Saving for mortgage vs leaving Canada

[belovedmiyo]

@cankosker

I do want to avoid gambling on housing not crashing.

Pricing in the USA, UK, AU, NZ all up dramatically in the past several years.

Where are you going to go that isn't gambling?

As far as I can tell, everyone - including you - is just guessing.

 

[cankosker]

@belovedmiyo Ah really? That's kinda a shame. Maybe I play like a gambler and choose the best EV? I'd perfer to chose the most optimistic path

What about places like Germany, France, Japan, Korea, Czechia, Norway, etc?

 

[belovedmiyo]

@cankosker You have similar issues re: immigrating and working. Traveling and working are very different things.

None of the above should dissuade you, by the way. If you want to leave Canada, you should - it's a big world! And as a software engineer, there are lots of remote work options available to you, as well as strong demand in the USA and other countries.

However, it's easy to get caught in the "everything here is shit, I'm going somewhere else" without realizing that "somewhere else" has their own issues.

 

[cankosker]

@belovedmiyo I know what your saying. I don't want to make a blind choice - I want to make an objective and calculated choice. Yes it's easy to say 'here is shit, let's so some here else'. Instead I want to say 'this is my situation in Canada. This is what my situation could be in '. I'm not recklessly trying to get away, I'm trying to calculate my best option.

I don't really want to leave Canada. But I've seen housing go up really fast. Like, rent went up from 375 a month to 1100 a month in 10 years. That's truly terrifying to see. Like minimum wage has not kept up with that at all, and I suspect other wages have also not kept up with that. I'm seeing a lot of houses in the area starting at 700,000 on the cheap end. I'm scared to see what it will be in 4 years.

I don't think my 110k/year job will cut it if I want to own a house. That's just a starting point, but I do fear that housing will grow faster than salary increases.

If there exists some place in the world, where rent isn't tripling over 10 years, I'd like to factor that into the calculation so I can come up with a plan.

 

[intertraveler]

@cankosker Not even all of Ontario I'd say. Except for a few trendy areas, Ottawa isn't too bad. Prices here have come down a lot from the COVID craziness.

 

[weirdscience89]

@cankosker It's not that easy . You'll have to prove to them that you have a skill set that an American doesn't have . This means that if you are skilled in something. An American person with the same skillset will get first dibs. Unless they don't have any candidates for that specific role. In which case they might give it to someone from abroad.

There is a lot of competition in IT. So, in short, this is all dependant on if an employer wants you . And YOU alone. That is a big "if." Unless all software developers are in demand . And they can't get enough of them. In which case, maybe I'm out of the loop on the job market.

 

[onevoiceunified]

@cankosker Hate it when people say Canada when they usually mean the GTA or GVA for high cost of real estate. DUDE. CANADA IS HUGE. You can buy a super nice house for less than 500k in 95% of the country. Open you horizon.

 

[casimiro]

@onevoiceunified You are failing to recognize that most job opportunities are in the GTA and GVA. Personally, the job that I do is only found in 4-5 cities so I am tied to being in one of them.

And this is the case for many industries, we are forced to look at these areas.

 

[kitneeee]

@casimiro Don't know why many people don't get it. Oh, just move out of the GTA or GVA and buy a $500k house selling donuts in the middle of nowhere.

 

[jazzhands]

@casimiro That's the thing, I have to choose between buying a house, or living where I can make enough money to buy that house

 

[cankosker]

@onevoiceunified I've seen a lot of news talking about Canada's housing bubble. I'm looking at prices in Edmonton and Calgary as someone else has suggested in the comments. The prices seem about on par with southern Ontario though.

My question is how bad is the bubble in other places in Canada?

Ie, I've seen rent triple in the last 10 years on southern Ontario.

Are there places where rent hasn't tripled in the last 10 years? Where? Places that are safe from a huge bubble collapse we'd see in southern Ontario? If so, I'm highly interested as long as I can get a high paying job in software engineering there!

 

[onevoiceunified]

@cankosker So go to San Francisco where you can get the highest salary... but rent is 5k a month for a 1 bed.

Or you can make an ok salary in a smaller town outside the big centers for less than 1k..

End of the day you'll profit the same. Do the math.

 

[anna42222]

@onevoiceunified bro did infact did not do the math. my new grad salary in bay area would be 185-225k usd, even if rent is 5k per month (its not), im bringing more take home than making 95-115k here in toronto with 1.5k rent.

not to mention the gap in pay as years progress

 

[onevoiceunified]

@anna42222 Your take home at 180k is 120k in San Francisco. Minus 3.5k extra (gotta also count all other expenses like health insurance etc..)

42k so you're at 78k cash.

Ontario at 100k your take home is around 75k

So you're winning give or take 5k to move to San Fran.

My point is. It's not all sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes making less but living in a low cost of living area becomes just as "profitable" as making the big bucks in a high cost of living area.

 

[aunieinalaska]

@cankosker Glad you’ll be leaving, byeeee

 

[claspinghands]

@cankosker You can buy a very nice home in Edmonton for around $400,000.

 

[klogan]

@claspinghands Edmonton sucks..there is a reason it's called Deadmonton

 

[claspinghands]

@klogan Your opinion. Nothing more.

 

[mba6411]

@cankosker A friend of mine is renting a 4.5 in Rimouski for 600$ a month CAD. He's been there for 3 years so far. Houses aren't pricy either. Very nice area to live in too!

 

[cn_999]

@mba6411 What does he do for work?