Hi,
I moved to Canada in Sep 05. right now i am paying rent (only 500$/month) so am sharing.
I am worndering when is a good time to buy a home and what kind of home to buy.
Everyone says house prices are going up and will keep going up and i should hurry and get in the market aSAP but i am seeing something contradictory..
My friend's neighbour put his Home for sale at 455k (tenth line and eglinton) and he kept lowering the prices..the best offers he has now got his 395 and 400..
are prices going down or up.
My spouse will be here probably in Jan-Feb and my parents in next 3-4 years.
What kind of house should i go for..

Also i am not exactly affluent..Since i am alone i do 2 jobs make 45k in one job and 25k in another..i dont know if i will be able to continue working the same when my wife comes here... maybe i will put half the time than what i am putting in right now in the PT job or quit it whenever my wife finds a job..
So i dont know what kind of house to buy..where to buy..how much should it cost..should it be a new old
Both my jobs are in Mississauga

Please advice..

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Live and Let Live

This is a juicy thread for any one to jump in.

What kind of home to buy is a personal choice and will depend on you and your wife, so you may like to wait for your wife before deciding.

For total amount you may spend on a house, there maybe be two figures:
a. What loan amount you qualify for depending on your salary.
b. What amount you should actually spend.

Desis sometimes tend to spend more and buy a bigger house than they can be comfortable with ( in terms of payment) , and suddenly get "house poor" actually owning a big house.

So I would try to spend less.

Also try to buy at a good rate (cheap) . In any market if you buy at a good rate you are at a lesser risk. Also always go in for best location what you can afford.

It really is pointless to post such generic queries. Searching on the web will give you thousands of websites discussing what is a good time to buy, whether you should rent or buy etc. etc.
If you are paying only $500 in rent, it is hard to imagine that you can really afford to buy because almost anything you buy in the GTA which is even half decent, would mean a monthly payment of close to double that with a decent downpayment.
Why don't you go to a bank for a pre-approval and see if you even qualify to buy?

Anytime you can afford to buy a home is good time to buy. Considering you make 70K currently, you would qualify for about 230K mortgage. Adding available downpayment to this amount will give you the figure that you would be able to spend to buy your home.

As to price of homes coming down, there indeed is some seasonal correction taking place, but this is more or less the same that happens every year. Assessing the market conditions on the basis of your neighbour's house is not a wise thing. Who knows, his home could have been overpriced for sale to begin with. Some people seem to think that they are living in India where if one house sells on a street for 40 lacs, the neighbour srarts asking for 45 lacs for his house. Fortunately here, Realtors have access to enough comparison data to do an appraisal on a home. Some sellers ignore the appraised value of their home and insist on listing higher. No wonder their homes stale in the market and risk not being sold at all.

My suggestion to you while buying your home is same as LD's .i.e to go for something that you can afford easily (preferably & possibly without your part-time income being in the picture. If you are able to continue with this job in the future after you have purchased you home, it will help you increase the mortgage payments and reduce your debt faster. If not, you would not be under any pressure of keeping up with your mortgage payments). Analyze your requirements and financial situation, not your neighbour's, and then buy a home that fits your lifestyle.

Be it a small house or a condo, this can be a starting point to your castle!

Good Luck!

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Rajeev Narula, Broker, REALTOR®
ACE TEAM REALTY INC., Brokerage
10 Kingsbridge Garden Circle, Suite 704
(Opp Square One - HWY10/403)
Mississauga, ON L5R 3K6
Bus: 1-888-355-3155 Ext. 300
Fax: 1-888-443-3155
Email:
Web: http://www.RAJEEV.ca" rel="nofollow">LINK

Chittesh,
A good time to buy is when you feel that you will be working in the same office and nearby areas for atleast 5 years. Once that is decided (irrespective of how much you pay rent) then it is a right time to buy a house.
My choices will be (in priority order) :
1. Detached / Semi Detached house w/ separate entry to Basement
2. Free hold Town house w/ sep. entry into Basement.
3. LEase hold Townhouse w/ sep. entry into Basement.

