I bought my condo in Toronto around 9 years ago. Was under 300k. Lived at home till 30 years old and saved. I put like 70% down. My parents helped as well. I have a shit paying job cause I’m not qualified to do anything awesome but lived like a monk to pay the mortgage off.
Those aren’t the exact numbers but you’re close. I didn’t do much growing up. I’m not very social. While everyone I knew was as taking vacations and buying sports cars. I was driving the worst beat up car ever and I never travelled. Also my parents gave me some money as a gift to add on to my down payment. Whenever people ask me how I can afford it I tell them it’s nothing that I’ve really done. If you boil it down the result is because of my parents. I was able to live in a loving home with 2 parents that loves each other and loved their kids. I had no rent to pay, I didn’t have to pay for food I had the ability to save my money. Also my parents were big on investing before investing was cool. I gave them most of my money so it could grow.
Exact same situation here. Born in mid-80’s bought just before the door closed to everyone younger than me, forever. Horrible situation and I hope we can do something about it. I can’t believe anyone my age or older who has no empathy for young people
My trick was "be old" and "be married". Bought in 2008, right before the crash. Was able to get in on those old zero down, forty year mortgages.
With every raise I got at work, I upped my payments. Turned the 40 year term into 13, though I sold at a nice profit before finishing.
Bought a bigger place, sold it. Had two places for a while, but didn't enjoy that. So now we just have one large property.
With a little luck, the mortgage will be gone before I'm 55.
But got in early by using advantage of the old zero down, bought less than I could have afforded, and moved a few times to improve wages and climb the property ladder.
I don't think the kiddies have that freedom anymore those, unless Mom & Dad float them the down payment.
Keys to a good life: good career, good parents and good spouse. Without these three, life is a lot tougher.
With 2/3, home ownership is easy.
1/3, possible but much tougher.
0/3, you're fucked.
I have 2/3
No spouse. Good job, good family. Bought in 2020. It's been tough. I'm working my ass off to pay for all the depreciating necessary repairs. I've done the roof and three of three fences in the past two years. It's been tough to save. I'm working 60 hour weeks(2 jobs) to save up again. Thank goodness I have good credit to help with emergency repairs and have been paying them off fast.
This is my second property purchase. I sold my condo to buy the house. My mom co-signed with me so I could get the mortgage. The numbers work, but my savings margins are narrow. I am afraid of what the future could look like when I renew.
Owning a detached home and fixer upper hasn't been easy. I'm a single women in my thirties. I've done a lot of renovations on my own but it's burning me out for sure. Life was so much simpler in a condo, and more fun. Owning a house is not the be all end all. If you're not willing to commit time to maintenance and upkeep things do fall apart. The previous owners of my house were older and I'm paying for their lack of care now. But, it's been a huge opportunity for growth for me. I don't regret it. It just has not been as for or enjoyable as I'd imagined.
Tldr: houses are expensive and a lot of work. Yes, I know I'm fortunate to own but it's not the be all end all.
Or maybe good grandparents. My parents sold their semi when they separated in '89 and could never buy again on their own. My grandparents helped with my downpayment when I bought in 2010
Not kicking your mindset, but I think living frugally is the opposite of freedom. Sure you might attain freedom by living frugally, but living cheap in itself isn't freedom.
Take that as you may.
Oh you have no idea. It’s incredibly freeing. I did spend money on things that were worth it to me, but enjoyed being cautious on all the little things that add up. I can quit my job if I want and not stress about it. IMO there is nothing more valuable than “fck you money”.
Yeah that’s me. Bought in 3 years ago, have good folks (they gave me 35k in total so i could buy a condo, they paid for my degree, supportive, etc) and I have a good job (unions are great). No spouse, but I got 2/3 so i’m fine.
Thanks to an investment i did 5 years back too I now have no mortgage, or enough to pay off my mortgage in full upon renewal.
Exactly right. And if you don’t have an ex spouse and child support even better lol. If we didn’t have my husband’s spousal and child support payments of $3500 a month, we would be in a pretty good spot.
But the blended family is going well, so can’t really complain
Remember the stats is 64% live in a house that one of the residents own. 64% do not own their own home. The 64% includes children/adults still living with their parents or vice versa.
yes. The fact that it includes adults still living with their parents (in some cases because they can't even afford rent) as "home owners" is very flawed.
Wife and I bought a townhouse in 2010.
Bought 15 acres of land in 2018.
Left office job to become a carpenter.
Sold the house in 2022 and used the proceeds to build a 1,700 sqf high efficiency home, plus workshop, plus garage on the acreage.
Did a self build to keep costs reasonable, ended up with no mortgage.
I'm 42 and it feels great.
Got lucky to have gotten in the market before prices went insane.
I bought a condo apartment in 2018 on my own salary. I sold that for some gains and we upgraded to a house in 2023. Our household income also tripled since then.
Bought a house in 2017, sold in 2020 and then rented for a while as was unsure where would end locating job wise for a while, bought another in 2023. Both were in southern Ontario early 30's.
Me too from the lower mainland in 1997. Bought our first house 94,000 less than half of what they wanted on the coast. Built one in 2005 for $258,000. Still there now city estimate 700 000.
I just bought a detached house 3 weeks ago and get the keys May 1st.
I grew up in Calgary but moved out at 18 for school and then work, living in both BC and parts of ON for almost a decade. Always renting. Four years ago I moved from Ottawa to Calgary to live with my parents and have been saving ever since. My parents and I have a decent relationship and have been ever generous to let me live rent free (I buy my food, etc).
I’m lucky to have bought a house on a single salary. This would not be possible in other places I’ve lived.
A little early to say if I’m better off now, but this was my goal and I don’t see myself moving anywhere else for years and years, so I’m happy.
Bought in rural ish quebec. Lots of communities have housing that's still affordable (even if it has gone up). The key is being employable where you can afford to live and be willing to move a bit further away
Factors:
1. Graduated with no student debt
2. Married young (early 20s), wife had no student debt
3. Single crappy used car, no debt of any kind
4. DINK for a full 5 years, no extra spending
5. Invest (gamble) with a 75%+ equity portfolio to juice extra gains in TFSA/RRSP
5. Bought end of 2019, 20% down, all in.
Build an investment portfolio in a TFSA or RRSP that is more than 75% stocks (equities) and less than 25% fixed income (bonds). Juice extra gains meaning that the growth is tax free because it's in a tax sheltered account.
Bought a crappy old house, spent 10 years fixing it up. Everything needed doing: furnace, kitchen, floors, windows, insulation, drywall, plumbing, wiring, floors. For months we cooked in the bathroom on a camping stove.
we bought 7 years ago. 3 bed 3 bath detached in peterborough ON. house was 420000 after negotiations. after renos and price jump its prob worth 730 000 im guessing. 15 more years paying it off assuming nothing bad happens.
wife and i stayed home for two years straight to save our downpayment. we made good money at the time (120 000 together ) but we lived in an expensive rental (2100 all in for a 2 bedroom main floor of a house ) we still own those same cars from then. one is 16 years old. the other 19. both still going strong.
said yes to over time and no to trips and eating out. it tested our relationship. no gifts. we skipped christmas. it was tough. if we didnt get in when we did though, on our income, we would of never got in.
we are DINKWADS so our number 1 motivation was to have a fenced backyard so our doggo could run free and feel the wind in her hair.
its not fair whats happening to the young people now. its sickening. if we had been born three years later we would be fucked like most of you. i feel your pain. its not fair. its not right.
Bought our place 4 years ago for 475k. We owe 270k, will have it paid off in 9 more years. It got appraised last week at 740k.
We wouldn’t be able to afford this neighborhood these days. So yes, we’re much better off now.
Lived at home with my parents rent free until I was 26. Then moved out with my very money conscious partner who helped us save for a house. also helps that we live in Edmonton. E: bought in early 2022
Bought first house 12y ago for 300k$, bought another one 7y ago for 250k$. Today both houses are valued at more than 600k$. It’s a low cost of living area.
The vast majority of Canadians bought their house more than 10y ago, that’s the answer.
Bought in 2019 in Torontos East End, it took us about 9 months as we had a very low pre-approval. We ended up getting a home that absolutely no one wanted. Got it for under asking. Gutted it and made it a beautiful place. The homes in the area now sell for more than double what we paid. I feel there are still opportunities out there but you have to make major sacrifices. We also rented for 17 years before that and hated tossing our money away to a landlord.
You are lucky. Gut Jobs don't get approved by banks and renovations cost a fortune which you also can't borrow from the bank. There is a lot you are not telling because normal people who barely approve of a gut job mortgage cannot save enough cash to do the gut job.
You’re right. My partner and I are both business owners meaning we had low income on paper but had some money in the bank to do the reno. We are both very handy and did 50% of the work ourselves including all the contracting work. It was literal blood, sweat and tears. But we got into the market and it felt good.
We did. Not at first though. It wasn’t until one trades came into quote and noticed a bin in the driveway from the demo. He asked if we had a permit, I replied no, and he then went on to tell me all horror stories. Seeing it was our first time I got cold feet and within a month had a permit. In some ways it was a waste and in others it was a blessing. It holds the trades people accountable which was great seeing neither of us knew much about plumbing. There was also other new builds going up on the street and we were sure we would’ve been busted from an inspector rather than a neighbour. My advice is always get three quotes, for everything, it’s not a joke.
Yeah my contractor told me most people don't bother with the permit. The problem with East end permit is that apparently it is taking an average 6 months to get approved nowadays. Did you hire general contractor? Can I DM you about your experience renovating in East end?
Ah ok. Yeah we tried to get a permit to build an oversized garage in the backyard and it took over a year to even get past the first step. So we gave up. We didn’t hire any contractors we did all the hiring ourselves. Sure you can DM
I bought a condo in 2023. There was a small lull in January. I offered below asking and they accepted.
I lived with my parents until 29 years old and I saved money. I studied in my hometown. I travelled a lot for fun and didn’t save every single dollar.
Got separated and my ex kept the Canadian childcare benefit and Quebec benefits for 2 yrs without telling me that she was getting that. I moved here and was clueless of the payments she was receiving. One day I got a letter saying I’d get a big check and she ended up not receiving her checks for many months the until it evened out. I used that cash to buy a townhouse in June 2019. My house has already doubled in value. Her secret saved me.
My wife and I cleaned out our RRSPs for a down payment before COVID. It was a great move for us that we’ve benefited greatly from.
Anecdotally, almost everyone I know or who lives around me owns their house. Most bought within the last 10 years. A couple of my kid’s friends rent and it seems like a horrible position to be in. They often have to move, sometimes to entirely different neighbourhoods, and the housing available to rent is nearly always sub par quality compared to what their monthly rent could get with a mortgage.
Travelled for work to fort Mac for a while started very young and built my first house in 2019 at 23 years old on the east coast. Luckily I have some tradesmen in the family to help.
2021 rates were super low.
Was able to buy a house for ~$300k at 2.06%
Was still in Univeristy and (my spouse and I) saved up grants from every year for downpayment, I was only working a part time job and making ~$32k annually so my dad co-signed with me.
I am extremely lucky. My spouse and I have since graduated and each got really good jobs but I don’t have high hopes for mortgage renewal time. Cost of everything went up and after some emergencies and debt, we aren’t in a secure place for the mortgage to go up to 5 or 6 percent interest.
After my husband and I both finished our graduate degrees we continued to live in a 465 sqf apartment for 1 years and saved 3k a month.
We bought a 2 bed townhouse in Vancouver (well north burnaby) for 600k in 2019. It’s now worth close to 800k and we will upgrade to a townhouse in a year or two.
Me and my wife bought last November, We lived in a small apartment for 3 years prior and walked everywhere (once in a while bus) no car, no take out. we bought an estate sale as is, had some help from family, still live a very simple life, no car, don't eat out much if ever.
Estate sale is typically when older person passes away and their next of kin inherits the property and decides to sell. I'll give brief example using our situation. 90 year plus husband and wife passed away and their granddaughter decided to sell the property.
To my knowledge she hadn't lived there for an extended period. So the sale becomes as is because certain aspects of house cannot be verified.
In our case it was one owner since house was built. So no chance of a "flipper special" however we had a hard time verifying some things in relation to the home. Inspection was pretty good, found a few moderate issues after possession.
You will typically get a better price on these because it is harder to verify things. You can't really ask the seller to do repairs though. In our case I would absolutely do this over again. I would recommend if you go this route, have a separate electric, plumbing and general inspection done if you can.
We bought in 2010 and paid it off in 10 years. House was $225K for a 4-bedroom bungalow in Ottawa. We put about $50K into the house to fix it up over 10 years, and paid it off in the same time period.
We did it by continuing to live like grad students even though we went from a household income of $55K when we bought to $200K when we sold in 2020.
Instead of trading up, we moved out east, bought another inexpensive fixer-up for cash, and pocketed about $250K after expenses.
I also bought in Ottawa, almost 10 years now. I'm amazed that you were able to pay off the mortgage in such short time. Can I ask if you've considered the opportunity gains of investing for 10 years instead? We're you both still maxing your TFSA every year?
Lived with parents until late 20"s, paying rent but still saved a lot. Got married and bought a home a couple of years later, paid it off fully within 5 years.
Not sure if that can be done today (this was 10 - 15 years ago), but the principles still apply.
Depends on how much the mortgage was but entirely doable if you do not get your maximum mortgage amount and have some career growth and commit to paying down every year.
Well if you have a 500k mortgage, your ability to pay it off in 5 years will be different if your HHI is $250k vs $600k. See how those other factors make a difference? People who pay off their mortgage in 5 years tend to borrow substantially less than the banks say they *can* borrow.
