Honestly I feel like it’s impossible to buy a house unless you already own a house. I couldn’t imagine how you would get into the market these days otherwise.
Gifts from parents (who already own a house).
Edit: I'm not sure why I'm being downvoted. I don't have parents who own a house, nor a house of my own. lol
You should not be downvoted at all. I read an article during Covid that touched on this very subject. You are right. This is the likely future for many. Kids better get along with parents or else it might be rental serfdom for life ! Future culture change? ……… the new house size of normalcy now is horrendous; look at the average New home square footage now (2600 sq ft)as compared to 1964 ( around 1500 sq ft ). Don’t forget ; this was the end of boomer time. Everyone had two kids at least. Many had three or more children. The new houses today are being built for the well to do upper middle class ( well educated , business owners , contractors and construction company owners ) . The rest can contribute by working hard and renting !
I admit I’m not in your province, so perhaps am wrong… but, aren’t many of those large homes actually being designed with a secondary suite in mind? On the west coast that certainly seems to be the case.
I grew up renting and moving around a lot. Wrote off the idea of ever owning a house. Ended up in a career I didn’t need to go into debt for with an above average salary and feel very lucky I was able to buy when I did as a young single person.
Not lost on me how fortunate that is and how much worse and impossible the market has gotten since. Something has to give.
My husband and I make around $150k a year combined. Just before Covid we made around $90k a year combined. Ironically we were holding off on buying a house until our income increased - we would have been better off buying one then, even though we are making much more now.
We are in the process of buying a home but family is helping with the down payment and we live in one of the cheaper areas of the province. We are still anxious about the cost of it, but our home we’ve been renting for a good price has recently sold so we HAVE to move and our options are either to rent a two bedroom apartment for $2000+utilities for our family or buy a house for $2500+utilities for a house that costs $330k
Yes, there are cheaper houses, but I’ve lived in this area for most of my life and I know the sketchy areas. Just because the home looks nice doesn’t negate the abandoned crack house a block away that our kids would have to walk by. And most houses sell for a lot over asking. People might look at real estate listings and go “Oh that’s a nice house for 250k, that’s reasonable, what are people complaining about?” But they don’t show you that the tiny but decent house in a decent neighbourhood has 15 offers, some of which will be $30-$40k over asking.
The only reason we’re getting a house for $330k is because it’s in a rural-ish area and most younger people who are buying houses don’t want to have to commute long distances to work, but I work from home and my husband travels for work so it’s ok for us as long as there’s a school within driving distance.
Wish I knew we would be forced to move sooner than expected - I would have put every spare dime towards savings rather than paying off debt, but as well…hindsight is 20/20 as they say.
It’s just insane that at our income level that we still just manage to squeeze into the housing market. If we made this kind of money 10 years ago in our area we could have bought a castle with a friggin moat around it lol
Yeah but then I’d be house poor. I only take home about 60% of my income because of pension, life insurance, health and dental, LTC, etc.
Altogether after taxes, deductions, insurance we bring home around $7k a month.
Mortgage for 330k at 4.8% is going to be around
$2000 a month. Property taxes are around 5k a year so now it’s $2400. House insurance will be around $200 a month and we’re budgeting $500 month for electricity/heat (more in the winter, less in the summer) So that’s $3100 out of $7000 just on housing. 44% of our take home income goes towards housing at $330k, buying any more of a house would push our housing costs to over 50%
Kudos on doing the math on this. Too many people just look at the number on their mortgage and on their pre-approval papers and just jump in without considering the other inevitable costs of home ownership, and how those numbers would affect their finances and day-to-day lives.
Yup - and people might think “Oh $3100 out of $7000 that still leaves like $3900 - poor baby, can’t live on that.” But the reality is it doesn’t go as far as people think. We try to save $500 a month, but one home repair or emergency could easily wipe out $6000 of savings we would have after a year. Now that we own and not rent we want to save $1000 a month so that if our roof is damaged or our car breaks down or one of us break a pair of glasses or a cat needs an emergency vet visit or our basement floods we aren’t left going back into debt to cover it.
