Buy in Rosedale or Little Italy? One couple’s $700,000 real estate compromise leads them to the Annex
She wanted to buy in Rosedale. He didn’t. After an epic 10-month, 140-house search, they settled on a fixer-upper in the Annex
The buyers
Matt Killen, a painter and high school art teacher, and Joanna Foster, a photographer, couldn’t agree on where to live. They had been renting an apartment north of Liberty Village, as well as an art studio on Ossington, but wanted a place large enough for an in-house studio. Killen suggested Little Italy, Seaton Village and Riverdale, all of which Foster nixed. She wanted Rosedale, the neighbourhood where she’d gone to school. “I pictured us in a house on a lush, tree-lined street safe for kids,” she says. They finally agreed on the Annex, which felt urban and central to Killen, yet cozy enough for Foster.
The criteria
Three bedrooms, close to transit, with a rental unit. They preferred an older Victorian home, and it had to be north of Bloor, east
of Bathurst and west of Yonge.
The budget
$550,000–$700,000.
Austin Terrace (near Bathurst); listed at $759,000, withdrawn from the market
Killen and Foster saw the four-bedroom, four‑bathroom Hillcrest semi in the fall of 2008, when prices were dropping. They offered $109,000 below asking and were thrilled when the offer was accepted. They’d been told the deal was contingent on the sellers’ own purchase going through; when it didn’t, the sellers took it off the market. “It broke our hearts,” Foster says.
Brunswick Avenue (near Dupont); listed at $859,000, sold for $870,000
By the spring of 2009, the couple had toured over 100 houses. “We looked at listings every week, but we could never reach a consensus,” says Killen. “Jo would fall in love with a place I didn’t like; then I’d get excited about a house she hated.” They upped their budget and began to consider fixer-uppers, such as this Annex four-bedroom in need of a new kitchen, a reno of the master suite and a bathroom relocation. They offered $840,000 but lost it to a higher bidder.
Nesbitt Drive (near Governor’s Bridge); listed at $849,000, sold for $851,000
Killen was willing to overlook the location—on the outskirts of Rosedale, near the CPR tracks— for the modern design of this detached home. The property had a ready-made artist’s studio, a beautifully finished basement apartment and a large backyard. “Jo wanted it so much,” says Killen, “but $850,000 was our max.” They lost by only $1,000.
Wells Street (near Bathurst); listed at $649,000, sold for $705,000
The next place was the polar opposite of the pristine Nesbitt Drive contemporary: a traditional Annex semi suffering from what Killen describes as “terrifyingly bizarre” renovations. (The basement in-wall wiring consisted entirely of extension cords.) But the price and location convinced them. “For $150,000 more, we could turn it into exactly what we wanted,” says Foster. They won a four-way bid by offering substantially over asking for the first time, shacked up with Foster’s parents for six months during the reno, and moved in last March.
(Image: Killen and Foster by John Cullen, houses by Devin Jeffrey)
; listed at $759,000, withdrawn from the market
Killen and Foster saw the four-bedroom, four‑bathroom Hillcrest semi in the fall of 2008, when prices were dropping. They offered $109,000 below asking and were thrilled when the offer was accepted. They’d been told the deal was contingent on the sellers’ own purchase going through; when it didn’t, the sellers took it off the market. “It broke our hearts,” Foster says.
OPTION 2
Brunswick Avenue (near Dupont); listed at $859,000, sold for $870,000
By the spring of 2009, the couple had toured over 100 houses. “We looked at listings every week, but we could never reach a consensus,” says Killen. “Jo would fall in love with a place I didn’t like; then I’d get excited about a house she hated.” They upped their budget and began to consider fixer-uppers, such as this Annex four-bedroom in need of a new kitchen, a reno of the master suite and a bathroom relocation. They offered $840,000 but lost it to a higher bidder.
OPTION 3
Nesbitt Drive (near Governor’s Bridge); listed at $849,000, sold for $851,000
Killen was willing to overlook the location—on the outskirts of Rosedale, near the CPR tracks— for the modern design of this detached home. The property had a ready-made artist’s studio, a beautifully finished basement apartment and a large backyard. “Jo wanted it so much,” says Killen, “but $850,000 was our max.” They lost by only $1,000.