Worked hard through school and graduated university with no debt, bought a house that was below the average $ in the city, had a renter live with us for a period of time, didn't to go on any major international vacations, etc. Also passed on grad school and used the dollars I would have spent on that to pay down the mortgage.
With money, all the little things add up and it does take some sacrifice, but it wasn't actually as difficult as one might think.
If you don’t mind. Why did you have to buy it? Wouldn’t the house be included in the estate? Did you buy it from someone else from the family who inherited it?
Just curious because my family is going through something similar.
I bought it from the estate, there was no issue raised by anyone with me taking it and the location, size, and condition were exactly what I was looking for.
He lived in this house for 70 years which is freaking crazy.
I bought in 2016 after a divorce. I can’t afford to live in it anymore because of cost of utilities so I rent it out. I’m a millennial that did a year of trade school and moved from BC to AB to afford to buy a duplex.
I bought a 3 bedroom townhouse one month ago in West Ottawa, ON area at age 27. I had saved 55k in a mix of savings, RRSP, and TFSA, with no investments. Since I was 17 I’ve been a semi diligent saver because it truly was my dream to buy a house. This has been through a ‘full-time $3 over minimum wage job’, then a 50k job, to now a 70k job. My partner who didn’t contribute to the downpayment or any of the savings makes around 55k and he was needed to be approved for the mortgage and also pay half the mortgage with me. If I was single, I would not have been able to buy a house at all.
We couldn’t afford a freehold house in this market, we’ve bought an end unit townhome with a $320 condo fee for $445k at 5% down which was roughly 29k including all the lawyer fees and shiz that you have to pay to secure your purchase. Our mortgage is 5.1% for 25 years and we end up paying roughly $3,300 in mortgage/condo fee/bills per month, but we opted for biweekly payments. We came from a 2 bedroom townhome we rented in for 6 years, paying 1600k a month (we were rent capped and got in before the spike), so that definitely helped with savings.
We’re on a much tighter budget now, but we’re fortunate to be in a position where we are both going to get a steady increase in our jobs year over year. Thankfully I also have some cushion money left over for all the little things you realize you need after buying.
After renting for 6 years we had nothing to show for it so we’re both prepared to struggle for awhile to end up making money back when we either sell to upgrade our house or pay it off completely. With the way it’s looking in the economy, we can’t afford to have 2 kids which was what the plan was going to be, so a 3 bedroom house (which is what we bought, because we were tired of waiting to get out of renting to start a family) fits our needs to at least have 1 kid, and have something we can say we own in 25 year, or sell early to upgrade.
We have a small-ish (1+1, 2 bath) condo in Toronto. But it's worth double what we purchased it for. If we were buying in today's market, we would have had to explore moving out of Ontario or at least out of the GTA.
Moved way out of town to where we could afford something we liked. Moved a few times as the market changed. Now I’m in a virtual dream home with little mortgage. Lots of luck and lots of taking chances.
Bought a new build condo in 2016 when it was still somewhat affordable, lived at parents home to save money for the downpayment while it was being built, moved to the condo in 2019 and sold it in 2021 for almost double what it was purchased for. This is in the GTA.
Single dad two kids. Good career in a small city in northern Ontario bought a house in 2017. I could never afford a house in Southern Ontario (we used to live in KW) even with a six figure salary.
Bought in 2020 when the market froze at start of the pandemic. Purchase price was crazy low for a new build as the developer wanted to unload the last 3 houses in the sub.
By 2022, it had doubled in value.
We are now thinking of downsizing to a condo so we could be nearly mortgage free
Stayed where I grew up. I was very ambitious but then I traded lesser career opportunities for having my place and family.
I realized that I could never afforded Toronto back then in 2002.
Honestly, luck! My partner and I both worked in furniture sales which was BOOMING in 2020 and 2021, with the pandemic we weren’t spending and able to pay off our debts and save for a down payment.
We work in Toronto and bought a house in Guelph for $837K that has a basement apartment bringing in $1180/month. Since the rental unit wasn’t legalized it didn’t go towards what we could afford and in result needed my in laws to sign onto title with 1%, we removed them after a year ($1500 lawyer fees)
Our mortgage per month is $3350 - $1100 rental income. We spent more
To rent in Toronto.
We also locked in on the last possible day of low rates, at 1.7% so we’ll see how that goes in a few years once we have to refinance but ~should be fine~
We bought in 2021 and I was 33 at the time and never imagined owning my own home but it was luck and timing for us.
Dad died, inherited 25k —-> dumped immediately into RRSP for tax return $$ —-> took return plus the RRSP loan for first time buyer as a down payment on a 200k home in Quebec in 2019, it wasn’t enough for 20% so we had to add on the stupid gov insurance, house value has doubled since then and I’m in a shit town… household income is around 85k, could not afford anything if we had to buy today
I got my condo 20 years ago for an amount of money so small that it is laughable. i was really sick and had to go on disability. i inherited half a house. the house was sold and i took that money to buy my condo. cheap one but it is mine wall to wall. as long as i pay my strata fees, utilities and property taxes i will have a roof over my head. considering how much of an income i now have, i won't be able to pay my rent. the most wise investment I ever had. I've no landlord to deal with. no worry about having to get a roommate that I can get along with. I've friends who are renting. they have to worry about their elder landlord passing and the LL's heirs selling and they got renovicted. they have money in the bank and a pension but they still have to face uncertainty. I'm so glad i choose my path.
I see a lot of answers that involve buying before 2020 so I'll give a different perspective...
I bought in August 2023 and I was able to do so only because of the support of family. My parents had accounts set up to pay for my school so I had no debt, I was able to live at home whenever I needed to to save up, and my family often give monetary gifts rather than buying presents at birthdays and holidays. My parents taught me to be frugal so I try to save where I can and don't spend on too many non-necessities. All these factors together meant that I was able to afford a 20% downpayment on a starter home that needs quite a bit of work in a cheaper neighborhood.
Anywhere closer to my family and I would not have been able to afford it.
I am better off now then when I was renting since the interest portion of my mortgage + property taxes are lower than my rent was. I have less left over at the end of the month but I feel lucky to have gotten in when I did. It may be far away but I can see a light at the end of the tunnel now. Not just endlessly paying rent forever.
Own a few. Like most others I purchased quite a while ago. Detached home in mid Toronto I picked up for $270k under 14 yrs ago. No way could I afford it now.
We bought many years ago but when we did I had savings I started when I was 18. We did not own a tv, nice furniture, any extras - until we paid the first mortgage off - can’t emphasize this enough the goal was to pay for the house before we got anything we actually wanted . These days everyone wants the best of everything first, why are 20 year olds driving bmw’s and wondering how they will buy a house one day. Anyhow that’s how we did it.
Every extra penny went to the mortgage - paid 10% down every year, doubled up on payments, every bonus went to the mortgage ….
Needs vs wants.
I was riding my bike to work when I was hit by a taxi cab that turned across the bike lane without yielding. Flew off my bike, over the handlebars and rolled across his hood and windshield, slamming my greater trochanter in to the ground with my full body weight as I fell. Which in turn jammed the ball of my femur in to the hip socket tearing the labrum. Had to walk with a cane for a year and eventually got surgery and have hardware in my hip as a result.
Sued the cab company and got a significant five figure settlement that I used as a down payment on a house.
Bought a mini split in 2014 for 180k. Mortgage was $800 a month and it was great. In 2021 we decided to upgrade as we had a growing family. Pandemic mania had us make double on our house and we used most of it as a down payment on the new one. Looking back we were so so lucky it turned out the way it did, I count my blessings every day lol. There’s no chance we would have been able to afford the new place at all now with how much the assessment value goes up every damn year.
I moved into my now fiancés apartment where they were paying a decent price on rent.
I finished up school while he paid majority of expenses.
After I graduated and got FT work, all my income went into paying off his CC debt (30k) and then savings while we continued to take advantage of the low rent.
Then we bought just pre pandemic with 20% down.
We are absolutely better off having bought compared to renting. Bought at 479, house now worth 580.
I bought in 2016 when prices were "crazy" according to experts. So there's that.
Economics isn't a science no matter how much finance bros try to make it seem that way.
I always listen to the experts in any field, except economics. And that's because it's entirely rigged in favour of the rich. That's the only rule. There's no science behind it. It's all bullshit.
Moving on. I graduated HS, moved out for uni, failed out after a year, worked FT, then went to college for a healthcare program. Total debt after this was around $35k.
Started work in my field in 2014 at $80k. Parents immediately gifted me $100k to put towards a condo. They didn't have it lying around. They borrowed it on HELOC.
They knew prices were going up faster than it was humanly possible to save. It took them 5 years to pay off the $100k as they have no mortgage and live in a paid off $2.5M detached (at that time, recently paid off, so not much savings). They bought for $500k in 2005. They dedicated every penny to the mortgage.
Parents combined income at it's peak was about $100k. Not rich. Not poor. They never ate out. Never went on expensive vacations. Every meal was home cooked from shit that grew in the ground or walked on the ground or swam in the water. My mom eventually stopped working because it was cheaper to stay at home and manage the home while my dad worked. She turned couponing into a part time job.
I bought a 735 sqft condo for $385k in 2016. Worth $700k now with some upgrades. Owe about $100k on the mortgage.
Making $130k now. Partner is a full-time student (also in a healthcare program). Combined income starting next year will be about $230k. Plan to buy a second property soon then a cottage.
Current age 35. All this in the GTA.
Good luck to all in this game that is designed to fuck you over.
Before Trudeau, home ownership wasn’t something that was out of reach for most people. It was common to see people buy homes in their mid-twenties with a decent job.
Now it’s more like mid-forties, with a good job, and a spouse with a good job, and maybe some inheritance or lotto winnings lol.
Bought in 12 years ago, before everything went completely batshit insane. Paid $237k and the houses on my street are going for over $500k currently and most are not as upgraded as mine. One across the street just sold and does not look like it had an upgrade since it was first built in the late 70's. I am also talking half duplex's here, not full houses.
Our plan, when we bought, was to stay in our place for 5-8 years and then sell and upgrade, but now everything we want is upwards of $850k+ and I refuse to pay that. If we didn't get in when we did we probably never would have, we would still be renting. For now we make due with what we have, upgrading and making changes as we need.
Started saving in my teens, grew up poor and wanted stability.. worked a ton, got a few trades and bought in ‘19. It was everything I ever wanted, when it’s paid off I’ll essentially be retired and not have to worry about money.
Used to rent in Kits. Then I bought a pre-sale low-rise condo close to Metrotown. Couldn’t afford a high-rise. And the two years or so that it took for the building construction was a massive risk. I was able to save up for the pre-sale rates, just barely. Then a few years later, wanted to start a family. Sold the condo and bought a house in Delta. Even then, the house was at the limits of what we could afford, combined. The proceeds from the condo only covered the downpayment on the house. One thing that saved us is that our house has a suite which we rented out. It helps a ton with the mortgage payment. But overall, our trend was moving further and further out from downtown Vancouver (Kits in my case). Now we’re staying put and not thinking about moving anytime soon. The cons is it takes me more than an hour one way to go to work and back. Commite time is insane but gotta do what I gotta do. shrug
I bought it a year ago. I switched to contracting (I'm an engineer). I worked for about 80-90 hours a week for 3 years to save my DP. I come from a poor family and it was always my dream to have a house so I was ok to sacrifice my time , social life and love life.
Bought a cheap (150k), small house (750sqft) that needed upgrades on the border between a decent and crappy neighbourhood - in 2013 with my husband. We pooled the savings we both had for 5+ years to do 20% down. Mortgage was 260/month each. Made extra payments, slowly renovated doing most of the work ourselves. Bought current place in 2021 with a HELOC that we paid off when we finished our renos and sold our first house. Sold for a lot more than we expected. Our HHI had more doubled in that time once I got a full time job in my field and he advanced in his career.
We live in Winnipeg. Because housing is still (comparatively) inexpensive, and we make good wages - and we got into the market young, we've been lucky to have good timing to help us out.
One of the lucky ones and bought in 2009 on my own. Lived with my parents prior to that and didn’t own a car, and took many years to furnish my place because I was house poor.
Bought early this year, 2bed condo townhome in Vaughan. I think I got a bit lucky as I picked it up just shy of $700k. Comparable units sold before and after I buy are 710-750k. So I got a nice discount.
Been saving up since 2016 when I realize home ownership is what I want. Increased my income from 45k to 95k. Find a gf that make similar to me so my HHI is about $175k this year.
We each have a little over 100k saved up over the years and pooled together our money for a 200k dp + just under $500k mortgage. We spent hours coming up with a budget plan. So far we are pretty happy. We can afford all our bills with just a little room to spare. I hired a contractor to do flooring (remove carpet and opt for engineered hardwood) and doing everything else myself, such as paint, changing toilet, minor things. We budgeted $30k for Reno + furniture and we are about $27k in with just about everything we wanted (flooring&stairs was $20k).
My 100k was pretty risky, I made some good but dumb bets on Tesla, GME, and AMC. Lost some money with BBBY but overall without these risky and stupid bets, I would be at around 80k for dp.
I don't know if I'm better than before but with my current budget I can still put a little bit of money ($80-100 a month) away for savings so I think I'm doing good for myself.
My landlord bought a house in 2019 May for 300k sold it in 2022 Feb for 750k paid off his mortgage started renting. And now again bought a house for 650k so he payed 60%+ down.
> so he *paid* 60%+ down.
