| One of the most perplexing facts in Canada is the price of real estate. Canada has more land than it knows what to do with. The main problem in Canada is that over 80% of the population has decided it wants to live within a hundred miles of the US border. And most of those folks want to live in a very few larger communities- where the jobs are. They have zero interest in living in the north. Its too cold! As a result, the demand for southern building lots in most city population areas is high and the price of housing in these areas has gone berserk. One might think that by now people could have figured out the problem and done something about it. But that has not happened. And that raises the question why? What's the problem? |
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Often you can figure things out by "following the money". Who benefits by having high lot values? Anybody with a building lot benefits. Any landlord benefits when her tenants cannot afford to buy so must rent. The banks benefit because they provide the financing and end up with a pipeline to your wallet for 25years. Already we have millions of people who would like to keep the situation as it is. Unfortunately we also have millions of Canadians who simply cannot afford to own a home because of the artificially inflated lot prices. It's ....ridiculous! In life there are big, complex hard to solve problems -like how to cure cancer- and fairly small insignificant problems easily solved like how to avoid paying $576,000+ for an average house (the price in Victoria recently). Surely there are enough smart people out there to figure out that if they can't afford to live in the big city that just maybe they should find a place in the country. Will it happen? Not yet is the answer. Its almost incomprehensible to me that people could be so dumb. Or as the Corporate Secretary would say "too stupid to pound sand down a rat hole..." The very pleasant northern town I live in has an average house price of $170,000 so I figured it out. Given that I am a moh-ron and retired you should be able to do much better! You may find this difficult to believe but there are a lot more smarter people than me in Canada -millions of them in fact! And you are likely one of them! Unlike the United States, where major Government land holdings occur only in the western regions and most land is privately owned, in Canada the Federal Government owns nearly all the land. For example in Ontario only 14% of the entire Province is privately owned. This fact is not generally known or understood by the average Canadian struggling to meet a mortgage payment on a postage sized lot with after tax income. In fact, the Canadian government does have the power to transfer more land from public to private ownership thus increasing the supply of land and decreasing the prices. Ever wonder why they don't do it? Oh! and there are alternatives to living in an expensive house. Take a look at our page on living onboard your boat -thousands do! I did for several years and its a great lifestyle! You would be surprised to learn how many people now live in travel trailers and motor homes. And you would be horrified to learn how many Canadians actually live on the street and in our parks. These facts are generally not available to you in the Canadian media which by the way is almost entirely controlled by Government and a few very powerful people in the private sector. This is not paranoia talking these are simple facts of life in Canada today.
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| Update September 26/2008 Since writing this there has been a crash in real estate prices in the USA and a reduction in prices in Canada. We explain the situation on our crisis page. Unfortunately, the crash has resulted in financial disaster for millions of American home owners who had mortgages and life savings were wiped out. As a result of this be prepared to see a move towards alternative living in the future as millions of individuals consider how to survive in these new circumstances. The cycle of greed vs fear has been broken in the USA however in Canada despite prices taking a normal cyclical dip at this point there is no widespread panic or significant reduction in prices. Unlike the USA model Canada did not have the sub prime mortgage and so that block of undercapitalized home owners does not exist here. However...we do have huge consumer debt in Canada as owners have run up credit cards and personal loans to meet expenses and that is a one way trip to financial disaster where sale of the family home is necessary at some point in the future to pay off this debt. So there is danger looming in the Canadian market too and it could be that we are lagging the USA example by about a year. These are uncertain times and we are sailing in uncharted waters. We also have a web site devoted to assisting people solve their debt problems. |
take me back to the index please and thanks
Real Estate in the USA is often a much better deal and here are some examples of properties available at auction right now! As you can see the prices are very very low compared to similar properties in Canada.
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