THE BUY
Wells Street (near Bathurst); listed at $649,000, sold for $705,000
The next place was the polar opposite of the pristine Nesbitt Drive contemporary: a traditional Annex semi suffering from what Killen describes as “terrifyingly bizarre” renovations. (The basement in-wall wiring consisted entirely of extension cords.) But the price and location convinced them. “For $150,000 more, we could turn it into exactly what we wanted,” says Foster. They won a four-way bid by offering substantially over asking for the first time, shacked up with Foster’s parents for six months during the reno, and moved in last March.
(Image: Killen and Foster by John Cullen, houses by Devin Jeffrey)){kind=link}
Could you PLEASE do a real estate story on a buyer of a home at a more realistic sale price? $400,000, for example? I know this will be hard to find, but I know you guys can do it!
No kidding B, plus in what world do a high school teacher and a photographer buy a $700,000 house (and then do $150k of renos)! Bubblicious.
Exactly Snowy! Also to not go 0.2% above your personal cut-off to get a home both parties love (obviously a hard agreement to reach with this couple) only further emphasises at least one of their hard-headedness… It took them 100 houses to finally agree on something?!? Yikes…
700K in Toronto IS a realistic price point in Toronto. If you want something for 400, point your Pontiac Sunbird toward Oshawa buddy!
Would love to know what kind of mortgage they took on and what will happen when the rates go up. Your average Toronto couple do not look at $700,000 homes!!
Hahaha! That’s funny – a high school art teacher and a photographer just bought a house for 3/4 of a million dollars! Good luck with that….
in fact, they spent over their cutoff of $850,000 with the renos. This house cost them $855,000, if one can believe the $150,000 reno cost — I’m curious how much work they actually had done.
One reason people can afford such homes on such meager salaries is usually due to mommys and daddys with deep pockets. With living wills parents are often providing children with sizable downpayments that suddenly make 850K homes become only 400K mortgages. Magic presto!
I’d like to know where they got their money and what kind of mortgage they took on. I took a look at their online portfolios. The paintings are alright but the photography is mediocre and derivative. Don’t know how she makes a salary on that. Its jerks like these that price the city out of range of realistic folks who aren’t banking their future on a crapshoot of a dream of making big bucks from photography.
Thanks a**hats!!
The woman grew up in Rosedale. This leads me to believe there was family money involved as I agree with the other commenters that an artist and photographer typically cannot afford a $855K (including reno) property.
They better watch out when the market correction hits!
Can we say negative-equity?
Why is there no mention that they would have been subsidised by funds other than their income? It is terribly misleading.On their salries alone,there is no way at their agge they could even sneeze at $700,00 and I’m sorry she sound slike little miss spoilt brat ..With their jobs and income (forget family money)why at their age would she be looking at Rosedale .I pity him cbecause in 10 years ,her cahmapgne tastes will have outrun their beer bottle pockets.Hope there was a prenup.
she looks like she shops at Target!!!!!! No taste just a show OFF
Wow, such negativity about people you don’t even know! Try to be a little kinder. Imagine what it is like for them to read the comments you are making.
Anyway… lucky them if they have resources to help them purchase a property like this, if that is in fact the case. For most couples their age this would be completely impossible. Taxes and maintenance will also be pricey for a house like this, I’d imagine.
It does seem crazy to lose a home over $1,000, but I bet they were bidding against another buyer, and you don’t know what to offer in that case. Also, they may have been asked to better their first offer (as both were so close) and weren’t willing to do so because they would have then had to have done better than just another $1,000, having to go much more beyond their comfort zone.
Whether it’s the mag or the people themselves, no one should be surprised by the backlash. No one their ages and with those professions could afford properties like this without substantial help, which goes unmentioned. Intentional or otherwise, they come off as spoiled and having the luxury of blowing off 140 previous properties over what appear to be minor differences. Really – Riverdale, Rosedale, the Annex, Little Italy? You poor dears are so hard done by on your exhaustive search. Not saying this sentiment is right, and they probably are lovely people, but TL could have saved them some grief on the comments page with better positioning.