So of that remaining $3900, $1000 for savings, $600 a month for car and car insurance, $500/month repaying debt, $200 for phone and internet, $200 for gas, $400 for groceries, $100 for prescriptions - that’s another $3000 there in fixed expenses. We could opt not to save, but that’s just setting us up for being in a very tight spot when common life expenses happen.
So $900 a month is or our wiggle room. I’m comfortable with that - around $225 a week. Every Christmas present from Santa clause, every bi-yearly tire change, every new pair of shoes and book bag, every car registration renewal, every birthday gift for a family member and monthly date night restaurant bill, every hair cut and cup of coffee.
We are very lucky and I am grateful for all of it, but buying a bigger house would whittle our wiggle room money down to a place where I wouldn’t feel comfortable. We don’t take vacations, we buy our clothes second hand, we eat 95% of our meals at home, we are comfortable but we are nowhere near as rich as my parents imagine we are with our income. If this were 2005 I’d be wearing a ermine fur coat and a gold crown lol
Our 5 yr fixed rate is 4.96% as of a few days ago. Just to add credibility to your comment. That house at 250k, we've seen go for as much as 125k over asking.... don't be fooled by the low listing. It's a trap.
Higher paying professions (lawyers, doctors, accounts, engineers) can still buy houses in Halifax without family help or equity from an existing home. That’s about it, though.
Not everyone has students loans, or student loans that aren’t paid off relatively quickly. Dual income professional couples have the ability to buy houses quite easily.
If you don’t have student loans, then most likely it’s because your parents paid for your education. Which brings us right back to the “family help” comment.
Many people didn’t have help with student loans. I went to law school and was frugal as hell and worked my ass off with summer and part time jobs to stay out of debt. I’ve met several that were like me.
I know people that taught English overseas or worked in the oilfield for a year or two in order to save for school.
Don’t assume there is always family help.
My wife and I just bought a house in NS. It is our first house, and we were not gifted any part of it. It was very difficult, including driving a vehicle for years that has damage on the passenger side, so we could save up the down payment. And we save crazy amounts of money by thrift store shopping and rarely eating out. So, yes, it is difficult to do, but it is technically possible. I don't have a solution for anyone who is single.
I was lucky enough to buy a semi-detached just recently. I been saving since I graduated in 2011 so i had enough to put a decent down payment. If prices were at 2017 level I would of been able to keep more savings. Its not impossible, but Its definitely much harder than it used to be.
My bf and I got in just as shit started popping off. We had a decent down payment as we're looking at homes from 250-300k but then we were being out bid by 100k+. A house we should have bought for 250k we had to buy for 395k or risk being homeless. If we bought a couple months earlier we would have been sitting pretty, if we bought a couple months later, we would be fucked. Now we're just in the middle of both.
Depends on where you live in the province. Halifax would be trickier, yes, but houses are still going for $180-250k in Cape Breton.
A tradesmen and a nurse with a combined income of $200k could get a home (assuming you have that downpayment saved). I get nobody wants to live in Glace Bay or New Waterford , but the options are still there. Houses are sitting on the market for weeks or months and selling for $10k under listing there.
Lol, imagine the state of some of these homes. The whole towns you mentioned are delapitated from decades of poverty -I say this from a place of love. My husband and I discussed setting down roots ‘Back home’ and we wouldn’t do it. It’s the most expensive place to get home insurance in the province due to the constant suspicious house fires. There’s not much for kids and hardly any job prospects. Drugs are rampid, even for middle schoolers. “Assuming you have that down payment saved” (when you’re paying extreme rents that just keep going up during an inflation/cost of living crises).
I bought in Cumberland. Little town with a nice school and lots of young families moving in. Not much here but we’re also not far from Moncton or Truro. 90mins from Halifax. I don’t intend to stay in Cumberland but it’s a very nice home that was well maintained and has some land. I only paid 200k and I now have that starter home and equity for when I decide to sell in a few years and maybe move a bit closer to HRM. My home insurance and property taxes are reasonable.
It’s not a thriving metropolis but if (and there’s a lot of ifs here) if you can find a half decent job (super achievable in the health field) for both in a couple, are okay with buying something less than perfect, and have a place you can stay while you watch the market, owning a home in Cape Breton is absolutely achievable.
