Laid off, stayed off.

[Meadbh]

To Nobulife, here is a spreadsheet that can help you to evaluate the financial pros and cons of owning real estate as an investment. It's designed for people making the purchase decision but hopefully you can use the numbers you already have.

Rate of Return Evaluator ~ Canadian Housing Price Charts and Real Estate Evaluator Blog www.chpc.biz

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

This may help explain why - the vast majority live in the very southern part of the country :

View attachment 12405

DD

It explains nothing. Property is insanely expensive up north in Calgary, Edmonton, Fort McMurray, where there are more moose than people.

There are exceptions from time to time. The last time I was in Uranium City, Saskatchewan, you could buy a house for $100. There were only 43 residents at that time. I understand that houses are more expensive now.

 

[haha]

Bummer. That limits your options. You are wise to look before you leap.

Meadbh is right about RRSPs. They are just an account, not an investment product.

Meadbh is also right about the Tax-free Savings Accounts. They are a gift from God! By all means, use them fully. They are like our Roth IRAs, except that if you do not use all your entitlement one year, you can carry it over! If we do not use our entitlement for this year, we lose it. You are very fortunate!

You may be thinking of GICs--Guaranteed Investment Contracts, I think they are. Like Certificates of Deposit, except issued by insurance companies. When you buy such a product, always diversify. Buy from several companies, not just one. You should be fine, but not much protection against inflation.

Would you consider living on a boat? It might be cost-effective in BC.

I do not understand why property is so expensive in Canada. With 1/10th of the population of the US and about the same about of area, why should that be? Somebody wants it to be expensive, I think.

I believe that property was down in parts of Abbottsford. Might be worth a look.

Beware of property on aboriginal lands, by the way. But if you read the papers, you know about that.

Three factors in Vancouver. Chinese demand 2) the only place in Canada with bearable year-round weather 3)Topography. So many mountains and inlets and not a lot of plain old flat ground.

Ha

 

[FreeAtLast]

Sometimes when a change is forced upon us we get the unique opportunity to see things differently.

Congratulations on your retirement.

 

[Nobulife]

Sometimes when a change is forced upon us we get the unique opportunity to see things differently.

Congratulations on your retirement.

The changes in my life have certainly forced me to view things differently and not all of it is bad. In fact a lot of it is completely awesome but I am my own worst enemy.
Do you remember Archie Bunker, confronted with Edith's difficulties due to menopause, hollering in frustration, "if you are going to change then change right now" or words to that effect. Well, that's me ..even though it makes all kinds of sense to take it slowly and sell our place next year, a part of me is wanting to move on now,right now.

So my new strategy is to distract myself by planning short term events such as a fishing trip next month. I need to tie a bunch of flies, stretch my lines, freeze some meals and clean out the rv. And being retired I don't have to fit this all in after a long work day...Yeaaaa.

 

[Nuiloa]

Just curious..... where in the world are you going to find a lake-front residence that is cheap? Are you moving to Nunavut? (aptly named: when they asked the natives how much of that frozen land they wanted, they replied None Of It, and the name stuck)

You shouldn't have too much trouble selling a place in White Rock at top dollar, even with that pesky tree.

 

[Nobulife]

Just curious..... where in the world are you going to find a lake-front residence that is cheap? Are you moving to Nunavut? (aptly named: when they asked the natives how much of that frozen land they wanted, they replied None Of It, and the name stuck)

You shouldn't have too much trouble selling a place in White Rock at top dollar, even with that pesky tree.

Not moving to a lakefront residence though we could have for only 130k...trouble was the place was rotting out. Down the road was lake front with an old mobile on an acre for 99k but two reasons for not buying ,,,it is a Native Band lease and there is no high speed internet available, With my kids thousands of miles away I need Skype capability.

No when we move it will most likely be to lovely Langley. The White Rock condo market is a unique entity that is not greatly influenced by general trends. We did sell the place once but the buyers backed out 2 hours before the subjects were due to come off. Then we had a low ball offer that we refused. But it has been a very slow summer for sales especially when you have restrictions on pets, rentals and age. It has all been for the best though as we were rushing it too soon after I was laid off , we now realise, so we are off the market until the new year.

 

[Nuiloa]

No when we move it will most likely be to lovely Langley. .

The problem with Langley is that it is on the other side of all the bridges. Once Port Mann comes in with its toll, it's going to be expensive to commute. There's just something so wrong about that!

I live in Port Moody, in what my realtor said is " Vancouver's best kept realty secret". You can still get 2-bedrooms for under $225K. It's old, but well kept and no bridges.

 

[Nobulife]

The problem with Langley is that it is on the other side of all the bridges. Once Port Mann comes in with its toll, it's going to be expensive to commute. There's just something so wrong about that!

I live in Port Moody, in what my realtor said is " Vancouver's best kept realty secret". You can still get 2-bedrooms for under $225K. It's old, but well kept and no bridges.

No commuting in my life.... I am retired. Only direction I am going to be heading in is up the valley and up the Coq to my favourite lakes. We are planning on a 2 bedroom mobile home in a co-op no pad fees just $100 per month maintenance , no fear of assessments and the property taxes are typically around 400 dollars per annum with the senior discount. The units average around $200,000 or less which includes the price of the fraction of land you own as part of the co-op.