Vinyl Me Please (store, exclusives, swaps, etc)

Mather said:
Yeah real estate is batshit around here. I'm in Toronto proper and we're talking 2 bed 2 bath unrenovated 1960s bungalows for like $1.3 million. New build just down the street from me on the same size lot I have just went for $2.7 million. NOT SUSTAINABLE.
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It's insanity.
I saw a barebones 2bdr condo on St Clair selling for $1.9M yesterday. There is absolutely nothing special about this condo except the price.

Going to enjoy looking at the $4k price point for anything other than a tiny 1+ den condo when we're moving in April.
 
bdrummond said:
It's insanity.
I saw a barebones 2bdr condo on St Clair selling for $1.9M yesterday. There is absolutely nothing special about this condo except the price.

Going to enjoy looking at the $4k price point for anything other than a tiny 1+ den condo when we're moving in April.
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Yeah, the best thing you can do is to try to find a well kept older building, no new builds. Easier said than done I know. But the older "apartment" buildings rather than "condos" tend to have larger units and the less insane amenities the building has the less the condo fees should be. Ideally. But these days anything inside Toronto is just bonkers. Guelph is a nice town. Only a 45 minute drive.
 
Mather said:
Yeah, the best thing you can do is to try to find a well kept older building, no new builds. Easier said than done I know. But the older "apartment" buildings rather than "condos" tend to have larger units and the less insane amenities the building has the less the condo fees should be. Ideally. But these days anything inside Toronto is just bonkers. Guelph is a nice town. Only a 45 minute drive.
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Honestly, it's a tradeoff.
We lived in Kitchener, and bought when the market was still low, and sold just after the peak...so we made a bit of money which was great. But the main driver was we missed almost everything about the city, living in the burbs like that is super isolating.

We're in a new build now, and honestly it's absolute shite, and we're paying $3800. Everything's falling apart, management is a bunch of goddamn bumbling idiots and we're breaking lease early just to get out of here.

Definitely looking at an older building next, but we like the dishwasher/washer/dryer that a lot of these older dedicated rental apartment buildings lack, so that's a bit limiting.
 
Mather said:
Yeah real estate is batshit around here. I'm in Toronto proper and we're talking 2 bed 2 bath unrenovated 1960s bungalows for like $1.3 million. New build just down the street from me on the same size lot I have just went for $2.7 million. NOT SUSTAINABLE.
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What about 2 bed 2 bath with murder dungeon? (Oh BTW Happy Birthday)
 
bdrummond said:
Honestly, it's a tradeoff.
We lived in Kitchener, and bought when the market was still low, and sold just after the peak...so we made a bit of money which was great. But the main driver was we missed almost everything about the city, living in the burbs like that is super isolating.

We're in a new build now, and honestly it's absolute shite, and we're paying $3800. Everything's falling apart, management is a bunch of goddamn bumbling idiots and we're breaking lease early just to get out of here.

Definitely looking at an older building next, but we like the dishwasher/washer/dryer that a lot of these older dedicated rental apartment buildings lack, so that's a bit limiting.
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I really liked Kitchener, but I was just a visitor, not living there. That said, I imagine the isolating feeling your talking about being similar to my tail-end of high school years, and just after, living out in Maple Ridge while all my friends were in New Westminster and Vancouver proper - that definitely was awful.

New builds are absolute trash. I'm sorry you're having that experience and am glad you're getting out.
 
avecigrec said:
I really liked Kitchener, but I was just a visitor, not living there. That said, I imagine the isolating feeling your talking about being similar to my tail-end of high school years, and just after, living out in Maple Ridge while all my friends were in New Westminster and Vancouver proper - that definitely was awful.

