I beg to differ. In Alberta, three years ago I bought a home for 65,000. Two months ago I bought another one for 60,000. The second one needs some love but it’s livable. I’m currently building a small alleyway home by combining two used buildings and the final cost will be under 30,000.
It IS possible - with some sweat equity - but not in Toronto or Vancouver, thats for sure.
So you buying places where nobody wants to live and doing all the construction yourself is somehow proof that it’s possible to build affordable housing for everyone?
Nobody wants to live in Alberta? Did we mention that Alberta has the HIGHEST interprovincial migration of any province in Canada? We’re building as fast as we can cause there are so many people moving here.
And yes, all the skills Ive learned over the years are now on youtube and can be learned by anyone. My first house gained about 25% in value because I painted it, cleaned up the yard, and built a tiny 4 x 8 front porch and then waited a couple of years to sell it. Not rocket science, just takes some work.
Calgary and Edmonton are the two main centers but not everyone wants to pay the price for living in a big city. There are lots of jobs in smaller centers.
But here’s the thing. You can move to Calgary but you’re going to need to buy a house for at least 600,000. OR you can move to a smaller center and get a house for one tenth of that price.
Now look at the difference in mortgage payments at 5.25%. The Calgary house is going to be 3400. The small town mortgage is going to be $340.
Which means in the small town, you can buy a house paying your mortgage working a minimum wage job and still have money to spare, but in Calgary you better be making over 100k if you hope to qualify for that 600k house.
Sometimes small town living just makes far more financial sense. Especially when youre in driving distance to a bigger city.
I just looked for property in Alberta under 100k, and could only find a handful of places under 100k that were not inside mobile home parks (where you don’t own the land) most of them are court ordered sales and are also mobile homes(on private lots) that essentially need to be replaced entirely.
The only reasonable one I found in the entire province which wasn’t in terrible shape, had it’s own land, and was drivable to what I consider a city was in Elnora, which is about an hour outside red deer. Unfortunately it’s unlikely you could get even a minimum wage job there, because the population is only 288 people and they have only 18 total businesses in the town, and that includes some public places like the post office and library.
The thing to remember about this though, is that it can’t support a larger population choosing this option. A few people could move there, but the moment you get more than a few moving in the prices go way up since there isn’t just a million houses sitting empty in these small towns. There’s maybe hundreds, total in the province.
Yes there arent thousands of them. I had to hunt around and keep my eye open for a good deal for several months to find the ones I bought. But they do exist in centers much bigger than Elnora.
“which is impossible”
I beg to differ. In Alberta, three years ago I bought a home for 65,000. Two months ago I bought another one for 60,000. The second one needs some love but it’s livable. I’m currently building a small alleyway home by combining two used buildings and the final cost will be under 30,000.
It IS possible - with some sweat equity - but not in Toronto or Vancouver, thats for sure.
So you buying places where nobody wants to live and doing all the construction yourself is somehow proof that it’s possible to build affordable housing for everyone?
Give your head a shake.
Nobody wants to live in Alberta? Did we mention that Alberta has the HIGHEST interprovincial migration of any province in Canada? We’re building as fast as we can cause there are so many people moving here.
And yes, all the skills Ive learned over the years are now on youtube and can be learned by anyone. My first house gained about 25% in value because I painted it, cleaned up the yard, and built a tiny 4 x 8 front porch and then waited a couple of years to sell it. Not rocket science, just takes some work.
You sure as shit didn’t buy a property for $60k in Calgary or Edmonton, which is where most of the jobs are, and where people want to live.
And, on top of that, housing prices are STILL rising in those two cities compared to last year.
I will say it again, we CANNOT build ourselves out of the housing issue we’re in right now. It simply isn’t possible.
Calgary and Edmonton are the two main centers but not everyone wants to pay the price for living in a big city. There are lots of jobs in smaller centers.
But here’s the thing. You can move to Calgary but you’re going to need to buy a house for at least 600,000. OR you can move to a smaller center and get a house for one tenth of that price.
Now look at the difference in mortgage payments at 5.25%. The Calgary house is going to be 3400. The small town mortgage is going to be $340.
Which means in the small town, you can buy a house paying your mortgage working a minimum wage job and still have money to spare, but in Calgary you better be making over 100k if you hope to qualify for that 600k house.
Sometimes small town living just makes far more financial sense. Especially when youre in driving distance to a bigger city.
I just looked for property in Alberta under 100k, and could only find a handful of places under 100k that were not inside mobile home parks (where you don’t own the land) most of them are court ordered sales and are also mobile homes(on private lots) that essentially need to be replaced entirely.
The only reasonable one I found in the entire province which wasn’t in terrible shape, had it’s own land, and was drivable to what I consider a city was in Elnora, which is about an hour outside red deer. Unfortunately it’s unlikely you could get even a minimum wage job there, because the population is only 288 people and they have only 18 total businesses in the town, and that includes some public places like the post office and library.
The thing to remember about this though, is that it can’t support a larger population choosing this option. A few people could move there, but the moment you get more than a few moving in the prices go way up since there isn’t just a million houses sitting empty in these small towns. There’s maybe hundreds, total in the province.
Yes there arent thousands of them. I had to hunt around and keep my eye open for a good deal for several months to find the ones I bought. But they do exist in centers much bigger than Elnora.
So how exactly can they solve the housing crisis?
Alleviate, not necessarily SOLVE the housing crisis. Thats a long term thing thats going to take time and a whole lot of changes.