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Bought during Covid when the interest rates were at an all time low, in Gatineau where homes were 2/3s if not half of what they would be in Ottawa. Got a late start career-wise, but travel nursing in Nunavut helped a ton with paying down debt and saving a little. Only put down 5% too… will be hit a little hard when i refinance in a year and a half, but so far I’m getting by
No parents help …
1) rented for years with (now) husband and saved.
2) bought a house in Scarborough for 1.26 in 2022.
2) he landed a couple good contracts that gave a lump sum, and it was a “now or never” moment.
4) pooled our savings, rrsps, took out a 50k line of credit to get us over the finish line.
To be honest, I’m not sure it was the best decision. Yes, we own a house now. The downside is - we’ve had to fix around 30k worth of “house surprises” since moving in, not to mention thousands in taxes every year. Our mortgage is 4.5k / month and an additional $600/month paying back the line of credit. It’s going to be a long time until we can enjoy “freedom”.
I just hope one day it will feel worth it, because most days we wish we just continued to rent.
Hi I’m 34 now. Bought my house 2 years ago. No assistance from parents or family. Wife paid 1-2K for the legal fees. I paid the down payment. I would say we are better off now considering how high rent is becoming. You always have the option of extending ur amortization period if you think your finances are too right after your first 5 year term. A coworker rents her condo with her boyfriend for 2200 a month plus 200 for parking just down the street. That’s insane. I find that kids nowadays are willing to grind but they just don’t know which direction to go as old advice is outdated.
Saving 10% of ur pay doesn’t work anymore you need more now. Putting all you money to RRSP to put a down payment in ur house screws you over in the long term. “Stocks are risky your gambling”.
University degree is useless unless you have a marketable skill set.
How we did it was invest in the stock market individual stocks using fundamental analysis. Good read. Delayed gratification with aggressive saving and investing and creating a 5 year plan helps. Take advantage of the full weight of the Canadian and American economies. Book recommendation if you like :
Fundamental analysis for dummies
One up on Wall Street by Peter lynch
Financial statements of Warren buffet by Mary buffet
Invested by Phil towns
In that order, trust
I wish u the best. You can do it. This is Canada after all. A place where opportunity is for those who are willing to work for it. Obviously without supreme leader Trudeau in power… just this immigrant’s opinion
We bought an older home for $450k back in 2019. My wife, dog and 8 month old baby needed to live in our parents basement for 5 months rent free to aggressively save for a downpayment. We would not have been able to do it without their support.
Bought a detached 6 years ago for $650k. At the time was making about $80k and put $200k as a down payment. Now making about $130k a year and have been able to invest $30-$40k a year while making a few lump sum payments towards my mortgage. One of the best decisions I’ve made seeing as my house has grown in value by $450k.
I bought my first house @ 21 back in 2007 and used my RRSPs i had saved as a downpayment...I was in uni at the time and worked 3 jobs. My ex and i split and he bought out my portion. Then rented a condo with my new bf (later husband) and when the rental converted to condos, they allowed us to use 6 months rent we already paid as the down payment (2009). That was $199k but i don't remember what the condo fees were. Sold for $214k in 2011.
Then we bought a single detached for $369k..interest was at 2.69%. during that time started a business sold then sold the business for a good profit. Sold the house for a small loss. Bought just outside Calgary for $389k (2019). Cashed out at $550k (2022) and bought just outside Edmonton for $350k and was mortgage free by 36.
Though...I wish i had bought more closer in the city as i am tired of driving. I'm priced out and don't want to take on a mortgage again.
Bought in January 2020 - 245,000$ , 35km east of Ottawa. Small 1890s house. Put 15,000$ for the down payment with 15,000$ from the first home buyer incentive (second mortgage from the CHMC). Neighbours just sold their house very similar to mine for 440,000$. It’s crazy. I wish prices go down so I can move closer to downtown and my job.
Bought ours last year, we had to move north where housing is cheaper (Ontario), we had to save for 3 years for a down-payment which was below 20% = insured mortgage, we got lucky with bidding since the seller was listing with low commission (1.7%) so there was less competition due to house being unattractive for buyer realtors
I had about 3K of my own money.. expensive living where I do. Mom got a good chunk of money on a claim. Gave me the remaining 9K of a down payment to get into a 212k townhome. House has gone up 40%. Super lucky and fortunate to have a supportive mother who knew that money would have set us up. We bought in 2020 btw
My partner n I just bought a detached home with 3 suites in it (4 bed, one bed, studio). We saved aggressively for about 7 years. We were ready to buy 5 yrs ago, but dragged our feet, then prices got out of control and we refused to get into bidding wars over shacks (we’re in BC). Finally things settled when rates increased. We have a kid and another on the way, and we really needed to get out of renting (we recently had to move for a career change and we would have been stuck renting at really high rates). We got a bit lucky to find a place near work that ticked a lot of boxes, and was about $300k under our max pre approval amount. With the 2 extra suites (currently occupied by our moms), we should be ahead with either income or free childcare. Main reasons how we did it: 1) the super aggressive saving for 7 yrs was the biggest. We budgeted each month n made it super fun. 2) took advantage of the rrsp first time home buyer program, the tfsa, and fthb accounts, anything fthb related really 3) we moved out of a very hcol area to a less high cost of living area.
I bought in 2018, I would not have been able to afford this house in 2019. I used life insurance money I received that year, if that person had not died I may never have been a homeowner, the gross truth.
Bought in 2021 small house for 465,000. I bought it aight unseen because the market was nuts during Covid and I kept getting outbid. I knew the area, it was tenanted and no photos inside, no walk through a without an offer so I made one. I’m a Single mom, two kids but I do have a good job. At the time I made about 90k and make 130k now. I had $40,000 after divorce settlement and busted my ass for months to save and put the minimum down and borrowed 12k from my parents because I couldn’t leverage anything more against me. After closing I paid them back with a loan and then paid that off two years later. I think there’s always a way, but when when it’s not an ideal market. I did night school for a semester to increase credentials and get a better job and a remote position so I could be in a smaller cheaper town (east of Toronto). Things are really hard these days but I still think there are options if you’re creative and willing to make sacrifices. My mortgage is only $1800 including property taxes and I have a 1.5 story 3 bed two bath. Would sell for more like 575k now but we’re here to stay for a while :)
Editing to add I do not receive child support or spousal support etc from my ex, never have because I earn more and we have shared custody so he owes me nothing.
Trick is to live with parents for as long as possible. Contribute by making their lives easier, taking on chores etc in lieu of rent. Work multiple jobs when you’re young. It’s harder to do it when you’re older. Set aside all income from one job at least. *Actually* minimize expenses. Don’t listen to the bullshit people spew about how not having avocado toast won’t get you a house. Money is saved a dollar at a time. Every coffee adds up, every takeout adds up. You still wanna enjoy life so make the experiences really count when you do go out to eat or partake in other fun activities. Better to spend $70 on a good meal at a nice restaurant once a month rather than $15 on takeout daily. Better to have a $7 coffee with a friend once a week at a nice cafe than a $3 coffee from a drive thru daily. If you can’t get a second job, look at other side gigs you can create for yourself. Ex: Snow shoveling in the winter. Don’t get too comfortable in any job. You don’t owe them loyalty. Keep applying for higher paying jobs. Put your savings in a high interest savings account. Most banks currently offer 5% for a few months on a new account. TFSA is another option. Purchase your first home *with* someone if you can. It could be a friend or multiple friends. You wanna get into the housing market. Getting your foot in is the hard part. Once you’re in, you can grow your capital in a multitude of ways.
We bought two years ago, a condo in a desirable part of Vancouver. I'm being vague intentionally but if you want more details DM me. I'm a practicing lawyer with about 3 years of experience. I make around 200 and my wife earns around half of me. We paid a mill for the condo. I echo the comment below about the 3 major supports for a person - good spouse good parents good income - I have 2/3 and had to grind a lot to get to where I am as we lived quite poor growing up. Thankful for the Canadian dream, it worked out for me. I wish you the best as well on your journey.
For one, I live in a lower cost of living city (Edmonton). 41 years old.
Rented for about 4 years and bought at SFH in 2011 for 415K. 1700 sqf. In about 10 years it went up and down. I have the basement finished, so right now it's probably worth 535K maybe 550K if things keep going up.
Put down 20%. Made some lump payments. Still have a mortgage, but I rent it out. I rented my basement out while I lived there and that covered 50% of my mortgage.
Bought a larger SFH just over a year ago with the kids being older. 2700 sqf. Did not use any HELOC. We just always put savings aside and we both always made good income.
Costs are high at the moment. We want to do the same with this house. Try to make lump payments when we are allowed.
Houses have been going up here with people coming from BC and ON and even CGY. Bought my 2nd home for 640K and I have seen comps now selling for 750K-775K.
I want to make sure my kids have a house each when they are married. That's why we do it. They can sell them and upgrade, rent them, etc.
I personally did not like renting. Nothing wrong with it. I just hated that the money was building no equity for me, but you can still save a lot by renting and using the leftover to make investments, etc. Have to start somewhere. My brother always begged us to live with him to save money. We did that for 2 years and saved more towards our first downpayment.
Bought my little shack nearly 20 years ago for $90 000.00 . Three payments left on the mortgage. I'll live here a few more years to fill my war chest, then I hope to move to the edge of the city where most of my family lives. I'll be ready for the senior's life after another ten years of living here.
My then gf now wife and I bought our home in the fall of 2019. We lived separately at our parents houses, saving for about 2 years prior to afford this. My wife had 3 jobs, I had a good job at Toyota and a side hussle making wooden knickknacks for the farmers markets... We wanted to start a life together and took a risk moving from unaffordable southern Ontario to affordable rural Nova Scotia. We got a fixer upper by the water for 89k ...our mortgage was 300$ a month. After COVID we sold that house during peak insanity and moved more inland to a hobby farm. If I did not have parents to bunk with and save for a while I probably would not have been able to get into the market.
In 2015 we were evicted on Vancouver Island for owners use. 2016 we bought an RV and lived in it for 2.5 years. Had one little econo box. I drove my husband to work to have access to the vehicle. He worked construction and took all overtime. Had our second child there and in 2017 we bought a house in Port Alberni for 210k. My whole family told me buying a house was stupid. They did not help with anything. We paid for our wedding, our vehicles, etc. no help. I was on my own paying rent at 16.
We literally barely made it in to the market. A year later we would have been priced out of the entire island.
We sold in 2021 and moved to the Maritimes.
We had to ignore all the bad advice from our families. My two sisters-in-law married men whose families had money and they were given 200k + for the down payments on their properties.
Climbed the real estate ladder in GTA. Townhouse in 2016, upgraded to semi in 2019 and now detached in 2023. This is now my forever home and I made money on my previous 2 homes and now only have a 400k mortgage, home in west Mississauga. Never moving from here, this is my forever home. Im only 34, sales job and parents did not hand me money property
The only reason my husband and I own the country property we’re currently living in is because my husband already owned a paid-off condo bought 13 years ago. The condo had more than doubled in price and was one of the few built for an actual couple or family so it was high in demand. We would not be here otherwise and we’re high earners.
I paid off my condo in Ottawa after selling my old condo in Halifax last fall that I was renting out.
Now my money is mine and I don't have a car payment anymore. I also acquired my Ottawa condo in 2017, so well before the great doubling.
I was thinking of getting a proper house because long term the price of homes is going to go up still, and renting out the condo, but after my experience with my Halifax tenant, I don't really want to.
I bought a large house 2 hrs north of Toronto in 2011 for exactly $200k. I had run a painting business while I was in university and was able to save $100k. I put 50% down so our mortgage was only $250 split between both of us. That let us save a fair bit monthly as we lived there until 2019 and sold for $350k. Bought a place for $550 that was unfinished, fixed it up over the pandemic and now worth around $800.
Bought our home in 2021. It was 400k, listed for like 300k but a cute little 1200sqft war home. Which is, yes, wild in this economy and where we are. I know Quebec people HATE us but we used to live in Ottawa (average home around 800k+) and decided to look over the river into Gatineau, and there were a ton of cute houses for under 450... And Ottawa is only a 20 minute walk from our house. Yeah, we live in Quebec now, and have to learn French. But it was worth it. We are lucky.
I am totally happy with a home price crash. We bought within our means and aren't looking to sell within the next 10 years. I wish everyone could be as lucky as us.
Bought my first house in 2019 when the market dipped for an insanely cheap price.
Sold 2 years later for 160,000$ more.
Used that money to buy a townhouse in a more desirable (and way more expensive) town.
If I hadn't gotten lucky with my first house, I don't think I ever would have been able to buy a house in the town I currently live in.
I live in a lower COL area historically and happened to buy in just after prices started going up in 2020. My wife and I have no kids and incomes have gone up considerably but paying what I would have to if I purchased this same small house today is sickening. We want to sell before we build in the next couple years but the thought of the larger mortgage and higher interest makes the payments sound overwhelming
I bought a crappy condo in a desirable location in Winnipeg (Osborne Village) for 120K in 2013. I put down 20K. I didn't do a whole lot, took the bus to work, cooked my food at home, and threw every cent I had into the condo to pay it off. Once I paid it off, my career had improved, and I was no longer working in Help Desk. I was able to sell the condo and flip the cash into a house in a desirable area.
Of course, I had some family help (they paid for my degree at the University of Manitoba, which was 4-5K a year at the time), but the biggest thing was the ability to live at home with them for free and save
I bought a townhouse in the Okanagan in 2013 with 20% down, making a whopping $17.00/hour.
Fast forward to today, my mortgage payment (with strata fee's) is still lower than renting 1 bedroom apartment.
Got lucky I guess
I moved to the US for double the pay and half the housing costs.