Finally, $400k will easily get a small bungalow, half double or townhome in any number of desirable neighbourhoods – nice bits of Etobicoke, Don Mills, north of Danforth, etc. Not trendy, ritzy parts of town, but not scuzzy either. The fact that many readers probably live in what they consider nice homes and neighbourhoods for much less than what these folks paid might also be at work here in creating a bit of jealousy/negativity.
Wow, I can’t believe some of the ridiculous comments here. “Thanks a**hats”? “No taste just a show off”? Are you guys even listening to yourselves?
“Its jerks like these that price the city out of range of realistic folks who aren’t banking their future on a crapshoot of a dream of making big bucks from photography.”
No, it’s not. It’s market rate. If you can’t afford it, that’s fine, but no need to hate on people who can regardless of where they get their money (which is also no business of yours).
Where is Toronto Life in reviewing some of these comments. These are hate comments against people you dont even know. Why dont we REALLY talk about the real issues? Toronto’s overprice market, realtors who jack up prices, create phantom offers, create price wars and when will this madness stop. No offense, do you all really think a semi with a picture like that is worth almost a $1mil (include the renos). Crazy!!
Lets all get along and forget the personal insults.
Regardless of where they got the funds to make this purchase, the story was about the search for a home that would please them both and fit within thier budget. I do agree that most people living in toronto could not even entertain thoughts of spending this kind of money on a home and that it would be nice to see a real estate story that was more realistic to them. As a native Torontonian who could not afford to buy a home there, I must say that I think it is sad that many of the properties in toronto are unaffordable to the majority of the people who live there.
Yikes, such venom. These people will be sorry they ever agreed to share their story with Toronto Life.
Everyone seems to have forgotten the rental unit. This will help pay the mortgage which may then allow them to afford it. But wow, venom is right.
All those saying that if you want to buy in the city, you must spend $700,000, absolutely NOT true. $700,000 is only ‘market rate’ for the trendiest areas of the city. We just bought near Dufferin and Davenport for less than 400K. Yes, not the most glam of areas (Hello, Galleria mall) but close to the subway, fairly close to downtown, and our street is safe and quiet. It CAN be done.
Well, all the vitriol is a bit much, but I understand where it’s coming from. It is frustrating to see people with normal, middle class jobs buying houses that the rest of us normal, middle class city dwellers couldn’t even come close to affording.
It would be refreshing to see Toronto Life do a more realistic story at a lower price point.
“It would be refreshing to see Toronto Life do a more realistic story at a lower price point.”
It would really be refreshing for Toronto Life to begin to more accurately reflect the lives of the average Torontonian, instead of constantly pandering to the cultural and economic elite. If I have to see Shinan Govani at one more party…
Nevermind, your media is dying, you will cease to exist soon enough.
Wow. I am surprised someone has not come right out with an EAT THE RICH comment. Sheeesh.
EAT THE RICH.
can’t stand people who hate on others. work a bit hard rather than blaming others for why things aren’t going the way you want in life. there’s a ton of people more fortunate and a ton of people less fortunate than anyone who’s posted on this topic already.
i do find it funny that Patrick posts about reviewing hate comments and then he goes ahead and blames realtors for the market prices. the prices are reflecting what the market is willing to offer, there’s no blame of a group here.
Its just reality. Do the math and work in the field and you will see if the market is willing to offer overpriced house, realtors telling clients to not take offers, list it and then wait, create phantom offers, bidding wars and now the new Bully offers.
Some are good, some or bad and it aint about hating realtors, its just reality.