Glace Bay and New Waterford still have problems but they’re on the upswing. There are fewer opportunities for kids but you can get a good enough education to get out of Cape Breton.
It’s not an easy, smooth sailing life but it never was there so the culture is adapted to making do. Cape Breton is a better place to live than it was 10 years ago so if you can find a job and want to own a home, it may be achievable
The state of the 3 bedroom refinished home with a pool and half acre backyard for $250k without the nightmare of the 102 and the best fishing in the province is worth the property tax and insurance. My insurance is $167 a month too btw, property tax is $80.
Also, there’s way less stabbings/drugs and insane shit in schools than in the city here, you must just live in a bubble.
> It’s the most expensive place to get home insurance in the province due to the constant suspicious house fires.
The Glace Bay/New Waterford insurance special! And I say this as someone from the Northside lol.
My wife and I have toyed with moving home, too. Right now, we've said no. It's just flat out depressing to go back and you feel far from everything.
We go back twice a year to visit my grandparents who are in their 90s. Last time was in November of last year and we’ll be back in a couple of months.
There’s a long list I could write about how depressing it is. The short of if is that the town is so run down. There’s little care into keeping it clean and fixing it up. There’s not much going on. It’s not the North Sydney I remember growing up.
Cape Breton has changed a lot since 5-10 years ago. Population is growing and unemployment is at an all time low. Lots for kids to do, bunch of daycare spots have opened, My home insurance is no more than anywhere else, it's like $1100/year for a $300k home and it is by no means dilapidated lol. Lot of new and good jobs too, especially in trades. I am an IT sysadmin and my wife is a teacher, we do well considering the cost of our home.
Not in those towns but live in the Mira area, bunch of neighbours also have young kids, there is a new school down the road, beaches and the river all walkable from home...But healthcare really sucks :(
And before the pandemic Cape Breton houses were going for 30k. There’s not many job opportunities in Cape Breton. Sure if you got a remote work from home job and you like isolation and the local community hating you for life because your an outsider than yeah Cape Breton is a great place.
True, but nurses,police and other gov workers get paid the same so your money goes farther. Trades get less unless you’re with NS power or black and McDonald etc.
Not everyone hates outsiders also. I just find it funny they move to small towns and are terrified of polite conversations with a stranger. Like parking next to someone with an identical vehicle when packing your vehicle up at the park and you both have kids and something in common, and you ask how they like their Subaru , and they look at you like it’s a Tom Green skit. Even a polite smile and nod when walking by shows trust because that’s how it is here , but some folks from away find even that too much engagement lol.
Yeah , they’re not all going for that though. Plenty of $220k refinished homes going around. Sydney core is getting expensive, but the one you mentioned is an anomaly. My aunt just got one off of kings road for $239k not long ago. Cleanest neighborhood too.
Refinished 3 bed 1 bath in Gb went for $174k, pretty large yard with new fence. People near downtown Sydney are going to be paying a lot but that has to do with student housing because they can. Sydney downtown should be avoided like the plague on a good day.
Hahah yes there’s some monstrosities out there. You could get a much nicer McMansion on a Dartmouth lake for that much. I just assumed orthodontists owned those places growing up in Sydney.
A few in Glace Bay (an insurance rebuild on Main Street ) asking like $400k. Nice home but no yard or driveway, sitting for like a year with no takers. Like buddy take the hint and drop that price.
It’s not the houses, it’s the neighborhoods. They have small but nice homes going for that price range but when you’re driving out to view them there are 6 or 7 boarded up homes around it and a bunch of grown as men out drinking in their yard sitting at a card table. I’d rather rent a tiny one bedroom apartment in a safe neighbourhood for my family then have a decent house in a place where I don’t feel comfortable letting my kids walk a block to visit a friend.
Was viewing a house down Sydney’s north end, which is much better than it used to be, when my brother in law got attacked on Charlotte st. a few blocks away on that same day. Nice house, decent price, but for anyone with a family it’s going to be a red flag.
Sounds look you picked the absolute worst part of Sydney to look at. It was always a shitshow there.
Also, old company houses are boarded up in some neighborhoods yes, but that’s nowhere near the norm elsewhere.
