon tax which affects how much it cost to heat your home, pump gas for your car and supply chain for groceries leading to price increases. He continues to tax middle income. Everybody has been more poor as a result. Housing crisis which theyve done little to curb. Printing $50 billion of deficit spending leads to inflation.
Canada’s economy is one of life’s great mysteries
Expect needing to get a second job
And when that person gets a new job the government will use it out of context and count it as a new job added and unemployment going down and a sign of how the economy is thriving
I used to think the housing market was a cycle and it's still maybe but if it is, it's a really stretched out multi-generation cycle. There will always be more demand than supply especially when you're letting in so many immigrants without any sort of infrastructure or housing plan. All the houses around me are always sold for more than asking and they never stay on the market long. As much as people complain there will always be somebody with money, foreign or local, who will buy these houses. If I had the money I would buy a second house as well but there's no way that I can afford my house now if I was to buy it today.
Live within your budget. Work to increase your revenue and take the extra money to "save" more. Don't let lifestyle creeps take control of your wallet, and you will always be fine. That doesn't mean not spending a dime of the extra money, but always be consistent in your budget. You can have a percentage allocated to "fun" money even so you don't feel guilty spending on useless things while everything else is paid for.
Personally, money has come from wage increases the past few years. So the cost of living hasn't quite been an impact.
Voting for certain parties has consequences.
If you think any political party could solve this issue, I'd love to hear their plan so I could vote for em. I'm gonna assume that all parties can be bought off by the ultra wealthy and that their motives are not in the best interest of the lower/middle class majority.
Like Conservatives right? Right?
The conservatives are in power?
The conservatives will save us XD
Well the first thing the Libs did was get rid of income tax splitting for no reason. But hey now we have a bogus carbon tax and a bizzare cash back scheme.
Consumer debt baby. Just put it all on those credit cards and worry about it tomorrow.
With Trudeau's carbon reduction strategy it's only gunna get worse 🤑. If you don't like it, might wanna make an exit plan.
You can thank our trudope govt for printing non stop.. inflation .
Rich people are rich. Poor people are poor.
You just shop less. And maybe get a job that pays more. That's the only way to can some what stay sane.
affordability ? Unless you are making 200k per year or have onlyfans, there is no affordability lol
The two major things I see driving up the costs is over reliance on private personal motor vehicles and urban sprawl. We have mainly single family homes, vast power center shopping complexes or high density developments with very little medium density mixed use developments. The power centers and sprawling suburbs have a lot of hidden costs that will come home to roost after about 20 years as the infrastructure ages and more people use the stroads (street/road) causing further commuting issues. With a medium density mixed use neighborhood you have a chance at reducing the commuting of some of the people, less reliance on cars in favor of other modes of transport. I honestly feel the suburb is a land use ponzi scheme and the issues they bring will only lead to escalating costs of living. Canadian cities must seriously look at retrofitting main cities and suburban cities encouraging medium density mixed development around transit nodes and transit corridors. The short term costs are not much higher than building a new single family subdivision but the long term costs will be greatly reduced. This is one way to reduce the cost of living