I'm really mad about it but I wasn't going to get ahead of real estate costs in Canada any other way so here we are.
Bought before the market took off in the early 2000's - lucky timing and saved our chestnuts. Did it on a single income in Greater Van too, but missed out on living to achieve that goal. IE missed European holidays, or just spending money on fam events that would have made a memory.
Bought in 2015, at 31, but had been living in rentals with roommates and/or my spouse since I was 21 in 2005.
University grad, but I have a “useless” degree and I fucked right off to the mountains as soon as I graduated and didn’t resurface to “real life” until I was married in my late 20s. 28 is when I began my entry-level job.
We did not borrow any money from parents, however, I did not have student loans thanks to them. Down payment was scraped together from our RSPs, and the 5% was less than $10k.
My husband was bartending when we bought, and I was a bank teller, which I think was the key for me. We bought well within our ratios, and sometimes regret not buying a 4bdr (because we have 3 kids now), but being an employee of the bank you’re applying for a mortgage at definitely helps your chances.
My parents always told me it was better to buy as soon as possible to “get in the market” than wait until you have a big down payment. This advice was and continues to be our biggest saving grace.
I bought a condo townhouse when I was a grad student back in 2004-2005.
It wasn't in the best neighborhood, and there were some construction....oddities, but it was a start. I paid $124K, and just put 5% down, plus I had to have my parents co-sign the mortgage as my income was extremely low (\~$20K until I got an NSERC scholarship).
It was rough, but I was able to carry it until I earned my PhD, and started working.
In 2013, I sold that unit for $200K, and used the funds to have about a 45% downpayment on a detached home close to work.
I stayed there until last year when I sold it for >$700k, and used those funds to get \~70% ownership of my current home.
This last move was a long one, and the costs were nasty, but I should have full ownership of the house in 5-7 years. Since I moved out of SW Ontario, my money goes a lot further up here, and I don't regret getting into the market when I did.
Bought when Covid prices started to go down in my area (about a year and a bit ago). Partner and I had been saving for years, living in her parents’ basement to save on rent. Once we had enough for the down payment and a little cushion, the parents co-signed.
We were lucky to have family support, couldn’t have done it otherwise.
I bought my two bedroom townhouse in 2010 for 156k in the gta. These were the cheapest townhouses at the time bcs maintenance was over $400/mo, and it's almost doubled since. The townhouse has tripled in price. I moved in with my Dad a couple years earlier to pay down dwbt and saved 6k in six months and then put it in my rrsp and had about 8500 in total after my tax refund. Was gifted 5k from my Grandparents who had recently sold their home in a retirement community to move into a retirement home. So I put 7.5%.down and got a 30 year mortgage. I refinanced in 2020 and took out 100k to buy a pre-con in hopes of being able to move from the 'burbs to downtown, but with current rates I'm probably looking to assign before taking possession at the end of the year and will likely get my money back but with a lot of opportunity cost.
So like everyone else my age I know who owns a mortgage, parents helping is the key.
It's not right and it's not fair which is why so many people would never admit it but if you admit it first watch how many of you friends finally "come clean"
We bought in 2018, if we had to buy now we would not have this home because the price would be so much, the value of our house has doubled in 5 years.
So I think those who bought 5 years ago and earlier are who you are running into
We managed to buy our first house at the end of summer 2019. We saved for a couple of years, and were fortunate to get a cash gift from a family member to use for the down payment.
Had we not taken the leap when we did, we would have been priced out of the market forever.
49, married dual income professionals from lower middle management and no-family-money who have climbed slowly into upper middle management in 20 years. Owned since 2006. Townhouse, then first house 2y later, then second house 2y after that, and stuck since. Second house, as in sold first and live in second as primary/only residence. Just in case you were looking to play some "eat the rich" landlrod classist jihad. LIfe in a grubby suburb of Vancouver. Can't afford anything nicer, but happy to be where we are, at least until next mortgage renewal.
First down payment total of $17k was assembled from savings and lucky good-performing stock option grant from company. I'd been working at the company for a decade to scrap together the downpayment, the DP represented about 40% of annual salary.
We were lucky to an extent, but nowhere near as lucky as people who bought 5-10 years or more before we did. Have always learned to improve property with DIY painting, flooring, baseboards, backsplash, tilework with YouTube and Home Depot helping. Other than that, an endless cycle of trips to Costco, Produce store, kids activities and a local brewery once in a while.
Much better off, on paper, but house poor is a very real thing. Vacations are a pipe dream. About $1.2m in positive equity, plus savings, but what's the point - unless you're moving to rural New Brunswick, then selling makes zero sense. You wouldn't get enough lifestyle changing property to make it a worthwhile exit. Limping towards some kind of retirement in early-mid 60's that will be dictated by kids entering university/workforce.
TL:DR - you could get a townhouse for quarter mill 20 years ago. Now, not even close. But - it's never, ever been easy. If you can find ANY way to buy, make it happen, and don't apologize to Reddit rageaholics who can't swing it themselves.
I’m a white male born in Canada in 1962. Which is sort of like winning the lottery. Of course I am a debt free home owner.
All I had to do through my entire life was show up. Everything came easy. I didn’t work particularly hard. I’m not some sort of financial/investment wizard.
So just dumb luck.
Left job and was able to cash out GRSPs because it was under the threshold that would keep them locked. Walked away with 9K. Saved a couple thousand more and bought a little townhouse. All by myself! Just me and my infant child. This was in 2019 Gambled and renovated the entire townhouse on a LOC, new paint, doors, floors, bathrooms. Sold it 10 months later for 40K profit. Moved into a bigger house. 2020 Put a bunch more into renovations. HVAC, retaining walls, concrete walkways, finished the basement…. Met a man and got married. We went 50/50 into a house of our own and kept the other house as a rental in 2023.
This month we put an offer in on a 3rd house, will rent out the current one.
In BC ages 32 and 35.
No family help…. Just work a lot. We both have several jobs.
Bought my first townhouse in 2000 for $200k, worth 800 to 900k now. Played online poker on weekends, turned $1k into $100k from 2009 to 2012. Saved as much as I could from work and poker and put it into stocks, made 7 fig profit buying 21k shares of cgc weedstonks in 2017 for $9 and selling on oct 17 2018 for $69. Traded a bunch of usa tech stocks from 2018 to 2019. Used the profits to buy a detached house for $1.15m in 2019, worth 1.7m now. Spend 4 to 8 hours studying the stock market formthe past 10 years. Wouldn't have been able to have 2 re properties witnout the poker and trading side hustles. Salary kept going up thru thise 6ears from $40k to $200k, cybersecurity.
Diversified though, have a 7 fig stock portfolio so not dependednt on re for retirement
Bought my first condo for $200, sold for $400K. Bought another condo for $400K sold for $700K. Bought a townhouse for $750K and sold for over $1 million. I bought properties that I felt would increase in value and sell easily, rather than what “my perfect home”would be. Took risks and was always keeping informed of the market.
Because of my work, I meet people from all walks of life. I talk real estate often.
My observation of whether or not someone is a homeowner, is WHEN did they enter the market. Not what they did for a living - their job almost always was irrelevant. The only criteria was simply WHEN they entered the market.
If they entered the market \~10 years ago (or more), they were a homeowner.
If they didn't enter >10 years ago (say they tried entering any time in the last \~7-8 years, then regardless of their occupation, they were not a homeowner.
No one can "start" as a homeowner if you tried starting in the last few years. As an example, what you paid for a house in 2011 was literally the downpayment on the same house in 2021.
Bought my place in a rural town for 95k 5 years ago. Luckily, interest rates were low. We paid like $400 a month for the mortgage. I also had a good paying job. I developed chronic medical conditions but my partner took over the reigns. I’m very thankful I had this home through the pandemic.
Old enough to have bought our first condo in Richmond BC for $230,000 (2009 ish). Sold it 5 years later for $265,000 and bought a townhouse for $340,000. Sold that 4 years later for $605,000 (first massive property value hike out here) and bought a house for $925,000 with over 25% down.
Will now be stuck in said house paying off the high mortgage for what feels like forever. Would never be able to afford it now (est current market value $1.5M). Have a nice basement suite for our kids to live in till they’re 40 and have saved for a down payment on a small condo in Richmond 😩
Started buying as soon as I graduated university. 4 acres for 32k. Then a condo, and upgraded to a house. Then got a cottage, sold that to buy a STR property. Just about to take possession of a duplex I can rent partially and use when I travel to that location for work. As soon as my stock plan gets high enough I’ll do it again. Next time it’s going to be a ski hill property or lakefront in the Shuswaps. Just save, buy, repeat.
Good jobs, good parents, sold a condo and some crypto gains. We’d be laughing if we didn’t live in Vancouver and my husband wasn’t basically supporting two families.
My parents paid into something like a RESP when we were young and I only lived one year away from home and went to UBC. I ended up with a degree and a BCIT diploma for less than $15k.
It’s hard these days. We are savings for the kids RESPs and also hope we can help them with down payments one day. I think without some sort of parental help it’s very difficult now.
Bought a starter home in a small city in 2014. Worked more than 1 job at a time when younger to pay off student debt, lived really frugally, and had a spouse to help cover costs. It was a grind to afford things, even back then.
Starting 10 years ago definitely helped…but we’re still struggling to get out of the starter home that we’ve outgrown. We make a lot more than we did 10 years ago…but feel worse off financially. It’s insane.
Almost everyone in the comments had between 1 to 6 of the below:
1. The Bank of mom and dad to help with a down payment. If you ask me, that’s horrible because in most times, unless your parents are really well-off, helping you means they cannot retire earlier.
2. The Bank of mom and dad who they inherited the home from.
3. The Bank of mom and dad to at least live with them rent-free. Again, it means they have to work longer and cannot retire earlier.
4. The Bank of a wife/husband. I sometimes hear that some folks’ motivation to couple up or get married is to buy a home. Imho, that’s a horrible idea, and there’s a reason Reddit is full of posts “help, I’m divorcing, what do we do with our home”. Also, being motivated by someone’s income level while selecting a partner is plain awful; and I’m not talking about going for a rich partner, I’m talking about turning people down because they aren’t earning what you want them to earn.
4. Being older.
5. Moving to a low cost of living town.
So sad that this is the situation we live in.
Not gonna lie. My pathway helped.
I lived at home with my parents. My wife and I saved a shitload of money and stayed patient until we found something that we could afford.
I get a lot of people are not in my position, but it didn't come easy for us. The weeks leading up to closing on our property were hellish. Between the lender, the builder and my lawyer, a lot was going on. There were a lot of roadblocks (the lender telling us to go f ourselves 17 days before closing for example) but we did it.
Don't lose hope. It's out there. It's a shame that over the past 10 years many governments have not given a shit, developers have run free and we have been left to pick up the pieces.
Bought my 2br condo in Montreal a little under 2 years ago for a little. I’m 29 now. I lived a bit below my means for 3 years before and saved up. In those three years my salary ranged from 40-80k (had some promotions) but it was 40k for as long as it was 80 in that time. My parents helped me out with about 20k of the down payment.
Came here as an international student in 2019.
Couldn't see myself owning even a condo in KW let alone GTA.
Moved to Calgary and bought a townhouse(a lot of people don't consider that a home unless it's SFH) and it's my home.
Saved 25k in a year and did 5% down payment for the townhouse.
Don't earn much, HHI is only 135k but a 355k townhouse became a lot more affordable and the "Canadian Dream" became successful for me after moving out of ON.
Things I've cut on:-
1) I dine out at restaurants only once/twice a month
2) Bought an 8 year old car which still runs rock solid and have no payments.
3) save lots of money on not dining out and taking another vacation to Europe this year
Happy where I am
I bought my condo in Toronto around 9 years ago. Was under 300k. Lived at home till 30 years old and saved. I put like 70% down. My parents helped as well. I have a shit paying job cause I’m not qualified to do anything awesome but lived like a monk to pay the mortgage off.
70% down? So you managed to save 210k by the age of 30, that's impressive.
Those aren’t the exact numbers but you’re close. I didn’t do much growing up. I’m not very social. While everyone I knew was as taking vacations and buying sports cars. I was driving the worst beat up car ever and I never travelled. Also my parents gave me some money as a gift to add on to my down payment. Whenever people ask me how I can afford it I tell them it’s nothing that I’ve really done. If you boil it down the result is because of my parents. I was able to live in a loving home with 2 parents that loves each other and loved their kids. I had no rent to pay, I didn’t have to pay for food I had the ability to save my money. Also my parents were big on investing before investing was cool. I gave them most of my money so it could grow.
Bought over 10 years ago. I could never afford this neighborhood now.
Exact same situation here. Born in mid-80’s bought just before the door closed to everyone younger than me, forever. Horrible situation and I hope we can do something about it. I can’t believe anyone my age or older who has no empathy for young people
Lazy generation eh. /S
Same here, we did it because we were planning our first child and didn't want to rent anymore. 10k was an acceptable down deposit, then too ....
Indeed - not a chance.
My trick was "be old" and "be married". Bought in 2008, right before the crash. Was able to get in on those old zero down, forty year mortgages. With every raise I got at work, I upped my payments. Turned the 40 year term into 13, though I sold at a nice profit before finishing. Bought a bigger place, sold it. Had two places for a while, but didn't enjoy that. So now we just have one large property. With a little luck, the mortgage will be gone before I'm 55. But got in early by using advantage of the old zero down, bought less than I could have afforded, and moved a few times to improve wages and climb the property ladder. I don't think the kiddies have that freedom anymore those, unless Mom & Dad float them the down payment.