At least this destroys the myth of the poor public schoolteacher. She has three months paid vacation to enjoy her little château to boot. /puke
toronto home prices are not going anywhere , yes there are corrections which is PERFECTLY NORMAL <CATCH A BRAIN YOU PEOPLE AND INVEST IN YOURSELF , WHICH IS A HOUSE BUY THE MOST AFFORDABLE HOUSE YOU CAN AFFORD , BUY AREA , NOT HOUSE
IF YOU LOOK AT THE LAST 75 YEARS , HOME PRICES ARE UP 6 PER CENT ANNUALY , SO GET ON THE PROGRAM
PEOPLE ARE GENERALLY NOT VERY SMART, 80 /20 RULE
YES 20 PER CENT HAVE ABRAIN AND DO SOMETHING, 80 PER CENT WELL LETS JUST SAY . THEY ARE THE COMPLAINERS
This is the most petty comments page I’ve ever read. Congrats to the couple for finding a nice home in a great neighbourhood. I hope to be able to give enough money to my own kids so that they can buy a nice home in the neighbourhood they want. Wouldn’t that be great!
WOW, so sad how pathetic most of these comments are! Calm down people, and stop hating others for no reason. Congrats to Matt and Jo, goodluck with your new home.
Eugene sounds like a realtor with the typical “we know it all” attitude and the only 20% smart people are the realtors who rip you off for 5% commission for doing NOTHNG!!
Can see from the comments here that the class struggle is alive. Most likely, there is family money, but that kind of thing happens and some of the recipients are great people. Most people I know who studied to be artists are doing other things and trying to fit art in or else homeless and toothless as they age. The best way to be an artist is to have family funding, or a sugar daddy or win a lottery. So this woman is a rich kid. It happens, and by her lights, she is struggling and budgeting. Just not like some of the rest of us.
It is unfathomably disgusting how full of hate random strangers can be.
Why on earth do you care how much they spent on their home? Or how they could afford it? Or how the woman dresses (by the way, are you in highschool?) Or even begin to devalue their professions because you dont like their art..
How sad is it that a magazine cannot feature a story about a couple spending more than $400 000 on a home? Move to Oshawa or Hamilton if you think the real estate in this city is too expensive..
The fact of the matter is that if you want to live in a desirable area, (which most of us do, because lets face it.. Toronto is now full of them!) you are going to be paying high prices, if you can afford then good for you; no matter where you got the money or what you do for a living.
Enjoy it, despite all this negativity from complete strangers who obviously have no tact or class.
Ouch!
If they had a 20% downpayment, to afford the mortgage on the $700,000 house, they would only require a total combined salary of around $125,000 a year (on a 5 year fixed term mortgage). That is not an unrealistic household income. Where is everyone coming up with that they must have had family help? Perhaps you’re all just jealous that you couldn’t save your money and get something like this. Maybe you should look at them as inspiration and strive to do better yourself.
I asked about the 400k price point because most (not all!) of the TL real estate articles feature homes the $700k -1.5 mil range. And yes, it’s nice to see those fancy properties, but it would be even nicer to see a range of properties at purchase prices that reflect the financial situation of a larger group of people. This city is full of all sorts of fantastic neighborhoods at ALL price points, and for me, it would be nice to see those options reflected. ‘Tis all.
Maybe people should familiarize themselves with the Annex before they hate on the price. I just bought a 1300 sq ft (above grade) home in Sunnylea that needs renos for 730k. That’s even after losing 3 homes in bidding wars. This price is not unrealistic for that area.
And people shouldn’t hate on others for being able to afford an expensive home. They might have a relatively small mortgage because they saved a lot of money to get where they are. It can be done people.
This page is full of comments from people who don’t seem to understand the housing or mortgage markets. This couple doesn’t necessarily need to have rich parents to afford this house! They simply figured out that they can use rental income to subsidize a good portion of their monthly mortgage payment. Congrats and good luck to them.
All this hate seems misdirected, particularly towards the woman in this piece for assumptive reasoning. Toronto Life itself is perpetuating a poor attitude to the realities of many Torontonians by ignoring the plight of the “plebes” (TL’s favourite word which is used frequently and non-sarcastically in several articles) and instead only caring to showcase couples who can afford expensive real estate.
TL’s attempting to gain an upper class readership but unfortunately, the majority of it’s readers are not the elite of Toronto. It’s us regular folk. It really would serve this magazine well to tone down the emphasis on high priced real estate and maybe focus on the great deals some people have got in Toronto on property.
