some say it is. My current studio apartment – where I’ve lived for five years and where I will probably live until I die – is dirt-cheap by current Toronto standards.
For $1,200 a month, it’s a dream: a third-floor walk-up in the heart of Toronto, with no closets, one window and paper-thin walls . Still, with, it feels like I won the lottery. It’s allowed me to crawl out of some really dumb credit-card debt and start to save aggressively. And after years of a succession of terrible roommates and basement suites, living alone, above ground, feels like an accomplishment and a relief.
Finding accessible, affordable housing shouldn’t feel like a miracle. And the fact that it does is evidence of a massive housing problem., there are ways for the government to cool down the market, be it increasing down payments, scrapping the federal Home Buyers’ Plan to no longer allow first-time buyers to use funds from their registered retirement savings plan toward a purchase, or narrowing the capital gains tax exemption.
It’s unlikely I’ll change my mind and leap into this lunatic market. But if I did, it would be because more and better housing options become available. To truly be an equitable, world-class city, Toronto needs more density, more “missing-middle” housing, more co-operative units and a focus on housing for all kinds of family models – including families of one.
I’ll take a shipping-container home or a tiny house, do #vanlife , or rent forever and invest. All these feel like sane options compared to trying to play Canada’s real estate game.
to each their own
in my bank they even talk to me in Chinese (just because I look Asian ;-)