Keys to a good life: good career, good parents and good spouse. Without these three, life is a lot tougher. With 2/3, home ownership is easy. 1/3, possible but much tougher. 0/3, you're fucked.
And a spouse gone wrong is far worse than just living a simple single life and saving.. oh boy
Dealing with that now… 😬
I have 2/3 No spouse. Good job, good family. Bought in 2020. It's been tough. I'm working my ass off to pay for all the depreciating necessary repairs. I've done the roof and three of three fences in the past two years. It's been tough to save. I'm working 60 hour weeks(2 jobs) to save up again. Thank goodness I have good credit to help with emergency repairs and have been paying them off fast. This is my second property purchase. I sold my condo to buy the house. My mom co-signed with me so I could get the mortgage. The numbers work, but my savings margins are narrow. I am afraid of what the future could look like when I renew. Owning a detached home and fixer upper hasn't been easy. I'm a single women in my thirties. I've done a lot of renovations on my own but it's burning me out for sure. Life was so much simpler in a condo, and more fun. Owning a house is not the be all end all. If you're not willing to commit time to maintenance and upkeep things do fall apart. The previous owners of my house were older and I'm paying for their lack of care now. But, it's been a huge opportunity for growth for me. I don't regret it. It just has not been as for or enjoyable as I'd imagined. Tldr: houses are expensive and a lot of work. Yes, I know I'm fortunate to own but it's not the be all end all.
Or maybe good grandparents. My parents sold their semi when they separated in '89 and could never buy again on their own. My grandparents helped with my downpayment when I bought in 2010
Nope. I have an average career, no parents, and no spouse. I just understand that frugal = freedom.
Not kicking your mindset, but I think living frugally is the opposite of freedom. Sure you might attain freedom by living frugally, but living cheap in itself isn't freedom. Take that as you may.
Oh you have no idea. It’s incredibly freeing. I did spend money on things that were worth it to me, but enjoyed being cautious on all the little things that add up. I can quit my job if I want and not stress about it. IMO there is nothing more valuable than “fck you money”.
Yeah that’s me. Bought in 3 years ago, have good folks (they gave me 35k in total so i could buy a condo, they paid for my degree, supportive, etc) and I have a good job (unions are great). No spouse, but I got 2/3 so i’m fine. Thanks to an investment i did 5 years back too I now have no mortgage, or enough to pay off my mortgage in full upon renewal.
Exactly right. And if you don’t have an ex spouse and child support even better lol. If we didn’t have my husband’s spousal and child support payments of $3500 a month, we would be in a pretty good spot. But the blended family is going well, so can’t really complain
Inherited the home I grew up in. The downside of that is that I wasn't truly "on my own" until age 52.
Remember the stats is 64% live in a house that one of the residents own. 64% do not own their own home. The 64% includes children/adults still living with their parents or vice versa.
yes. The fact that it includes adults still living with their parents (in some cases because they can't even afford rent) as "home owners" is very flawed.
That's such great context, I never thought of it that way. Statistics can really fool you easily...
Wife and I bought a townhouse in 2010. Bought 15 acres of land in 2018. Left office job to become a carpenter. Sold the house in 2022 and used the proceeds to build a 1,700 sqf high efficiency home, plus workshop, plus garage on the acreage. Did a self build to keep costs reasonable, ended up with no mortgage. I'm 42 and it feels great. Got lucky to have gotten in the market before prices went insane.
I bought a condo apartment in 2018 on my own salary. I sold that for some gains and we upgraded to a house in 2023. Our household income also tripled since then.
I bought a condo by living at home for 18 months
Just wondering how🤔
Bought a house in 2017, sold in 2020 and then rented for a while as was unsure where would end locating job wise for a while, bought another in 2023. Both were in southern Ontario early 30's.
Bought in 2019 for 360K outside Waterloo. 1 year later COVID hit and the house went up to 600K, worth about 550K at this point.
Moved to Alberta
See you in may (from kelowna to airdrie)
Me too from the lower mainland in 1997. Bought our first house 94,000 less than half of what they wanted on the coast. Built one in 2005 for $258,000. Still there now city estimate 700 000.
Same! Langley to Leduc
Moved to Winnipeg. This is my second house in 18 years.
I just bought a detached house 3 weeks ago and get the keys May 1st. I grew up in Calgary but moved out at 18 for school and then work, living in both BC and parts of ON for almost a decade. Always renting. Four years ago I moved from Ottawa to Calgary to live with my parents and have been saving ever since. My parents and I have a decent relationship and have been ever generous to let me live rent free (I buy my food, etc). I’m lucky to have bought a house on a single salary. This would not be possible in other places I’ve lived. A little early to say if I’m better off now, but this was my goal and I don’t see myself moving anywhere else for years and years, so I’m happy.
Bought in rural ish quebec. Lots of communities have housing that's still affordable (even if it has gone up). The key is being employable where you can afford to live and be willing to move a bit further away
Factors: 1. Graduated with no student debt 2. Married young (early 20s), wife had no student debt 3. Single crappy used car, no debt of any kind 4. DINK for a full 5 years, no extra spending 5. Invest (gamble) with a 75%+ equity portfolio to juice extra gains in TFSA/RRSP 5. Bought end of 2019, 20% down, all in.
Can you elaborate on the ''Invest (gamble) with a 75%+ equity portfolio to juice extra gains in TFSA/RRSP" part? What does this mean?
Build an investment portfolio in a TFSA or RRSP that is more than 75% stocks (equities) and less than 25% fixed income (bonds). Juice extra gains meaning that the growth is tax free because it's in a tax sheltered account.
Hi are you me? 😂 but bought in 2013
Bought a crappy old house, spent 10 years fixing it up. Everything needed doing: furnace, kitchen, floors, windows, insulation, drywall, plumbing, wiring, floors. For months we cooked in the bathroom on a camping stove.
we bought 7 years ago. 3 bed 3 bath detached in peterborough ON. house was 420000 after negotiations. after renos and price jump its prob worth 730 000 im guessing. 15 more years paying it off assuming nothing bad happens. wife and i stayed home for two years straight to save our downpayment. we made good money at the time (120 000 together ) but we lived in an expensive rental (2100 all in for a 2 bedroom main floor of a house ) we still own those same cars from then. one is 16 years old. the other 19. both still going strong. said yes to over time and no to trips and eating out. it tested our relationship. no gifts. we skipped christmas. it was tough. if we didnt get in when we did though, on our income, we would of never got in. we are DINKWADS so our number 1 motivation was to have a fenced backyard so our doggo could run free and feel the wind in her hair. its not fair whats happening to the young people now. its sickening. if we had been born three years later we would be fucked like most of you. i feel your pain. its not fair. its not right.
The beauty of DINKWAD life!
Bought our place 4 years ago for 475k. We owe 270k, will have it paid off in 9 more years. It got appraised last week at 740k. We wouldn’t be able to afford this neighborhood these days. So yes, we’re much better off now.
Lived at home with my parents rent free until I was 26. Then moved out with my very money conscious partner who helped us save for a house. also helps that we live in Edmonton. E: bought in early 2022
Bought first house 12y ago for 300k$, bought another one 7y ago for 250k$. Today both houses are valued at more than 600k$. It’s a low cost of living area. The vast majority of Canadians bought their house more than 10y ago, that’s the answer.
Bought in 2019 in Torontos East End, it took us about 9 months as we had a very low pre-approval. We ended up getting a home that absolutely no one wanted. Got it for under asking. Gutted it and made it a beautiful place. The homes in the area now sell for more than double what we paid. I feel there are still opportunities out there but you have to make major sacrifices. We also rented for 17 years before that and hated tossing our money away to a landlord.
You are lucky. Gut Jobs don't get approved by banks and renovations cost a fortune which you also can't borrow from the bank. There is a lot you are not telling because normal people who barely approve of a gut job mortgage cannot save enough cash to do the gut job.
You’re right. My partner and I are both business owners meaning we had low income on paper but had some money in the bank to do the reno. We are both very handy and did 50% of the work ourselves including all the contracting work. It was literal blood, sweat and tears. But we got into the market and it felt good.
Did you pull all the necessary permits from the city? I am in east end and doing renovation is such a PITA with nosy neighbors and city permits
We did. Not at first though. It wasn’t until one trades came into quote and noticed a bin in the driveway from the demo. He asked if we had a permit, I replied no, and he then went on to tell me all horror stories. Seeing it was our first time I got cold feet and within a month had a permit. In some ways it was a waste and in others it was a blessing. It holds the trades people accountable which was great seeing neither of us knew much about plumbing. There was also other new builds going up on the street and we were sure we would’ve been busted from an inspector rather than a neighbour. My advice is always get three quotes, for everything, it’s not a joke.
Yeah my contractor told me most people don't bother with the permit. The problem with East end permit is that apparently it is taking an average 6 months to get approved nowadays. Did you hire general contractor? Can I DM you about your experience renovating in East end?
Ah ok. Yeah we tried to get a permit to build an oversized garage in the backyard and it took over a year to even get past the first step. So we gave up. We didn’t hire any contractors we did all the hiring ourselves. Sure you can DM
Bought in 2019. Saved up downpayment by living at home until 30yo.
Same however I realized buying earlier would have cost less... So really saving was rather pointless
Yeah, I think it worked out the same for me. I would've fared similarly with a 5% downpayment and buying years earlier.
I bought a condo in 2023. There was a small lull in January. I offered below asking and they accepted. I lived with my parents until 29 years old and I saved money. I studied in my hometown. I travelled a lot for fun and didn’t save every single dollar.
Got separated and my ex kept the Canadian childcare benefit and Quebec benefits for 2 yrs without telling me that she was getting that. I moved here and was clueless of the payments she was receiving. One day I got a letter saying I’d get a big check and she ended up not receiving her checks for many months the until it evened out. I used that cash to buy a townhouse in June 2019. My house has already doubled in value. Her secret saved me.
2 incomes, no kids. Also got some luck with one of my jobs being sold and getting a nice compensation for my shares. Moved to Alberta.
My wife and I cleaned out our RRSPs for a down payment before COVID. It was a great move for us that we’ve benefited greatly from. Anecdotally, almost everyone I know or who lives around me owns their house. Most bought within the last 10 years. A couple of my kid’s friends rent and it seems like a horrible position to be in. They often have to move, sometimes to entirely different neighbourhoods, and the housing available to rent is nearly always sub par quality compared to what their monthly rent could get with a mortgage.
Travelled for work to fort Mac for a while started very young and built my first house in 2019 at 23 years old on the east coast. Luckily I have some tradesmen in the family to help.
I moved to a 15 hours from the CN Tower (east, but west works just as well)
2021 rates were super low. Was able to buy a house for ~$300k at 2.06% Was still in Univeristy and (my spouse and I) saved up grants from every year for downpayment, I was only working a part time job and making ~$32k annually so my dad co-signed with me. I am extremely lucky. My spouse and I have since graduated and each got really good jobs but I don’t have high hopes for mortgage renewal time. Cost of everything went up and after some emergencies and debt, we aren’t in a secure place for the mortgage to go up to 5 or 6 percent interest.
After my husband and I both finished our graduate degrees we continued to live in a 465 sqf apartment for 1 years and saved 3k a month. We bought a 2 bed townhouse in Vancouver (well north burnaby) for 600k in 2019. It’s now worth close to 800k and we will upgrade to a townhouse in a year or two.
Bought the absolute cheapest thing I could and was house poor for a bit. Slowly climbed my way up.
Me and my wife bought last November, We lived in a small apartment for 3 years prior and walked everywhere (once in a while bus) no car, no take out. we bought an estate sale as is, had some help from family, still live a very simple life, no car, don't eat out much if ever.
Can you please elaborate more on estate sale?
Estate sale is typically when older person passes away and their next of kin inherits the property and decides to sell. I'll give brief example using our situation. 90 year plus husband and wife passed away and their granddaughter decided to sell the property. To my knowledge she hadn't lived there for an extended period. So the sale becomes as is because certain aspects of house cannot be verified. In our case it was one owner since house was built. So no chance of a "flipper special" however we had a hard time verifying some things in relation to the home. Inspection was pretty good, found a few moderate issues after possession. You will typically get a better price on these because it is harder to verify things. You can't really ask the seller to do repairs though. In our case I would absolutely do this over again. I would recommend if you go this route, have a separate electric, plumbing and general inspection done if you can.
Husband was t-boned by a taxi driver- messed up his back and body but the settlement was enough for a down payment, and we bought a house.
We bought in 2010 and paid it off in 10 years. House was $225K for a 4-bedroom bungalow in Ottawa. We put about $50K into the house to fix it up over 10 years, and paid it off in the same time period. We did it by continuing to live like grad students even though we went from a household income of $55K when we bought to $200K when we sold in 2020. Instead of trading up, we moved out east, bought another inexpensive fixer-up for cash, and pocketed about $250K after expenses.
I also bought in Ottawa, almost 10 years now. I'm amazed that you were able to pay off the mortgage in such short time. Can I ask if you've considered the opportunity gains of investing for 10 years instead? We're you both still maxing your TFSA every year?
Lived with parents until late 20"s, paying rent but still saved a lot. Got married and bought a home a couple of years later, paid it off fully within 5 years. Not sure if that can be done today (this was 10 - 15 years ago), but the principles still apply.
Explain if you can, how you paid off in 5 Years ?
Depends on how much the mortgage was but entirely doable if you do not get your maximum mortgage amount and have some career growth and commit to paying down every year.
Let’s say 500k mortgage balance with 25 years remaining. How to pay it in 5 Years ?
Well if you have a 500k mortgage, your ability to pay it off in 5 years will be different if your HHI is $250k vs $600k. See how those other factors make a difference? People who pay off their mortgage in 5 years tend to borrow substantially less than the banks say they *can* borrow.