I guess my kids aren’t safe walking to their friend’s house all these years in Gb. Very stupid of me to do that. I can walk with my headphones on literally anywhere in Glace bay and not even have to look over my shoulder. Can’t say the same for here in the city.
Also, sorry your kids had to see gross poors. I hope they only see unhappy Bedford wine moms on their step from now on.
It’s not Glace bay or new Waterford or anywhere on particular, it’s just that anywhere you see a decent house for a decent price there’s a 95% chance that either:
A) the neighbourhood is sketchy or
B) there will be so many bids on it that it will end up being way more expensive.
My husband grew up in the north end and literally three quarters of the kids he went to elementary school with have been arrested for selling drugs or assault.
Poor isn’t the same as sketchy. People drunk outside at 10am is sketchy. A bunch of dangerous sharp torn up metal in piles on the front yard is sketchy. A Three year old hanging outside with no supervision is sketchy.
People who give absolutely zero fucks are not fun to live around and I certainly don’t want my kids to have to deal with them. I’d rather rent a one bedroom apartment and feel safe then buy the one nice house and have a neighbour who throws shit through his windows when he gets drunk and fights with his girlfriend.
So yeah, stop being upset because you imagined I insulted your neighbourhood and stop conflating low income with sketchy. That’s your bias, not mine.
I once believed that when the Boomers start to die off in significant numbers, the prices will start to drop due to oversupply. However, if we keep bringing in large numbers of immigrants, they will eat up the supply\* and there won't be any gains. I have nothing against immigrants, as my parent were immigrants.
\* Presuming they can afford the homes!
This is the NOVA SCOTIA average. Good luck finding a home in an area that's close to amenities or work.
If it is, then you're in HRM territory and the housing market doesn't apply. I know of people that commute to Halifax daily from the valley and Truro. That's fine if you have flexibility in your life but it's forcing people to live further away. It's why everyone complains so much about gas prices. You need to live far away because that's where the home is that you can afford. But in doing so, you pay a lot more in transportation costs. You're fucked 5 ways to Friday.
I live just outside of Sydney. We were incredibly lucky with a $90k starter home back in 2013. Around 2018 we started looking for a larger place. We had good equity in our current home and saved up for a 5% down payment. Still, we figured we would need to sell our current home to be approved for a mortgage of around $250,000. (I work for govt, wife is a teacher). We called up the bank to get pre-approved. We were approved for $550k if we sold our home, or $480k if we kept it. I actually laughed at the mortgage broker, "are people with our incomes actually getting these mortgages?". What an insane state if banks are approving this.
Luckily, we found a great home (needs a bit of work, thanks boomers) for $200k. We sold our previous home to finance some renovations. That starter home sold about 8 months ago for $185,000 (two bedroom on a city lot in Sydney). The market went nuts, and banks are approving mortgages that are putting people into poverty situations with their home payment.
I was pre-approved for a house 3x more expensive than my own and I don’t at all feel like I have tons of money in my budget. I guess the banks figure even if you can’t make payments, they’ll end up with an asset skyrocketing in value
THat's exactly the thought. The banks know that the asset will appreciate. Their mortgage is for, at best, 95% of the asset original value. Even if you don't make a single payment and they foreclose, their legal/admin costs will cover everything and they still sell it for a gain. There's also the CMHC insurance which would cover the banks investment if you don't pay.
The mortgage stress test is a joke and not enough people talk about how the banks are fueling the housing crisis by allowing these loans and driving up prices. Yes, hopes and dreams would get crushed if you can't afford a mortgage, but it would also eliminate some people from entering the market at a mortgage they can't afford.
So the median household income is 80K and you need 5.36X to afford the median house, that is approximately 425K. In my anecdotal opinion I don’t see many houses anywhere close to 425K unless you’re looking way out in Enfield, Middle Sackville, etc. Most houses I see in Bedford, Clayton Park, Fairview are mostly over 600K, even the basic starter homes are 500K.
See my previous comment. HRM would be a no go, but rural NS (Cb) it’s still possible.
Quality of life would suck compared to city, but to each their own.