New builds are absolute trash. I'm sorry you're having that experience and am glad you're getting out.
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Yeah, Kitchener visiting is way better than living there. The downtown though can be absolutely horrifying. We found it was scarier than most places in Toronto by a long shot.
 
bdrummond said:
Yeah, Kitchener visiting is way better than living there. The downtown though can be absolutely horrifying. We found it was scarier than most places in Toronto by a long shot.
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Yeah I absolutely get that, it's why I mentioned Guelph though. It's a fully formed small city, with nightlife, great restaurants, beautiful historical downtown. It's one of the prettiest and well kept cities I've been to in Ontario. There's houses and condos and lofts all available. It ain't exactly "cheap", but it's cheaper and more to the point is an actual liveable town with a large beautiful university right at it's core. I have spent a lot of time there over the years and it's the one spot outside of Toronto I could definitely live and be happy in. And if you need the big city it's a short 45 min drive or even shorter GO train ride away. And they have at least two records stores as well.
 
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bdrummond said:
Toronto is insane in a lot of ways though. House purchases, rent, food and liquor costs are ludicrous. It's getting up there as one of the most expensive places to live.
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I always find it interesting when I see Toronto and Vancouver on the "Most Livable Cities" lists - most livable if you come from familial wealth I guess?

That said, housing costs across Canada (and presumably all of North America) have skyrocketed since the pandemic to the point now where it's untenable. Even up here in the middle of nowhere, the average house is $700k. I'm thankful I bought 17 years ago and will have it paid off soon, but I worry for my teenage kids and what the future holds for them. Alas, our society has normalized Capitalism and neo-Liberal economics, so something that should be a basic human right in housing is now viewed as an investment.
 
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TCell said:
I always find it interesting when I see Toronto and Vancouver on the "Most Livable Cities" lists - most livable if you come from familial wealth I guess?

That said, housing costs across Canada (and presumably all of North America) have skyrocketed since the pandemic to the point now where it's untenable. Even up here in the middle of nowhere, the average house is $650k. I'm thankful I bought 17 years ago and will have it paid off soon, but I worry for my teenage kids and what the future holds for them. Alas, our society has normalized Capitalism and neo-Liberal economics, so something that should be a basic human right in housing is now viewed as an investment.
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Anecdotally, our path to Toronto home ownership (we're renting for now until the market someone stabilizes) involves the following:

1) Death in the family providing us with a decent sized inheritance
2) Buy in at the low end of an up and coming market.
3) Selling at the high point of said market.

Without #1, we would likely not have purchased.

It's sad working with a lot of younger people coming to the realization that they're likely not going to own at any point in the near future.
 
bdrummond said:
Anecdotally, our path to Toronto home ownership (we're renting for now until the market someone stabilizes) involves the following:

1) Death in the family providing us with a decent sized inheritance
2) Buy in at the low end of an up and coming market.
3) Selling at the high point of said market.

Without #1, we would likely not have purchased.

It's sad working with a lot of younger people coming to the realization that they're likely not going to own at any point in the near future.
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Yes unfortunately the only reason I have my house now, is that 22 years ago my grandparents passed away and I recieved enough inheritance to put money down on a downtown condo when they were still affordable. 16 years later that condo helped buy this house. But I'm still a long ways away from no mortgage.
 
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bdrummond said:
It's sad working with a lot of younger people coming to the realization that they're likely not going to own at any point in the near future.
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And it's astounding that older people can't, won't or don't understand this reality either. So many of our immediate family still live in that bubble of "Well, if they just apply themselves," and it's like, "Dude, they're sprinting just to fucking survive out here!"

Only reason I'm a homeowner now is because my wife had previously owned in Winnipeg and saved most of her money from that sale for a downpayment here in Victoria. She lived in a tiny ass bachelor suite for almost 6 years until we bought this place, and that suite over doubled in rent when she moved out and it was no longer rent-controlled by her tenancy - in under six years the market on her suite OVER DOUBLED!!

I have so many friends just hitting their thirties or about to that are some of the most financially responsible people I've known (I have NEVER been one of those people) and they look at the numbers and percentages and it's impossible because they've had no way to save up the size of a downpayment they would need. It's absolute madness.

If I hadn't met my wife when I did I would not be able to afford to survive here. Period. Between rent, child support and the gas involved to actually spend time with my son, I'd be broke even with a "decent paying job" and that's without eating. My buddy in his mid-40s was a postal worker here, single his last couple years living in Victoria and wound up moving back to the maritime because he couldn't afford to live here. AS A POSTAL WORKER!! That's a so-called REAL JOB.

So fucked.
 
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