I generally like Toronto Life but sometimes it is a bit much. This is not meant to be inflammatory, I’m simply trying to constructively criticize so that TL will get the hint that most of us find articles like this unrelatable, which is what I think most of the commenters on here are trying to say. Congrats to the couple on their purchase.
$700k house
25% down = $175k ($525k mortgage principal)
@ 4% / 25-yr amortization = $2762/month
If I put these types of inputs into online calculators, they only need $120k/year income (as someone else already pointed out).
Add the rental income in (say, $850/month), and they only need to make $110k/year. Assuming 2 incomes, that’s only $55k each — not huge salaries in Toronto.
Now – there are definitely some MAJOR assumptions here:
>> 25% downpayment: saving $175k would be very difficult
>> income stability: planning on babies??? get ready to cut the income in half!
I would bet that there is a major down payment from mommy & daddy in this house purchase.
PoorGirl has it 100% right. No way an artist/teacher and a photographer could afford this. Parents helped finance the downpayment and renos….all because they “had to” live in Rosedale or the Annex.
It’s twits like them who keep the prices RIDICULOUS and major Canadian cities unaffordable.
Good luck to them when it’s time to renew at NORMAL interest rates ( 8% +) and with 1-2 babies in tow. Enjoy the KD and Whiskas on your granite countertops!
Looking for a house in Rosedale with a rental apartment? Something doesn’t sound right!
More bovine bourgeois self-satisfaction from Toronto life. To quote the astute observations of an earlier commentator, “/puke”.
If you hate Toronto Life so much, stop reading it.
A lot of the posters have made less-than-flattering comments about the buyers, with suppositions about debt load, etc. However, the real fault lays with Toronto Life for promoting, once again, the “aspirational” lifestyle — this time, with its headline suggesting that buying in Rosedale, at $850, 000, was really an option for this couple. There may be one or two properties, per year, that sell for as “little” as $850, 000, and none of them are particularly desirable.
This said, my social curiousity causes me to keep reading the magazine.
To the poster who made disparaging comments regarding ‘the myth of the poor public school teacher’:
I am a Teacher and there is no way that I could even consider bidding on a 700K home in the Annex (or anywhere else, for that matter). It was hard enough for me to afford to purchase the modest condo where I now live.
Juggling student loans, living expenses and a teacher’s salary is not easy. After repaying my student loans, it took a very long time for me to save a down-payment on a modest condo. Even after years of diligent saving, I still required CMHC mortgage insurance.
Additionally, you should be aware that TDSB teachers do NOT have paid summer vacation. We earn a salary for our teaching hours from September to June. The salary is then AVERAGED over 12 months. In essence, a portion of our pay over the school year is held back, later to be doled out in July and August. My pay stubs in July and August are clearly marked with this statement: “prior earnings, paid from bank”
Furthermore, we do not receive interest on the significant portion of our earnings that are forcibly held back.
Let me be clear: I am not complaining. I am merely attempting to address (and dispute) the false ideas that you reinforced in your misinformed post. THINK before you type.
Yes, at some point I will be able to afford a small house, but definitely NOT within the Rosedale neighbourhood. It’s fine with me, because (as a woman of colour) I have no desire to live there. Personally, I find the lack of ethno-cultural and socio-economic diversity in that neighbourhood to be very distasteful.
It is clear that family money is involved in this situation. Joanna grew up in Rosedale; her environment betrays her privilege.
Why waste our collective energy stewing in anger over a random stranger’s life circumstances? There will always be someone who has more money than you, but this does not mean the person has a better life.
Every day, I deal with families who struggle (and often fail) to meet the basic needs of their children.
Every day, I volunteer my time (and money) to bridge the gap for our city’s forgotten children. I teach in a high-needs area.
My job, my DUTY, does not end when the bell rings.
What have YOU done for your community? Have YOU made an effort foster systemic change? Are YOU generous with your time and money? Or do you merely spend your days counting pennies and casting stones?
Get out there and do something meaningful.
Look beyond yourself; help someone in your community.
Eventually, you will realize that you are indeed very fortunate. Don’t waste your energy coveting things you will never have (and things you do not need).