Never buy a Condo./ Lease hold town houses (in some cases) since you will pay a monthly maint. fee and this would be to your disadvantage if you plan to go to india a month each year etc...

All the above should have direct access into the second floor from the entrance foyer.

Depending upon your need , stay in a portion and rent out the other portions.

Remember that the housing market is slowing down and hence you will not see much profits in the years to come. Our office, a top office in designing houses expected slowdown this year but things have not slowed down. We expect next year to be a slowdown year with manylayoffs. of course the dullest in the office will be layed off first. Another thing to be considered is that the GTA is in short of land but immigrants are keeping on coming. All the native Canadians have bought their own houses. Time alone can tell if the majority of immgrants, immigrating can afford to buy a house as soon as they land to keep the building market going on.

And also know that 5% has to be paid to the realtor when selling. so incase a person sells his house to you for 250K , he has paid 5% to the realtor and hence the house is worth just $ 237.5 K. When you sell the house, down the line you will lose another 5% after which the house is worth 225.625K. So actually the house needs to appriciate10 %-12.5% in 5 years for you to make a profit (which is almost impossible under these market conditions) but you do gain by paying your mortgage instead of rent. This 5% comission is the basis for many bubble bursting.

I know a software engineer-Manager who bought her house in Burlington. Both she and her husband worked there. First her husband was laid off and her got his next job in Scarborough. Next the Software engineer manager was laid off and she is in a fix b'cos they have a house bought just 2 years before. They can sell the house but only around 2 or 3 % more than the price that they bought it for where as they need to give 5% commision. There fore now the Software engineer lives in her EI and says that she wants to spend more time with her children rather than work immediately.
So Job security is the no. 1 factor to decide buying a house.
TK A

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

TK, you really surprise with your analysis....rather opinion.

According to TK, there was a prediction for Real Estate market to slow down last year, but it did not! TK is again predicting slowdown while the "Economists" and "Analysts" do not expect any major change in the housing market neither last year nor this year...except for nominal price correction (once the speculators drive the affordability out of range).

TK, your paragraphs says self contradictory things...like price will fall down ..while immigrants keep pouring in and keep buying amidst land shortage?! Cost of materials & labour is going up too.

And since when can anyone predict in the West about their job security. When big companies like Enron can fold in a day....lest I say more! As long as you are confident about your being able to carry the mortgage SAFELY, there is nothing to worry. Seek the advice of Professionals (trusted Financial Planners and Realtors) to see what is best for you.

Depending upon where you buy, and what you buy, real estate could be the best investment. In some areas you will make money inspite of selling expenses. And remember, your house is worth the price you paid for it. There is no "specific detail" of account in any legal document showing tthe value of your house reduced by 5%. You will pay land transfer tax based on agreed purchase price (which will also figure on the land titles).

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Rajeev Narula, Broker, REALTOR®
ACE TEAM REALTY INC., Brokerage
10 Kingsbridge Garden Circle, Suite 704
(Opp Square One - HWY10/403)
Mississauga, ON L5R 3K6
Bus: 1-888-355-3155 Ext. 300
Fax: 1-888-443-3155
Email:
Web: http://www.RAJEEV.ca" rel="nofollow">LINK

Hello!
I work in a housing design company in Vaughan. Our houses are typically in Vaughan, Brampton and Whitby. We do only Sub divisions/ town houses and not Condo's
Yesterday, My boss called us for a meeting. He told us that since we do not have any new projects we should take life easy and not work hard (Exception is me since i work in another aspect known as Siting of houses for which a lot of work has to be done from myside and i am the only one in my office of 10 ho knows how to do this).
I feel that the house market is slowing down. Though we have done work to keep our clients busy in building for one year, I suspect that the market might be slowing down.
Just my perception. or it could be that the clients are fed upwith our office and donot want to give any work to us anymore (though this is almost 100 % a false statement b'cos we do good work for very less fees).
Also Canada's greatest home builder (an occasional client of ours) is now doing a scheme in which it uses its old models on new sites thereby saving design fees. This can further be translated as an extremely tight market.
So my perception is that this maynot be right time to buy for investment but for saving rent anytime is good. In the latter case only the returns will be very (read : Extremly) low.
TK A

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.