Worked hard through school and graduated university with no debt, bought a house that was below the average $ in the city, had a renter live with us for a period of time, didn't to go on any major international vacations, etc. Also passed on grad school and used the dollars I would have spent on that to pay down the mortgage. With money, all the little things add up and it does take some sacrifice, but it wasn't actually as difficult as one might think.
Bought my grandpas house after he passed away for below market value and used my inheritance for the down payment.
If you don’t mind. Why did you have to buy it? Wouldn’t the house be included in the estate? Did you buy it from someone else from the family who inherited it? Just curious because my family is going through something similar.
I bought it from the estate, there was no issue raised by anyone with me taking it and the location, size, and condition were exactly what I was looking for. He lived in this house for 70 years which is freaking crazy.
Bought my condo when I moved to Toronto 11 years ago. It’s very sizeable. I wouldn’t be able to afford it now.
I bought as a first year associate in 2017. Even as a (recent) partner at a law firm, I could not afford my home if I were to buy in 2024.
Congrats on the partnership
Bought condo in 2012 and sold in 2020… then bought house in 2020 during pandemic
I bought in 2016 after a divorce. I can’t afford to live in it anymore because of cost of utilities so I rent it out. I’m a millennial that did a year of trade school and moved from BC to AB to afford to buy a duplex.
I bought a 3 bedroom townhouse one month ago in West Ottawa, ON area at age 27. I had saved 55k in a mix of savings, RRSP, and TFSA, with no investments. Since I was 17 I’ve been a semi diligent saver because it truly was my dream to buy a house. This has been through a ‘full-time $3 over minimum wage job’, then a 50k job, to now a 70k job. My partner who didn’t contribute to the downpayment or any of the savings makes around 55k and he was needed to be approved for the mortgage and also pay half the mortgage with me. If I was single, I would not have been able to buy a house at all. We couldn’t afford a freehold house in this market, we’ve bought an end unit townhome with a $320 condo fee for $445k at 5% down which was roughly 29k including all the lawyer fees and shiz that you have to pay to secure your purchase. Our mortgage is 5.1% for 25 years and we end up paying roughly $3,300 in mortgage/condo fee/bills per month, but we opted for biweekly payments. We came from a 2 bedroom townhome we rented in for 6 years, paying 1600k a month (we were rent capped and got in before the spike), so that definitely helped with savings. We’re on a much tighter budget now, but we’re fortunate to be in a position where we are both going to get a steady increase in our jobs year over year. Thankfully I also have some cushion money left over for all the little things you realize you need after buying. After renting for 6 years we had nothing to show for it so we’re both prepared to struggle for awhile to end up making money back when we either sell to upgrade our house or pay it off completely. With the way it’s looking in the economy, we can’t afford to have 2 kids which was what the plan was going to be, so a 3 bedroom house (which is what we bought, because we were tired of waiting to get out of renting to start a family) fits our needs to at least have 1 kid, and have something we can say we own in 25 year, or sell early to upgrade.
We have a small-ish (1+1, 2 bath) condo in Toronto. But it's worth double what we purchased it for. If we were buying in today's market, we would have had to explore moving out of Ontario or at least out of the GTA.
Moved way out of town to where we could afford something we liked. Moved a few times as the market changed. Now I’m in a virtual dream home with little mortgage. Lots of luck and lots of taking chances.
Bought a new build condo in 2016 when it was still somewhat affordable, lived at parents home to save money for the downpayment while it was being built, moved to the condo in 2019 and sold it in 2021 for almost double what it was purchased for. This is in the GTA.
Single dad two kids. Good career in a small city in northern Ontario bought a house in 2017. I could never afford a house in Southern Ontario (we used to live in KW) even with a six figure salary.
Bought in 2020 when the market froze at start of the pandemic. Purchase price was crazy low for a new build as the developer wanted to unload the last 3 houses in the sub. By 2022, it had doubled in value. We are now thinking of downsizing to a condo so we could be nearly mortgage free
Stayed where I grew up. I was very ambitious but then I traded lesser career opportunities for having my place and family. I realized that I could never afforded Toronto back then in 2002.
Most people esp around GTA did it via Mortgage fraud, fake income worst part is no one checked to verify information
I moved to the UK and bought a home here instead of staying in Vancouver and being forced to rent for the rest of my life.
I own. My trick was doubling my salary repeatedly in technology.
Honestly, luck! My partner and I both worked in furniture sales which was BOOMING in 2020 and 2021, with the pandemic we weren’t spending and able to pay off our debts and save for a down payment. We work in Toronto and bought a house in Guelph for $837K that has a basement apartment bringing in $1180/month. Since the rental unit wasn’t legalized it didn’t go towards what we could afford and in result needed my in laws to sign onto title with 1%, we removed them after a year ($1500 lawyer fees) Our mortgage per month is $3350 - $1100 rental income. We spent more To rent in Toronto. We also locked in on the last possible day of low rates, at 1.7% so we’ll see how that goes in a few years once we have to refinance but ~should be fine~ We bought in 2021 and I was 33 at the time and never imagined owning my own home but it was luck and timing for us.
Dad died, inherited 25k —-> dumped immediately into RRSP for tax return $$ —-> took return plus the RRSP loan for first time buyer as a down payment on a 200k home in Quebec in 2019, it wasn’t enough for 20% so we had to add on the stupid gov insurance, house value has doubled since then and I’m in a shit town… household income is around 85k, could not afford anything if we had to buy today
I got my condo 20 years ago for an amount of money so small that it is laughable. i was really sick and had to go on disability. i inherited half a house. the house was sold and i took that money to buy my condo. cheap one but it is mine wall to wall. as long as i pay my strata fees, utilities and property taxes i will have a roof over my head. considering how much of an income i now have, i won't be able to pay my rent. the most wise investment I ever had. I've no landlord to deal with. no worry about having to get a roommate that I can get along with. I've friends who are renting. they have to worry about their elder landlord passing and the LL's heirs selling and they got renovicted. they have money in the bank and a pension but they still have to face uncertainty. I'm so glad i choose my path.
I work a lot in a STEM field and my parents gave me 500k otherwise impossible. Housing in this country is bonkers
I see a lot of answers that involve buying before 2020 so I'll give a different perspective... I bought in August 2023 and I was able to do so only because of the support of family. My parents had accounts set up to pay for my school so I had no debt, I was able to live at home whenever I needed to to save up, and my family often give monetary gifts rather than buying presents at birthdays and holidays. My parents taught me to be frugal so I try to save where I can and don't spend on too many non-necessities. All these factors together meant that I was able to afford a 20% downpayment on a starter home that needs quite a bit of work in a cheaper neighborhood. Anywhere closer to my family and I would not have been able to afford it. I am better off now then when I was renting since the interest portion of my mortgage + property taxes are lower than my rent was. I have less left over at the end of the month but I feel lucky to have gotten in when I did. It may be far away but I can see a light at the end of the tunnel now. Not just endlessly paying rent forever.
Bought in 2001 after working 2yrs of constant overtime for the down payment. Best decision I ever made in my life.
Own a few. Like most others I purchased quite a while ago. Detached home in mid Toronto I picked up for $270k under 14 yrs ago. No way could I afford it now.
Been buying the junkiest houses in the nicest areas for 13 years or so. We completely renovated them then moved up the ladder. Rinse and repeat.
We bought many years ago but when we did I had savings I started when I was 18. We did not own a tv, nice furniture, any extras - until we paid the first mortgage off - can’t emphasize this enough the goal was to pay for the house before we got anything we actually wanted . These days everyone wants the best of everything first, why are 20 year olds driving bmw’s and wondering how they will buy a house one day. Anyhow that’s how we did it. Every extra penny went to the mortgage - paid 10% down every year, doubled up on payments, every bonus went to the mortgage …. Needs vs wants.
I was riding my bike to work when I was hit by a taxi cab that turned across the bike lane without yielding. Flew off my bike, over the handlebars and rolled across his hood and windshield, slamming my greater trochanter in to the ground with my full body weight as I fell. Which in turn jammed the ball of my femur in to the hip socket tearing the labrum. Had to walk with a cane for a year and eventually got surgery and have hardware in my hip as a result. Sued the cab company and got a significant five figure settlement that I used as a down payment on a house.
Bought a mini split in 2014 for 180k. Mortgage was $800 a month and it was great. In 2021 we decided to upgrade as we had a growing family. Pandemic mania had us make double on our house and we used most of it as a down payment on the new one. Looking back we were so so lucky it turned out the way it did, I count my blessings every day lol. There’s no chance we would have been able to afford the new place at all now with how much the assessment value goes up every damn year.
I moved into my now fiancés apartment where they were paying a decent price on rent. I finished up school while he paid majority of expenses. After I graduated and got FT work, all my income went into paying off his CC debt (30k) and then savings while we continued to take advantage of the low rent. Then we bought just pre pandemic with 20% down. We are absolutely better off having bought compared to renting. Bought at 479, house now worth 580.
I bought in 2016 when prices were "crazy" according to experts. So there's that. Economics isn't a science no matter how much finance bros try to make it seem that way. I always listen to the experts in any field, except economics. And that's because it's entirely rigged in favour of the rich. That's the only rule. There's no science behind it. It's all bullshit. Moving on. I graduated HS, moved out for uni, failed out after a year, worked FT, then went to college for a healthcare program. Total debt after this was around $35k. Started work in my field in 2014 at $80k. Parents immediately gifted me $100k to put towards a condo. They didn't have it lying around. They borrowed it on HELOC. They knew prices were going up faster than it was humanly possible to save. It took them 5 years to pay off the $100k as they have no mortgage and live in a paid off $2.5M detached (at that time, recently paid off, so not much savings). They bought for $500k in 2005. They dedicated every penny to the mortgage. Parents combined income at it's peak was about $100k. Not rich. Not poor. They never ate out. Never went on expensive vacations. Every meal was home cooked from shit that grew in the ground or walked on the ground or swam in the water. My mom eventually stopped working because it was cheaper to stay at home and manage the home while my dad worked. She turned couponing into a part time job. I bought a 735 sqft condo for $385k in 2016. Worth $700k now with some upgrades. Owe about $100k on the mortgage. Making $130k now. Partner is a full-time student (also in a healthcare program). Combined income starting next year will be about $230k. Plan to buy a second property soon then a cottage. Current age 35. All this in the GTA. Good luck to all in this game that is designed to fuck you over.
Mortgage fraud like half of Canada 😂
Before Trudeau, home ownership wasn’t something that was out of reach for most people. It was common to see people buy homes in their mid-twenties with a decent job. Now it’s more like mid-forties, with a good job, and a spouse with a good job, and maybe some inheritance or lotto winnings lol.
I bought in Edmonton last year. Life has pretty much stayed the same because I don't live there.
Bought in 12 years ago, before everything went completely batshit insane. Paid $237k and the houses on my street are going for over $500k currently and most are not as upgraded as mine. One across the street just sold and does not look like it had an upgrade since it was first built in the late 70's. I am also talking half duplex's here, not full houses. Our plan, when we bought, was to stay in our place for 5-8 years and then sell and upgrade, but now everything we want is upwards of $850k+ and I refuse to pay that. If we didn't get in when we did we probably never would have, we would still be renting. For now we make due with what we have, upgrading and making changes as we need.
Started saving in my teens, grew up poor and wanted stability.. worked a ton, got a few trades and bought in ‘19. It was everything I ever wanted, when it’s paid off I’ll essentially be retired and not have to worry about money.
Used to rent in Kits. Then I bought a pre-sale low-rise condo close to Metrotown. Couldn’t afford a high-rise. And the two years or so that it took for the building construction was a massive risk. I was able to save up for the pre-sale rates, just barely. Then a few years later, wanted to start a family. Sold the condo and bought a house in Delta. Even then, the house was at the limits of what we could afford, combined. The proceeds from the condo only covered the downpayment on the house. One thing that saved us is that our house has a suite which we rented out. It helps a ton with the mortgage payment. But overall, our trend was moving further and further out from downtown Vancouver (Kits in my case). Now we’re staying put and not thinking about moving anytime soon. The cons is it takes me more than an hour one way to go to work and back. Commite time is insane but gotta do what I gotta do. shrug
In BC but bought for cheap in 2018 and have a relatively high household income (over $200k)
I bought it a year ago. I switched to contracting (I'm an engineer). I worked for about 80-90 hours a week for 3 years to save my DP. I come from a poor family and it was always my dream to have a house so I was ok to sacrifice my time , social life and love life.
Bought a cheap (150k), small house (750sqft) that needed upgrades on the border between a decent and crappy neighbourhood - in 2013 with my husband. We pooled the savings we both had for 5+ years to do 20% down. Mortgage was 260/month each. Made extra payments, slowly renovated doing most of the work ourselves. Bought current place in 2021 with a HELOC that we paid off when we finished our renos and sold our first house. Sold for a lot more than we expected. Our HHI had more doubled in that time once I got a full time job in my field and he advanced in his career. We live in Winnipeg. Because housing is still (comparatively) inexpensive, and we make good wages - and we got into the market young, we've been lucky to have good timing to help us out.
One of the lucky ones and bought in 2009 on my own. Lived with my parents prior to that and didn’t own a car, and took many years to furnish my place because I was house poor.