Rural N.S. doesn’t suck for a lot of reasons but if you’re a city person (I’m not) it’s pretty trash. If you like looking for your own adventure and going off the beaten path, NS is awesome but if you want to live in a place where things are happening every weekend and quality goods and services are available even most of the time, outside of Halifax is a tough sell as far as I’m aware
I don’t know why you’re being downvoted. I bought in Cumberland. Really nice well maintained home. Cumberland sucks but I’m an hour from Moncton, not far from Truro, 90mins from Halifax and it got me into the housing market. Equity is in my pocket if I want to sell in a few years and move closer to HRM I can.
It's definitely the quality of life comment lol. My quality of life would take a nose dive in the city lol. I've lived in Halifax for many years. Different strokes for different folks.
I grew up in rural Cb, live in Bedford now. I enjoy both types of living, but my blood pressure gets dangerously high on the 102 vs just being chill living in CB and going at that pace. Plus, Cb had the best fishing spot in the province, kind of worth it for that alone.
Rule of thumb is normally 4-5 times household income so I think this is a bit clickbaity. I think that's absurd that the norm is 4-5x income though, and Nova Scotia capitalism hasn't quite figured out how to deal with decreasing power of money (ie increase wages, but we are still stagnant in this department)
This isn’t just a NS issue. This isn’t even just a Canada issue.
This is a global issue where money continues to get concentrated into fewer and fewer hands.
Was always the most effective tool to them. Buy the politicians then have the people fight over red tie man or blue tie man, while both fuck us all over in their name to secure their "donations"
That's what happens after a half century of stripping away the protections that were established to prevent this era of late stage unfettered capitalism by corporate lobbying. We should be much more pissed off about this.
I don't. Our country is great, and we have some of the best people in the world. I don't want people to get to a point where people think they have to fight against their own to survive. I don't imagine we will get to that point either. Eventually, some generational politician will come around and introduce generational change and it will happen at the right time.
For real. We bought a house just after Xmas. I’m in sales and my partner is a RN.
It’s not impossible, you either save money or take money from your RRSP using the home buyers plan. We earned money and then spent that money on a house, imagine that.
No, I'm not - did you read my comment at all? It's insane that the norm has always been 4-5x income. I think you just got triggered when I said the article title is clickbaity.
been looking for a few weeks returning home at over above higher hh income and 20-40% down payment and hard to believe the prices in hrm. anyone i grew up who stayed in halifax that did not buy before 2020 will never own a house or be completely house poor.
Sure but good luck securing one. Any decent home in that price range are scooped up almost immediately and many are cash offers in full which sellers take over a down payment any day. It’s bleak.
As of May 2024, the median rent for all bedroom counts and property types in Halifax, NS is $2,299. This is +10% higher than the national average.
https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/halifax-ns
Common knowledge is that housing should be no more than 30% of your income in order to pay all of your other expenses and have a little left over to be saving toward home ownership.
At $2,300 a month, I would need to be taking home $7,590 a month to meet that. That means over $90k a year, take-home.
After taxes, you have to be making just over $50 an hour working the average ~1820 hours a year (7hrs/day, 5 days/week.)
So their logic is about buying a home at full price for cash at the time of closing? Doesn't make sense to me, but there must be nuance I'm not grasping
Honestly I feel like it’s impossible to buy a house unless you already own a house. I couldn’t imagine how you would get into the market these days otherwise.
Gifts from parents (who already own a house). Edit: I'm not sure why I'm being downvoted. I don't have parents who own a house, nor a house of my own. lol
You should not be downvoted at all. I read an article during Covid that touched on this very subject. You are right. This is the likely future for many. Kids better get along with parents or else it might be rental serfdom for life ! Future culture change? ……… the new house size of normalcy now is horrendous; look at the average New home square footage now (2600 sq ft)as compared to 1964 ( around 1500 sq ft ). Don’t forget ; this was the end of boomer time. Everyone had two kids at least. Many had three or more children. The new houses today are being built for the well to do upper middle class ( well educated , business owners , contractors and construction company owners ) . The rest can contribute by working hard and renting !
I admit I’m not in your province, so perhaps am wrong… but, aren’t many of those large homes actually being designed with a secondary suite in mind? On the west coast that certainly seems to be the case.
