On the last few posts that I recently wrote, I was taking a closer look at some of the issues young people who may graduate university may face in this day in age. Issues surrounding massive student debt becoming the norm, to simply not being able to find a job these days because of a shit economy and the popularly of outsourcing jobs to India or China. But then comes the issue of buying a home these days. Prices for real-estate is quite ridiculous!
Houses these days around my neighbourhood is going for half a million dollars! I remember a time when houses where sold for around $300,000. What used to take roughly 10 or 20 years to pay off a mortgage now takes 30 or even 40 years to pay off! It’s no wonder why everyone is in so much debt!
It’s getting to the point that if you want a house that’s under $400,000, you have to look at homes outside the city in the suburbs. Only problem though is that city’s outside Toronto like Mississauga, Brampton or Markham are really ugly cities to live in. There is nothing there other than clusters of homes and big streets with just big box retailers. Public transit is laughable and to get anywhere, you must have a car or van to get to any kind of place outside your street.
My community used to be an area full of working class Portuguese immigrants. While there is still manny who are that, the area is quickly being taken by the hip, arty people who apparently have a lot of money to burn. They come in and push the prices of the homes in the area making it less affordable for everyone.
The only way it seems you can afford a home these days is if you already owned a home. If you owned a home for years and decide to sell it and move somewhere els, you just sell it and take that money and buy whatever house thats right for you. You pretty much can do that as much as you want. But what about young first time house buyers? I kind of see it as sort of an exclusive privilege these days to own/sell/buy real-estate.
You know, way back in yesteryear, once you graduated high school, you would move out of your parents house and ether find a job and live in some apartment, or you went to university. Once everything is set in order and you get married and started a family, you bought a house and hopefully everything was happy ever since. These days however, you hear more and more of how kids sometimes as old as 30 still live in there parents house. It’s not because there lazy or a mama’s child, it’s not because there some nerd who plays W.O.W all day and unemployed, it’s because housing of any kind is way to expensive!
I’m 23 and yes, I do live in my parents house still. Do I like it? Hell no! But what choice do I have? Sure I could rent an apartment, But to live in an apartment where half my wages goes to pay for rent while the other half goes to feed my self with nothing left for savings or personal enjoyments doesn’t seem worth it to me.
So what do we do about this? I don’t know. Perhaps people should be more honest and less greedy? Is a house with only two bed rooms and two bathrooms in the west end of Toronto really worth half a million dollars? The house that I live in right now, it sure does not feel like its worth half a million dollars. If people want more affordable homes, they should stop paying such prices on homes and wait tell the prices drop to more reasonable prices.
But what the hell do I know?