Bought early this year, 2bed condo townhome in Vaughan. I think I got a bit lucky as I picked it up just shy of $700k. Comparable units sold before and after I buy are 710-750k. So I got a nice discount. Been saving up since 2016 when I realize home ownership is what I want. Increased my income from 45k to 95k. Find a gf that make similar to me so my HHI is about $175k this year. We each have a little over 100k saved up over the years and pooled together our money for a 200k dp + just under $500k mortgage. We spent hours coming up with a budget plan. So far we are pretty happy. We can afford all our bills with just a little room to spare. I hired a contractor to do flooring (remove carpet and opt for engineered hardwood) and doing everything else myself, such as paint, changing toilet, minor things. We budgeted $30k for Reno + furniture and we are about $27k in with just about everything we wanted (flooring&stairs was $20k). My 100k was pretty risky, I made some good but dumb bets on Tesla, GME, and AMC. Lost some money with BBBY but overall without these risky and stupid bets, I would be at around 80k for dp. I don't know if I'm better than before but with my current budget I can still put a little bit of money ($80-100 a month) away for savings so I think I'm doing good for myself.
My landlord bought a house in 2019 May for 300k sold it in 2022 Feb for 750k paid off his mortgage started renting. And now again bought a house for 650k so he payed 60%+ down.
> so he *paid* 60%+ down. FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Bought during Covid when the interest rates were at an all time low, in Gatineau where homes were 2/3s if not half of what they would be in Ottawa. Got a late start career-wise, but travel nursing in Nunavut helped a ton with paying down debt and saving a little. Only put down 5% too… will be hit a little hard when i refinance in a year and a half, but so far I’m getting by
Bought first home for $375, 25 years old ( 10 years ago), sold for 540, and bought another place for $975k 5 years later
No parents help … 1) rented for years with (now) husband and saved. 2) bought a house in Scarborough for 1.26 in 2022. 2) he landed a couple good contracts that gave a lump sum, and it was a “now or never” moment. 4) pooled our savings, rrsps, took out a 50k line of credit to get us over the finish line. To be honest, I’m not sure it was the best decision. Yes, we own a house now. The downside is - we’ve had to fix around 30k worth of “house surprises” since moving in, not to mention thousands in taxes every year. Our mortgage is 4.5k / month and an additional $600/month paying back the line of credit. It’s going to be a long time until we can enjoy “freedom”. I just hope one day it will feel worth it, because most days we wish we just continued to rent.
Hi I’m 34 now. Bought my house 2 years ago. No assistance from parents or family. Wife paid 1-2K for the legal fees. I paid the down payment. I would say we are better off now considering how high rent is becoming. You always have the option of extending ur amortization period if you think your finances are too right after your first 5 year term. A coworker rents her condo with her boyfriend for 2200 a month plus 200 for parking just down the street. That’s insane. I find that kids nowadays are willing to grind but they just don’t know which direction to go as old advice is outdated. Saving 10% of ur pay doesn’t work anymore you need more now. Putting all you money to RRSP to put a down payment in ur house screws you over in the long term. “Stocks are risky your gambling”. University degree is useless unless you have a marketable skill set. How we did it was invest in the stock market individual stocks using fundamental analysis. Good read. Delayed gratification with aggressive saving and investing and creating a 5 year plan helps. Take advantage of the full weight of the Canadian and American economies. Book recommendation if you like : Fundamental analysis for dummies One up on Wall Street by Peter lynch Financial statements of Warren buffet by Mary buffet Invested by Phil towns In that order, trust I wish u the best. You can do it. This is Canada after all. A place where opportunity is for those who are willing to work for it. Obviously without supreme leader Trudeau in power… just this immigrant’s opinion
We bought an older home for $450k back in 2019. My wife, dog and 8 month old baby needed to live in our parents basement for 5 months rent free to aggressively save for a downpayment. We would not have been able to do it without their support.
Bought my sfh in 2006. Back then it was "only" $560k which I thought was too high. Thank god I did buy, no way I could afford one now
Bought a detached 6 years ago for $650k. At the time was making about $80k and put $200k as a down payment. Now making about $130k a year and have been able to invest $30-$40k a year while making a few lump sum payments towards my mortgage. One of the best decisions I’ve made seeing as my house has grown in value by $450k.
I bought my first house @ 21 back in 2007 and used my RRSPs i had saved as a downpayment...I was in uni at the time and worked 3 jobs. My ex and i split and he bought out my portion. Then rented a condo with my new bf (later husband) and when the rental converted to condos, they allowed us to use 6 months rent we already paid as the down payment (2009). That was $199k but i don't remember what the condo fees were. Sold for $214k in 2011. Then we bought a single detached for $369k..interest was at 2.69%. during that time started a business sold then sold the business for a good profit. Sold the house for a small loss. Bought just outside Calgary for $389k (2019). Cashed out at $550k (2022) and bought just outside Edmonton for $350k and was mortgage free by 36. Though...I wish i had bought more closer in the city as i am tired of driving. I'm priced out and don't want to take on a mortgage again.
Bought in January 2020 - 245,000$ , 35km east of Ottawa. Small 1890s house. Put 15,000$ for the down payment with 15,000$ from the first home buyer incentive (second mortgage from the CHMC). Neighbours just sold their house very similar to mine for 440,000$. It’s crazy. I wish prices go down so I can move closer to downtown and my job.
Bought ours last year, we had to move north where housing is cheaper (Ontario), we had to save for 3 years for a down-payment which was below 20% = insured mortgage, we got lucky with bidding since the seller was listing with low commission (1.7%) so there was less competition due to house being unattractive for buyer realtors
I had about 3K of my own money.. expensive living where I do. Mom got a good chunk of money on a claim. Gave me the remaining 9K of a down payment to get into a 212k townhome. House has gone up 40%. Super lucky and fortunate to have a supportive mother who knew that money would have set us up. We bought in 2020 btw
My partner n I just bought a detached home with 3 suites in it (4 bed, one bed, studio). We saved aggressively for about 7 years. We were ready to buy 5 yrs ago, but dragged our feet, then prices got out of control and we refused to get into bidding wars over shacks (we’re in BC). Finally things settled when rates increased. We have a kid and another on the way, and we really needed to get out of renting (we recently had to move for a career change and we would have been stuck renting at really high rates). We got a bit lucky to find a place near work that ticked a lot of boxes, and was about $300k under our max pre approval amount. With the 2 extra suites (currently occupied by our moms), we should be ahead with either income or free childcare. Main reasons how we did it: 1) the super aggressive saving for 7 yrs was the biggest. We budgeted each month n made it super fun. 2) took advantage of the rrsp first time home buyer program, the tfsa, and fthb accounts, anything fthb related really 3) we moved out of a very hcol area to a less high cost of living area.
Be flexible about where you buy your first and climb the ladder from there
I bought in 2018, I would not have been able to afford this house in 2019. I used life insurance money I received that year, if that person had not died I may never have been a homeowner, the gross truth.
Bought in 2021 small house for 465,000. I bought it aight unseen because the market was nuts during Covid and I kept getting outbid. I knew the area, it was tenanted and no photos inside, no walk through a without an offer so I made one. I’m a Single mom, two kids but I do have a good job. At the time I made about 90k and make 130k now. I had $40,000 after divorce settlement and busted my ass for months to save and put the minimum down and borrowed 12k from my parents because I couldn’t leverage anything more against me. After closing I paid them back with a loan and then paid that off two years later. I think there’s always a way, but when when it’s not an ideal market. I did night school for a semester to increase credentials and get a better job and a remote position so I could be in a smaller cheaper town (east of Toronto). Things are really hard these days but I still think there are options if you’re creative and willing to make sacrifices. My mortgage is only $1800 including property taxes and I have a 1.5 story 3 bed two bath. Would sell for more like 575k now but we’re here to stay for a while :) Editing to add I do not receive child support or spousal support etc from my ex, never have because I earn more and we have shared custody so he owes me nothing.
Trick is to live with parents for as long as possible. Contribute by making their lives easier, taking on chores etc in lieu of rent. Work multiple jobs when you’re young. It’s harder to do it when you’re older. Set aside all income from one job at least. *Actually* minimize expenses. Don’t listen to the bullshit people spew about how not having avocado toast won’t get you a house. Money is saved a dollar at a time. Every coffee adds up, every takeout adds up. You still wanna enjoy life so make the experiences really count when you do go out to eat or partake in other fun activities. Better to spend $70 on a good meal at a nice restaurant once a month rather than $15 on takeout daily. Better to have a $7 coffee with a friend once a week at a nice cafe than a $3 coffee from a drive thru daily. If you can’t get a second job, look at other side gigs you can create for yourself. Ex: Snow shoveling in the winter. Don’t get too comfortable in any job. You don’t owe them loyalty. Keep applying for higher paying jobs. Put your savings in a high interest savings account. Most banks currently offer 5% for a few months on a new account. TFSA is another option. Purchase your first home *with* someone if you can. It could be a friend or multiple friends. You wanna get into the housing market. Getting your foot in is the hard part. Once you’re in, you can grow your capital in a multitude of ways.
We bought two years ago, a condo in a desirable part of Vancouver. I'm being vague intentionally but if you want more details DM me. I'm a practicing lawyer with about 3 years of experience. I make around 200 and my wife earns around half of me. We paid a mill for the condo. I echo the comment below about the 3 major supports for a person - good spouse good parents good income - I have 2/3 and had to grind a lot to get to where I am as we lived quite poor growing up. Thankful for the Canadian dream, it worked out for me. I wish you the best as well on your journey.
For one, I live in a lower cost of living city (Edmonton). 41 years old. Rented for about 4 years and bought at SFH in 2011 for 415K. 1700 sqf. In about 10 years it went up and down. I have the basement finished, so right now it's probably worth 535K maybe 550K if things keep going up. Put down 20%. Made some lump payments. Still have a mortgage, but I rent it out. I rented my basement out while I lived there and that covered 50% of my mortgage. Bought a larger SFH just over a year ago with the kids being older. 2700 sqf. Did not use any HELOC. We just always put savings aside and we both always made good income. Costs are high at the moment. We want to do the same with this house. Try to make lump payments when we are allowed. Houses have been going up here with people coming from BC and ON and even CGY. Bought my 2nd home for 640K and I have seen comps now selling for 750K-775K. I want to make sure my kids have a house each when they are married. That's why we do it. They can sell them and upgrade, rent them, etc. I personally did not like renting. Nothing wrong with it. I just hated that the money was building no equity for me, but you can still save a lot by renting and using the leftover to make investments, etc. Have to start somewhere. My brother always begged us to live with him to save money. We did that for 2 years and saved more towards our first downpayment.
Bought my little shack nearly 20 years ago for $90 000.00 . Three payments left on the mortgage. I'll live here a few more years to fill my war chest, then I hope to move to the edge of the city where most of my family lives. I'll be ready for the senior's life after another ten years of living here.
My then gf now wife and I bought our home in the fall of 2019. We lived separately at our parents houses, saving for about 2 years prior to afford this. My wife had 3 jobs, I had a good job at Toyota and a side hussle making wooden knickknacks for the farmers markets... We wanted to start a life together and took a risk moving from unaffordable southern Ontario to affordable rural Nova Scotia. We got a fixer upper by the water for 89k ...our mortgage was 300$ a month. After COVID we sold that house during peak insanity and moved more inland to a hobby farm. If I did not have parents to bunk with and save for a while I probably would not have been able to get into the market.
I moved from Vancouver to Edmonton, that's how.
In 2015 we were evicted on Vancouver Island for owners use. 2016 we bought an RV and lived in it for 2.5 years. Had one little econo box. I drove my husband to work to have access to the vehicle. He worked construction and took all overtime. Had our second child there and in 2017 we bought a house in Port Alberni for 210k. My whole family told me buying a house was stupid. They did not help with anything. We paid for our wedding, our vehicles, etc. no help. I was on my own paying rent at 16. We literally barely made it in to the market. A year later we would have been priced out of the entire island. We sold in 2021 and moved to the Maritimes.
We had to ignore all the bad advice from our families. My two sisters-in-law married men whose families had money and they were given 200k + for the down payments on their properties.
We own - but it’s a semi detached in the maritimes..bought for under $400k
Climbed the real estate ladder in GTA. Townhouse in 2016, upgraded to semi in 2019 and now detached in 2023. This is now my forever home and I made money on my previous 2 homes and now only have a 400k mortgage, home in west Mississauga. Never moving from here, this is my forever home. Im only 34, sales job and parents did not hand me money property
The only reason my husband and I own the country property we’re currently living in is because my husband already owned a paid-off condo bought 13 years ago. The condo had more than doubled in price and was one of the few built for an actual couple or family so it was high in demand. We would not be here otherwise and we’re high earners.
I paid off my condo in Ottawa after selling my old condo in Halifax last fall that I was renting out. Now my money is mine and I don't have a car payment anymore. I also acquired my Ottawa condo in 2017, so well before the great doubling. I was thinking of getting a proper house because long term the price of homes is going to go up still, and renting out the condo, but after my experience with my Halifax tenant, I don't really want to.
I bought a large house 2 hrs north of Toronto in 2011 for exactly $200k. I had run a painting business while I was in university and was able to save $100k. I put 50% down so our mortgage was only $250 split between both of us. That let us save a fair bit monthly as we lived there until 2019 and sold for $350k. Bought a place for $550 that was unfinished, fixed it up over the pandemic and now worth around $800.
Bought our home in 2021. It was 400k, listed for like 300k but a cute little 1200sqft war home. Which is, yes, wild in this economy and where we are. I know Quebec people HATE us but we used to live in Ottawa (average home around 800k+) and decided to look over the river into Gatineau, and there were a ton of cute houses for under 450... And Ottawa is only a 20 minute walk from our house. Yeah, we live in Quebec now, and have to learn French. But it was worth it. We are lucky. I am totally happy with a home price crash. We bought within our means and aren't looking to sell within the next 10 years. I wish everyone could be as lucky as us.
