Quote:
Originally Posted by Bouncing Bettys
Spoiler!
]I've seen ignorant comments elsewhere like: "If you can't afford the speculation tax, then sell your vacation home and let a family move in full time!"
If any of those owners have a place like my parent's lakefront cottage, then good fucking luck living there year round.
- There is no electricity (solar and generator)
- There is no running water (pumped from lake with generator with self treatment)
- There is no road maintenance (cottage association pools money to do it themselves)
- There is no snow plowing done (95% of vehicles can't make it)
- You want internet/cable? $$$
- Pay taxes for services you won't receive or use: schools, roads, garbage/recycling, public transit.
I don't think my parent's will be effected by this (yet), but I have come across a few places on the coast which are partially or full off grid and might. I will admit that vacation homes have become ridiculous recently. Our cottage is quite modest compared to the monstrosities which have been built out there in the past decade, but they are still all off grid.
edit: It's not like my parents are rolling in dough and decided to invest in a vacation home. They inherited the property from my Grandfather, who bought it for $500 in the 1950's. Over decades my parents slowly cleared the beach, built the dock, the stairs, built the cottage, and built all the systems to make it livable. Not everyone with a vacation home is wealthy, nor do they have any intention of speculating on the market
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I'm with you 100%.
The problem is that our socialist nation allowed capitalism to run amok in real estate. Opening us up to global riches did nothing to help the province. All it did was create a level of inflation that isn't measured for some reason. Our real estate dollars have shrunk to 1/3 of what they were worth 15 years ago, and that's a shame.
Your family issues are collateral damage from attempting to fix a problem that truly needs fixing.