LOL These stories always appear before the bubble bursts. Get real ghouse prices are driven by emotion values are driven by wages. There are a lot of people who are going to learn this the hard way. There is one hell of a bubble in Canadia and at some stage its going to collapse.
LOL $855k LOL
No comment on the peaople, however this artical is an attest to the so called “mythical” housing buble.
LET THE FACTS STAND FOR THEMSELVES:
-low interest rates only going higher. Likely 8% before end of decade…
-Toronto area industry gutted! No jobs that pay.
-Broke, Baby bom empty nesters desperate to sell in coming years to gain some cash.
– Real estate bargins abounding in other countries(or areas of Canada. Many willl soon ask “why T.O”?
The tide has already turned just like in 2007 US and a lot of T.O people don’t even see it yet!
@ Mike
RE: “LET THE FACTS STAND FOR THEMSELVES:”
“-Toronto area industry gutted! No jobs that pay.”
So it’s a fact that everyone who works in Toronto doesn’t get paid?
If you’d written ‘let the hyperbole stand for itself’ then I’d let your useless comment go. But you didn’t, so I can’t.
As for the couple involved, I don’t get the hate either. People can buy whatever they want, and they live with the consequences of their actions.
The traditional rule-of-thumb was that you shouldn’t go over 3-4x your salary when buying a house. A $700k house would /traditionally/ require a family income of something like $175,000/yr to support.
In the age of cheap mortgages this rule of thumb may no longer apply, but cheap mortgages won’t last forever (and your purchase price won’t be refunded when they’re gone).
I have just moved back to the Toronto area in the last year from Windsor. Worked 8 years in Michigan for an Automotive supplier and worked with many well educated highly payed Americans (dual income 80K to 100 000K usd each a year). During the prosperace times you could see blocks and blocks of MacMansions going up, old homes in high end areas like Rosedale being reno’d into Million Dollar homes. Spoke recently with a friend who lives on the outskirts of Detroit in a home he paid 460K for in 2005 today its worth just under 200K. Just before I left I drove through a few middle class area’s were the homes were owned by hard working people with families who were living the American dream of save neighbourhoods and good schools. Many were boarded up and stripped to get ready for the bulldozer; a chilling sight. When I moved back to my hometown of Oakville I was shocked by how people were so blazay about the cost of homes. Well as a person who saw the American Housing Bubble Burst first hand, all I can say is live within your means stop listening to CHMC and your Realtor; they are not your friend!!! Listen to your gut and if your gut is telling you that one lost pay check or an uptick in interest rates will leave you with sleepless nights and cat food on your plate, dont do it! Remember that a correction of just 15% (which is a very conservative drop) will cost you on a 700 000.00 dollar home over 100 000. If you can afford this as well as interest rates going up to 8% and you absolutely love the house and plan to stay in it and raise your family in it for the next 20 years then go for it. But remember it is only an “it” a thing not the total make up of who you are or what you actually accomplish in life. To Matt and Joanna, congratulations it looks like a lovely home in a wonderful neighbourhood I hope all the best for you and your dreams.
Anyone who buys a house now is going to suffer later. The affordability index of housing in Canada is through the roof; it is currently cheaper to rent than buy.
Add to this that we are in the middle of the deepest recession since the great depression; Canadians are not receiving cost of living salary increases; Canadians are carrying record debt loads; increase in the perceived value of the Canadian dollar is damaging our manufacturing and commodities exporting businesses; our largest trading partner to the south is heaving its financial guts out and is no longer buying our exports due to the increase in the Loonie, which means higher unemployment in Canada; the unwinding of the baby boomers assets has begun, of which housing is the largest asset; the increase of taxes (HST) and the beginning of the increases to the mortgage rates as seen within the last few weeks.
All this points to the making of a depressed / buyer’s real estate market. Housing will be coming down in price within the next two years; real estate pundits say somewhere between 17% (CIBC) and 35% (David Rosenberg). Don’t listen to realtors if you’re thinking of buying a house, they want to make a commission and if they aren’t selling they don’t make any money. So rent for a couple of years and wait for the housing prices to come down and you will be rewarded when you purchase your house.
