[UFO]

Originally Posted by westopher

I think statistics show I'm not being overly out of line when we look at things like the average credit card debt/individual in Canada or statistics that show the % of income that people in the GVRD spend on housing. Its pretty well known that the #s are ludicrous.

But once again take the stats with a grain of salt. What does household debt include? Credit cards, car loans, lines of credit for whatever reason, mortgage?? We can look at the recent foreign money that has been injected to skew the numbers. How many own high end homes but have no income to report because they don't need an annual income to live off of? I can guarantee those who are buying 2M+ houses sight unseen aren't relying on a $40k/yr job to make ends meet

Originally Posted by EvoFire

Thank you for sharing your numbers. How old is your condo and where? Building envelope and roof replacements are two the biggest things that worry me with condos right now, to the point where I am fairly skeptical about buying.

It is 18 years old. We are located between Kits and UBC. Big part of why we bought here in 2008 pretty much at the peak of condo pricing in this area, just before the financial crisis hit, was the location and we felt it was relatively safe to buy here. The age of the building is a deterrent to some, despite the full remediation and peace of mind for the next 8 years. But with so many new condo's going up, it's difficult to compete even though we are in a better(IMO)/quieter area and have about 25% more floorspace than similar newer builds. Routine or major maintenance is always a risk, whether its a house or a car. You can do all your homework and due diligence and still come up short. You just need to have a sufficient rainy day fund for when (not if) they occur.

We are looking at a low-rise around the Brentwood area and only because the building is relatively newer (2008) and I don't see the values dropping heavily even if there is a minor correction (proximity to skytrain and Brentwood mall rebuild).

Values dropping/rising doesn't make a huge difference in the end, if you guys are planning to own your home for the long term. Even if your unit drops by say 10% over 5 years, odds are that sort of correction would mean a similar correction in whatever you guys decide to buy next and your price to buy would also be lower. From an investment standpoint, yeah it probably doesn't make sense in that 5 year window; but unless you are aggressive in markets, you probably want to look at your investments over a much longer term than 5 years anyways. You can win huge in 5 years, but you can also lose huge in 5 years. Over 20-25 years though the curve flattens out much more.

Ultimately it doesn't make sense math wise, and my gf is doing this based on what she wants emotionally. I have no such emotional attachment and its just been the whole way for me.

Keep in mind its not just an emotional attachment, its peace of mind knowing you have control of where you'll be staying, stability, can stay/go on your own terms whenever, have control of your home (to a lesser extent with stratas). To lump all of these under 'just emotional decision' is unfair, because you can't quantify these important values with a dollar figure. You guys just need to figure out what that's worth for your lifestyles. It's no different than trying to justify a new set of fancy wheels/coilovers/turbo to your GF, they won't see the value in it but it's something that you want and makes you feel good.