These are just some of dozens of emails we received in response to our package about the high cost of Vancouver real estate. Join the debate! Add your comments. Share your story.
I could hardly believe some of the comments by the people featured in your article about housing the Vancouver area.
It is NOT our government’s responsibility to ever help out with housing for its citizens. Don’t forget the government’s money is our tax dollars and the last place I want to see it used is for the less-educated, lazy or those with a sense of entitlement due to being raised in the area.
Come on people, “man up” and realize what kind of education and thus job you will need to afford what you WANT, not deserve.
Yes, those wishing to buy a home in the area will have to save up at least $50,000 or more (less debt is better) for a home in the Vancouver area.
I went to university until I was 25 and knew I’d need a high-paying job order to afford a decent home in our area. Thus I became a stock broker and earned only about $25,000 to $40,000 my first three years. Soon after, by my very late 20s and early 30s, I was earning $75,000 to $120,000.
I saved $75,000 in those first five years of my commission-only career for the down payment on my first house. It was near the Surrey truck border crossing and in 1992 cost $242,000.
To save for my down payment I had no life. I lived with friends and our rent was about $300 each. I never had a nice mountain bike or new skis or took vacations.
I budgeted so I could save about $1,500 to $2,000 per month — always bag lunches, cheap dinners and almost never went to restaurants or coffee shops.
I married in 1993 and my wife never worked outside the home and raised our two kids as a stay-at-home. I’m now 50, my wife is 43 and we now have a home worth about $2.5 million and five rental houses and townhouses with small mortgages. We are still frugal and watch our spending very carefully.
I still find it hard to believe people in their 20s are bitching about not being able to buy a home in our area.
Yes, it is a very pricey area and always will be, but these younger people must realize that it takes many years of saving to afford a home. I think it is crazy for people to want to buy a home without at least a 25 per cent down payment.
The great cities of the world, such as London, San Francisco, New York, Paris, etc will always be expensive and highly desirable places to live. People must realize this fact of life and possibly move away to make and save money for a home in this area at sometime later down the road .
You have to be willing to make some sacrifices in life to get want you really want.
My advice to those with less money or with less education and lower earning capacity is to move to somewhere like Fort St. John or Chetwynd, where there are great paying jobs and low rents.
Go save and come back here in five to 15 years, or go get a great education that you know will pay off huge once you are working — such as a dentist, doctor, engineer, financial analyst, lawyer, etc. Just stop expecting others to pitch in for your lifestyle and wants here in the Lower Mainland.
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