NO, we haven't bought a house. But we have looked at a few recently. Nothing has really stood out for us as the "perfect" house; probably because our wish list is very very very LONG. Like insanely long.
Regardless of price, with me stalking the MLS listings, and driving through our favorite neighborhoods, I am absolutely DUMBFOUNDED by the price of homes in the GTA. It's INSANE. So much in fact that i'm thinking of tossing the entire idea out the window. It's frustrating to know that you are pre-approved for "X", but the homes in the "X" price range are either shacks that need 100K in renovations, or are the size of a matchbook. Or 8 cats live there and you'd have to have the entire place fumigated and the vents cleaned out the stink is so bad. Or your neighbor is a gas station or a funeral home. No i'm not kidding on the last two.
Another consideration is moving outside of the GTA to a smaller community, we can afford a nice home out in the burbs, but then our commute would be very very long. And with only 1 car, and the fact that my husband and I work different shifts, we'd need to buy another car, OR one of us would need to work from home.
So what do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO? I've got my knickers all up in a knot about this today, so much so that I just want to crawl under the covers.
Do you own your home? Did you have to decide between urban and suburban? Or city and country? New home or resale? Please help us decide! We don't know what to do!
3 comments:
House hunting in Toronto is such a brutal experience. I hear ya!
It is a really personal decision - urban vs suburban. I think it is important to pick that up front because if you look at both at the same time, suburban will almost always win based on what you get for the $$. Have you seen that show? I think I've seen urban win once.
I like city living and from what I see, we bought before the market went nuts (of course, it didn't feel like that at the moment we bought!). However, I do think that down the road I could see us moving to the country and having some property and maybe a horse. Haha.
However, right now, I would pay an extra 100K to not have a 1 hr commute each way to the burbs. Just saying :-)
I know, I totally agree with you there. I'd prefer to live in the city, it's where I grew up, and where i've always lived.
I really need to do some more research on up and coming neighbourhood in the GTA, especially the west end to see if there are any "cheap" up and coming neighbourhoods out there. Maybe we'll get some more bang for our buck that way!
Almost a year ago we "accidentally" bought a house in Toronto. I say accidentally because it was the first one we looked at, we weren't really in the market to buy, and we owned it within 24 hours of seeing it!!
It's not in the most glamourous neighbourhood (Vicotria Park and Danforth), but it was affordable for Toronto standards and there are amazing neighbourhoods within a 15 minute walk. And there seems to be a rise in young couples/families buying nearby. Also, being a less developed area means less property taxes and generally quieter streets.
Sure we could have moved to the suburbs, but I work from home so I want to be somewhat near the action.
Good luck with the hunt :)
ps- glad to have stumbled unto your blog!
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