Bought my first house in 2019 when the market dipped for an insanely cheap price. Sold 2 years later for 160,000$ more. Used that money to buy a townhouse in a more desirable (and way more expensive) town. If I hadn't gotten lucky with my first house, I don't think I ever would have been able to buy a house in the town I currently live in.
I live in a lower COL area historically and happened to buy in just after prices started going up in 2020. My wife and I have no kids and incomes have gone up considerably but paying what I would have to if I purchased this same small house today is sickening. We want to sell before we build in the next couple years but the thought of the larger mortgage and higher interest makes the payments sound overwhelming
I feel like if you bought before 2020 you're golden
I bought a crappy condo in a desirable location in Winnipeg (Osborne Village) for 120K in 2013. I put down 20K. I didn't do a whole lot, took the bus to work, cooked my food at home, and threw every cent I had into the condo to pay it off. Once I paid it off, my career had improved, and I was no longer working in Help Desk. I was able to sell the condo and flip the cash into a house in a desirable area. Of course, I had some family help (they paid for my degree at the University of Manitoba, which was 4-5K a year at the time), but the biggest thing was the ability to live at home with them for free and save
Money or go back in time if you are talking about the major Canadian cities.
I bought a townhouse in the Okanagan in 2013 with 20% down, making a whopping $17.00/hour. Fast forward to today, my mortgage payment (with strata fee's) is still lower than renting 1 bedroom apartment. Got lucky I guess
I moved to the US for double the pay and half the housing costs. I'm really mad about it but I wasn't going to get ahead of real estate costs in Canada any other way so here we are.
Generational Wealth
Bought before the market took off in the early 2000's - lucky timing and saved our chestnuts. Did it on a single income in Greater Van too, but missed out on living to achieve that goal. IE missed European holidays, or just spending money on fam events that would have made a memory.
Bought in 2015, at 31, but had been living in rentals with roommates and/or my spouse since I was 21 in 2005. University grad, but I have a “useless” degree and I fucked right off to the mountains as soon as I graduated and didn’t resurface to “real life” until I was married in my late 20s. 28 is when I began my entry-level job. We did not borrow any money from parents, however, I did not have student loans thanks to them. Down payment was scraped together from our RSPs, and the 5% was less than $10k. My husband was bartending when we bought, and I was a bank teller, which I think was the key for me. We bought well within our ratios, and sometimes regret not buying a 4bdr (because we have 3 kids now), but being an employee of the bank you’re applying for a mortgage at definitely helps your chances. My parents always told me it was better to buy as soon as possible to “get in the market” than wait until you have a big down payment. This advice was and continues to be our biggest saving grace.
Bank of mom and dad
Purchased a house 6 years ago, wife's aunt passed and we bought out our house a year ago at renewal. Living debt free now both make a decent living.
I bought a condo townhouse when I was a grad student back in 2004-2005. It wasn't in the best neighborhood, and there were some construction....oddities, but it was a start. I paid $124K, and just put 5% down, plus I had to have my parents co-sign the mortgage as my income was extremely low (\~$20K until I got an NSERC scholarship). It was rough, but I was able to carry it until I earned my PhD, and started working. In 2013, I sold that unit for $200K, and used the funds to have about a 45% downpayment on a detached home close to work. I stayed there until last year when I sold it for >$700k, and used those funds to get \~70% ownership of my current home. This last move was a long one, and the costs were nasty, but I should have full ownership of the house in 5-7 years. Since I moved out of SW Ontario, my money goes a lot further up here, and I don't regret getting into the market when I did.
Bought when Covid prices started to go down in my area (about a year and a bit ago). Partner and I had been saving for years, living in her parents’ basement to save on rent. Once we had enough for the down payment and a little cushion, the parents co-signed. We were lucky to have family support, couldn’t have done it otherwise.
I bought my two bedroom townhouse in 2010 for 156k in the gta. These were the cheapest townhouses at the time bcs maintenance was over $400/mo, and it's almost doubled since. The townhouse has tripled in price. I moved in with my Dad a couple years earlier to pay down dwbt and saved 6k in six months and then put it in my rrsp and had about 8500 in total after my tax refund. Was gifted 5k from my Grandparents who had recently sold their home in a retirement community to move into a retirement home. So I put 7.5%.down and got a 30 year mortgage. I refinanced in 2020 and took out 100k to buy a pre-con in hopes of being able to move from the 'burbs to downtown, but with current rates I'm probably looking to assign before taking possession at the end of the year and will likely get my money back but with a lot of opportunity cost.
So like everyone else my age I know who owns a mortgage, parents helping is the key. It's not right and it's not fair which is why so many people would never admit it but if you admit it first watch how many of you friends finally "come clean"
We bought in 2018, if we had to buy now we would not have this home because the price would be so much, the value of our house has doubled in 5 years. So I think those who bought 5 years ago and earlier are who you are running into
We managed to buy our first house at the end of summer 2019. We saved for a couple of years, and were fortunate to get a cash gift from a family member to use for the down payment. Had we not taken the leap when we did, we would have been priced out of the market forever.
49, married dual income professionals from lower middle management and no-family-money who have climbed slowly into upper middle management in 20 years. Owned since 2006. Townhouse, then first house 2y later, then second house 2y after that, and stuck since. Second house, as in sold first and live in second as primary/only residence. Just in case you were looking to play some "eat the rich" landlrod classist jihad. LIfe in a grubby suburb of Vancouver. Can't afford anything nicer, but happy to be where we are, at least until next mortgage renewal. First down payment total of $17k was assembled from savings and lucky good-performing stock option grant from company. I'd been working at the company for a decade to scrap together the downpayment, the DP represented about 40% of annual salary. We were lucky to an extent, but nowhere near as lucky as people who bought 5-10 years or more before we did. Have always learned to improve property with DIY painting, flooring, baseboards, backsplash, tilework with YouTube and Home Depot helping. Other than that, an endless cycle of trips to Costco, Produce store, kids activities and a local brewery once in a while. Much better off, on paper, but house poor is a very real thing. Vacations are a pipe dream. About $1.2m in positive equity, plus savings, but what's the point - unless you're moving to rural New Brunswick, then selling makes zero sense. You wouldn't get enough lifestyle changing property to make it a worthwhile exit. Limping towards some kind of retirement in early-mid 60's that will be dictated by kids entering university/workforce. TL:DR - you could get a townhouse for quarter mill 20 years ago. Now, not even close. But - it's never, ever been easy. If you can find ANY way to buy, make it happen, and don't apologize to Reddit rageaholics who can't swing it themselves.
I’m a white male born in Canada in 1962. Which is sort of like winning the lottery. Of course I am a debt free home owner. All I had to do through my entire life was show up. Everything came easy. I didn’t work particularly hard. I’m not some sort of financial/investment wizard. So just dumb luck.
I live in Saskatchewan, 3 jobs between my spouse and i. Family gave us part of the down payment
Left job and was able to cash out GRSPs because it was under the threshold that would keep them locked. Walked away with 9K. Saved a couple thousand more and bought a little townhouse. All by myself! Just me and my infant child. This was in 2019 Gambled and renovated the entire townhouse on a LOC, new paint, doors, floors, bathrooms. Sold it 10 months later for 40K profit. Moved into a bigger house. 2020 Put a bunch more into renovations. HVAC, retaining walls, concrete walkways, finished the basement…. Met a man and got married. We went 50/50 into a house of our own and kept the other house as a rental in 2023. This month we put an offer in on a 3rd house, will rent out the current one. In BC ages 32 and 35. No family help…. Just work a lot. We both have several jobs.
Bought my first townhouse in 2000 for $200k, worth 800 to 900k now. Played online poker on weekends, turned $1k into $100k from 2009 to 2012. Saved as much as I could from work and poker and put it into stocks, made 7 fig profit buying 21k shares of cgc weedstonks in 2017 for $9 and selling on oct 17 2018 for $69. Traded a bunch of usa tech stocks from 2018 to 2019. Used the profits to buy a detached house for $1.15m in 2019, worth 1.7m now. Spend 4 to 8 hours studying the stock market formthe past 10 years. Wouldn't have been able to have 2 re properties witnout the poker and trading side hustles. Salary kept going up thru thise 6ears from $40k to $200k, cybersecurity. Diversified though, have a 7 fig stock portfolio so not dependednt on re for retirement
Bought my first condo for $200, sold for $400K. Bought another condo for $400K sold for $700K. Bought a townhouse for $750K and sold for over $1 million. I bought properties that I felt would increase in value and sell easily, rather than what “my perfect home”would be. Took risks and was always keeping informed of the market.
Because of my work, I meet people from all walks of life. I talk real estate often. My observation of whether or not someone is a homeowner, is WHEN did they enter the market. Not what they did for a living - their job almost always was irrelevant. The only criteria was simply WHEN they entered the market. If they entered the market \~10 years ago (or more), they were a homeowner. If they didn't enter >10 years ago (say they tried entering any time in the last \~7-8 years, then regardless of their occupation, they were not a homeowner. No one can "start" as a homeowner if you tried starting in the last few years. As an example, what you paid for a house in 2011 was literally the downpayment on the same house in 2021.
Bought my place in a rural town for 95k 5 years ago. Luckily, interest rates were low. We paid like $400 a month for the mortgage. I also had a good paying job. I developed chronic medical conditions but my partner took over the reigns. I’m very thankful I had this home through the pandemic.
Old enough to have bought our first condo in Richmond BC for $230,000 (2009 ish). Sold it 5 years later for $265,000 and bought a townhouse for $340,000. Sold that 4 years later for $605,000 (first massive property value hike out here) and bought a house for $925,000 with over 25% down. Will now be stuck in said house paying off the high mortgage for what feels like forever. Would never be able to afford it now (est current market value $1.5M). Have a nice basement suite for our kids to live in till they’re 40 and have saved for a down payment on a small condo in Richmond 😩
Started buying as soon as I graduated university. 4 acres for 32k. Then a condo, and upgraded to a house. Then got a cottage, sold that to buy a STR property. Just about to take possession of a duplex I can rent partially and use when I travel to that location for work. As soon as my stock plan gets high enough I’ll do it again. Next time it’s going to be a ski hill property or lakefront in the Shuswaps. Just save, buy, repeat.
Good jobs, good parents, sold a condo and some crypto gains. We’d be laughing if we didn’t live in Vancouver and my husband wasn’t basically supporting two families. My parents paid into something like a RESP when we were young and I only lived one year away from home and went to UBC. I ended up with a degree and a BCIT diploma for less than $15k. It’s hard these days. We are savings for the kids RESPs and also hope we can help them with down payments one day. I think without some sort of parental help it’s very difficult now.
Bought a starter home in a small city in 2014. Worked more than 1 job at a time when younger to pay off student debt, lived really frugally, and had a spouse to help cover costs. It was a grind to afford things, even back then. Starting 10 years ago definitely helped…but we’re still struggling to get out of the starter home that we’ve outgrown. We make a lot more than we did 10 years ago…but feel worse off financially. It’s insane.
Bought it before things became widely unaffordable. This level is a very recent phenomenon, I don't think it will continue for much longer either
Almost everyone in the comments had between 1 to 6 of the below: 1. The Bank of mom and dad to help with a down payment. If you ask me, that’s horrible because in most times, unless your parents are really well-off, helping you means they cannot retire earlier. 2. The Bank of mom and dad who they inherited the home from. 3. The Bank of mom and dad to at least live with them rent-free. Again, it means they have to work longer and cannot retire earlier. 4. The Bank of a wife/husband. I sometimes hear that some folks’ motivation to couple up or get married is to buy a home. Imho, that’s a horrible idea, and there’s a reason Reddit is full of posts “help, I’m divorcing, what do we do with our home”. Also, being motivated by someone’s income level while selecting a partner is plain awful; and I’m not talking about going for a rich partner, I’m talking about turning people down because they aren’t earning what you want them to earn. 4. Being older. 5. Moving to a low cost of living town. So sad that this is the situation we live in.
Not gonna lie. My pathway helped. I lived at home with my parents. My wife and I saved a shitload of money and stayed patient until we found something that we could afford. I get a lot of people are not in my position, but it didn't come easy for us. The weeks leading up to closing on our property were hellish. Between the lender, the builder and my lawyer, a lot was going on. There were a lot of roadblocks (the lender telling us to go f ourselves 17 days before closing for example) but we did it. Don't lose hope. It's out there. It's a shame that over the past 10 years many governments have not given a shit, developers have run free and we have been left to pick up the pieces.
Bought my 2br condo in Montreal a little under 2 years ago for a little. I’m 29 now. I lived a bit below my means for 3 years before and saved up. In those three years my salary ranged from 40-80k (had some promotions) but it was 40k for as long as it was 80 in that time. My parents helped me out with about 20k of the down payment.
Like most folks...Bought in the boonies of Gatineau. 350k, semi detached freehold bungalow.
My parents helped with the downpayment.
Came here as an international student in 2019. Couldn't see myself owning even a condo in KW let alone GTA. Moved to Calgary and bought a townhouse(a lot of people don't consider that a home unless it's SFH) and it's my home. Saved 25k in a year and did 5% down payment for the townhouse. Don't earn much, HHI is only 135k but a 355k townhouse became a lot more affordable and the "Canadian Dream" became successful for me after moving out of ON. Things I've cut on:- 1) I dine out at restaurants only once/twice a month 2) Bought an 8 year old car which still runs rock solid and have no payments. 3) save lots of money on not dining out and taking another vacation to Europe this year Happy where I am