Apr 06 2006
Ah yes…it’ll be a mini-van next…
Ok, our schedules are chaotic, our lives a turmoil, our time pretty much spoken for.
Just to add to the confusion and chaos we are now house-hunting. Admittedly we are hunting outside the Toronto sprawl as a quarter of a million dollars just doesn’t really get you in the door on a hovel here, but we’ve high hopes for cities nearby. Truth be told I’ve been unthrilled with living in Toronto for some time, and am anxious to escape the city altogether.
This has, however, eaten up a great deal of time we had (and some time we didn’t have) in so far as dealing with financing, hunting through listings, actually doing a few recces to see if we were house hunting in a sort of urban war zone, and finally sacrificing sleep to actually go out and see some of the possible candidates.
I’m not going to post much more on this until we’ve locked down a few options, and quite frankly until we take possession of the new digs (where ever they end up being located), but I though an explanation for my continued enforced silence was in order.
And no, we’re not buying a mini-van.
…well, not yet anyway.
Cheer up! You could be living back in Vancouver. Prices here are officially higher than Toronto. What a dubious honor. Property west of Cambie and north of 41st Ave. is going for $410/sq. foot and up.
Downtown is worse. Their prices start at about $500/sq. foot. But we don’t get much snow…
Glad to see you getting into the market. It’s probably the only place your savings have any protection over the long term. It will be interesting to see how long your commute ends up being. Ours will increase from 5 minutes on foot to 10-15 minutes by bike or bus at the end of this month. More space!
Pull the trigger!
Buying my house in Guildford was the smartest thing I’ve ever done. It cost me just over a quarter million three years ago, has gone up over $100,000 in that time and by 2010, will probably have doubled in value.
And owning a minivan only sucks if you don’t own a badge of “I’m still young dammit”, like a motorbike. Of course, my wife and mother still roll around with laughter when the Dodge Grand Caravan commercial with the motorbike comes on.
Would it help you to know that most people living in urban centres outside Canada look enviously at how cheap it is for us to live here?
Hint: You gotta scroll way down to find Toronto … and even further to find Vancouver (wherer folks don’t have our Southern Ontario heating bills
http://www.livingin-canada.com/cost-of-living-in-canada.html
Move to Wyoming … apparently US citizenship is not needed anymore.
Add some real MGs to your collection.