Quote:
Originally Posted by IGTBAR
There are a lot of questions about how people afford their places. I'll post my experience - hopefully some others will post theirs. Just straight facts - I like to see anecdotal situations.
- Rented a 2 bedroom apartment for 5 years paying $500/month with a roommate right out of university.
- At the time I was making about $55k a year which grew to $95k a year over the next 5 years.
- In that time period, I saved enough to put 40% down (about $140k) on a 1 bedroom condo near Brentwood - my monthly mortgage payments are just under $1000 a month.
- Fast forward 4 years, still in the same condo, got married in that time frame. I'm now at about $120k a year (not including spouse's income) while trying my hardest not to subscribe to lifestyle inflation and still saving like a boss. While I'm in the 1% from your stats above, certainly don't feel like it, based on the immense struggle that we've been having to find a larger space to think about raising a family.
There is a serious problem here when I see myself and people my age (early 30s) competing for million dollar townhomes. There is something wrong here and while I used to read articles about people vacating Vancouver for cheaper living elsewhere and think that they would regret it, now I'm wondering if they knew something I didn't.
It's not a coincidence schools are closing all over the lower mainland. |
I remember some great advice when I was a articling student - "when you've got your designations, live in the same apartment, drive the same car, and have the same lifestyle as when you were articling, you will be rich."
as you say, 30 somethings are buying multi million dollar houses on sub $100K incomes