For those of you who currently own a house and are thinking of selling put it on the market now, before the correction occurs. Be prepared to take a lower price than you want, but you’ll still be profiting IF you can sell it. Buy low and sell high…now is the time to sell.
Wow, impressive number of troll posts thanks to Garth Turner’s gloom and doom blog. After 3+ years of predicting a correction, he and his slobbering (and seemingly hateful and jealous by the comments here) ‘blog dogs’might finally get a bit of satisfaction. Of course they sat on the sidelines for the past few years and missed the boat entirely instead of profiting as the market went up. This couple may be buying at the peak (MAY be, there’s very little reason to expect a full on correction to the market as extreme as has happened in the states plus TO is one of the centres that will be buffered a bit as were most desirable places in the US) but if they can afford it and can afford the mortgage renewal at possibly 3+ percent higher rates then more power to them. Enjoy the new house! And to all the a**hat commenters from Garth world – go back to your holes.
They are the greater fools and will be underwater in 2 years, i feel sorry for these people, and the crap advice given on this blog..
Wonderful bellweather story, though your editors probably were not aiming for the spin it so obviously had. In 2007, 2008 and even 2009 you might have gotten away with assuming that these stories would merely add to the Goebbels-like Real Estate Propaganda machine as ‘serious comment’. But today’s readership takes these stories generally as ‘lampoon’ farce.
Get your intrepid writers working on that ‘Yuppie Hardship’ issue, for next year. Just throw a stick, and hit about a dozen dual-income professionals, and just let them talk about how horribly difficult it has been trying to hold on to the house. Poor Muffin had to be taken out of St. Clements, and little Jimmy will not be sent to Europe on the summer program. Daddy may have to stop picking up prepared meals at Pusateri’s, and Mommy is on Xanax now (her analyst is helping her cope with a self-image based solely on ‘things’ – usually acquired by Hubby, who adds value to society by churning trades of one sort or another). She’s a lot less pushy with ‘clerks’ these days, now that Mac and Cheese is the family’s dirty little secret.
Try to end the article with all of these ‘surprised and confused’ buyers calling for the Government to bail them out of what those bad, ferret-like real estate agents and bankers did to them – pushing money at them like the corner crack dealer, and bending the rules when they wanted to finance the C-series Mercedes or BMW SUV.
It wasn’t supposed to end that way for these Glenfiddich swillers. Just show a picture of Jason Sudeikis and Kirsten Wiig: that famous SNL duo, the “A**hole Couple”.
Your readers will get it. Trust me, babe.
What a wonderful propaganda artical paid for by realtors. Anyone who believes these lies will suffer financial hardship just like those in the US and everywhere else in the world. The housing mania reminds me of the .com bubble where people laughed at those who called Nortel a bubble at $120. Nortel went bankrupt much like home borrowers…opps I mean home owners?
Many realtors on here are just to uneducated or greedy to understand that prices are supported by CHEAP DEBT which will go up and BACKED by the taxpayers are NO BANK would lend money to people who have little or no down. F A C T banks have lent out less then 1% of their money which isn’t backed by CHMC. You take away cheap mortgages or CHMC aka taxpayers backing deadbeats and the house of cards will crash harder then the US housing bubble. Realtors know it and indebt home debters know it. Prove me wrong criminal uneducated realtors?
There was a comment which blamed couples like them for causing house prices to be high. Perhaps so, but it may surprise you that the rent tribunal is also responsible when they grant landlords unfair above guideline increases. When immigrants come to Toronto they are subsidised for their rent.When they run out they are faced with the unaffordable increase. When they are encouraged to use incompetent paralegals rather than lawyers they fail ($1,000 grants awarded, enough for paralegal but not for a lawyer).
Now there are only three options; pay,move(where?) or buy an overpriced condo with free money from the banks.(People with free money compete with people with real earned money and bid the prices up to fantastic heights which is not a real market).
For the last eighteen years most rental units in Toronto have been turned over. Landlords have had their chance to make their units market ready yet still the tribunal is busy. It is an industry which keeps paralegals employed and contibutes ultimatly to the real estate industry. There is really no need any longer for a tribunal.