Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
For millennial and generation Z Canadians, owning a home in this real estate market might seem like a pipe dream.
According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, the average cost of a home in Canada was $665,850 as of June 2022, which is a daunting figure for those still starting or establishing their careers.
Here’s a look at how out-of-hand house price increases have gotten in Toronto:
First, to figure out how to achieve your goal of affording a house, you’ll have to know where you are starting from. Figure out how much of a mortgage you can afford today. If that number is far from your goal of owning a property, here are some strategies you can try if you can’t afford the housing market:
Saving more money is low-hanging fruit and a step you can take immediately. Budget carefully, and see what areas you might be able to save more on.
Focus on the biggest three household expenses of shelter, transportation, and food to see which area you might be spending too much on currently.
Or, you might not have to cut back on anything but just save for a longer period of time. If there is no wiggle room for saving for you at all, you’ll have to try another one of the strategies below.
This strategy will be a bit tougher, but with the goal of owning a home as a motivator, you can focus on making more money and saving for that down payment. Maybe there is a company switch you can make that pays a higher salary, or a promotion in your current job that you can aim for.
We live in a more open economy than ever before, and there are countless options to earn some money in addition to your salary.
Consider taking your existing skills and trying to freelance them out, participate in the gig economy, or learn new skills and earn extra income that way. Ideally, you should try to aim to earn at least another $1,000 a month.
It’s good to set your earning targets high, because even if you only reach a few hundred a month, that will still help you reach your goal much faster.
You might have to adjust how much house you want to buy, or where you want to buy it. Instead of that three-bedroom house near downtown Vancouver that you were dreaming about, you might have to settle for a two-bedroom townhouse in Port Moody.
You can even consider moving to a different city altogether. There have been reports of people moving from places like Toronto to Alberta and being able to afford a house easily.
Many younger Canadians are losing hope of buying a property at all. I’ve been hearing things from my readers, such as “why bother saving? I’m never going to be able to afford a house anyway.”
There might be some relief around the corner for those looking to buy real estate. Home sales and prices are beginning to decrease in certain markets.
The government seems to be taking a more aggressive stance in curbing price growth with things like the vacancy tax for empty homes and foreign homebuyer tax in certain provinces.
The biggest factor will likely be interest rate hikes, which are predicted to be aggressive in the near future. If home prices decrease, it can occur very quickly. Be sure that you don’t lose hope and still have those savings ready so you can pounce on the opportunity.
Even if you can’t afford a house, it’s not the worst thing in the world to rent. Many people think that it is always better to own instead of rent. But there are several advantages of renting versus owning. Try not to spend more than 30 per cent of your gross income (before taxes) on rent, which should give you a great opportunity to save up more.
If you’re a gen Z or millennial Canadian who can’t afford a house, try to be at peace with renting for now. Consider trying the strategies listed above, and hopefully in the future you’ll be able to afford the home you were dreaming about.
Christopher Liew is a CFA Charterholder and former financial advisor. He writes personal finance tips for thousands of daily Canadian readers on his Wealth Awesome website.
Do you have a question, tip or story idea about personal finance? Please email us at dotcom@bellmedia.ca.
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.