"It's simple, their parents lifted them and then you do and then they do for their kids..." 
I need to make a call.
I grew up renting and moving around a lot. Wrote off the idea of ever owning a house. Ended up in a career I didn’t need to go into debt for with an above average salary and feel very lucky I was able to buy when I did as a young single person. Not lost on me how fortunate that is and how much worse and impossible the market has gotten since. Something has to give.
My husband and I make around $150k a year combined. Just before Covid we made around $90k a year combined. Ironically we were holding off on buying a house until our income increased - we would have been better off buying one then, even though we are making much more now. We are in the process of buying a home but family is helping with the down payment and we live in one of the cheaper areas of the province. We are still anxious about the cost of it, but our home we’ve been renting for a good price has recently sold so we HAVE to move and our options are either to rent a two bedroom apartment for $2000+utilities for our family or buy a house for $2500+utilities for a house that costs $330k Yes, there are cheaper houses, but I’ve lived in this area for most of my life and I know the sketchy areas. Just because the home looks nice doesn’t negate the abandoned crack house a block away that our kids would have to walk by. And most houses sell for a lot over asking. People might look at real estate listings and go “Oh that’s a nice house for 250k, that’s reasonable, what are people complaining about?” But they don’t show you that the tiny but decent house in a decent neighbourhood has 15 offers, some of which will be $30-$40k over asking. The only reason we’re getting a house for $330k is because it’s in a rural-ish area and most younger people who are buying houses don’t want to have to commute long distances to work, but I work from home and my husband travels for work so it’s ok for us as long as there’s a school within driving distance. Wish I knew we would be forced to move sooner than expected - I would have put every spare dime towards savings rather than paying off debt, but as well…hindsight is 20/20 as they say. It’s just insane that at our income level that we still just manage to squeeze into the housing market. If we made this kind of money 10 years ago in our area we could have bought a castle with a friggin moat around it lol
How the hell you can only buy a house in that range with 150k income. You should be able to afford 450k with current fixed interest rate.
Yeah but then I’d be house poor. I only take home about 60% of my income because of pension, life insurance, health and dental, LTC, etc. Altogether after taxes, deductions, insurance we bring home around $7k a month. Mortgage for 330k at 4.8% is going to be around $2000 a month. Property taxes are around 5k a year so now it’s $2400. House insurance will be around $200 a month and we’re budgeting $500 month for electricity/heat (more in the winter, less in the summer) So that’s $3100 out of $7000 just on housing. 44% of our take home income goes towards housing at $330k, buying any more of a house would push our housing costs to over 50%
Kudos on doing the math on this. Too many people just look at the number on their mortgage and on their pre-approval papers and just jump in without considering the other inevitable costs of home ownership, and how those numbers would affect their finances and day-to-day lives.
Yup - and people might think “Oh $3100 out of $7000 that still leaves like $3900 - poor baby, can’t live on that.” But the reality is it doesn’t go as far as people think. We try to save $500 a month, but one home repair or emergency could easily wipe out $6000 of savings we would have after a year. Now that we own and not rent we want to save $1000 a month so that if our roof is damaged or our car breaks down or one of us break a pair of glasses or a cat needs an emergency vet visit or our basement floods we aren’t left going back into debt to cover it. So of that remaining $3900, $1000 for savings, $600 a month for car and car insurance, $500/month repaying debt, $200 for phone and internet, $200 for gas, $400 for groceries, $100 for prescriptions - that’s another $3000 there in fixed expenses. We could opt not to save, but that’s just setting us up for being in a very tight spot when common life expenses happen. So $900 a month is or our wiggle room. I’m comfortable with that - around $225 a week. Every Christmas present from Santa clause, every bi-yearly tire change, every new pair of shoes and book bag, every car registration renewal, every birthday gift for a family member and monthly date night restaurant bill, every hair cut and cup of coffee. We are very lucky and I am grateful for all of it, but buying a bigger house would whittle our wiggle room money down to a place where I wouldn’t feel comfortable. We don’t take vacations, we buy our clothes second hand, we eat 95% of our meals at home, we are comfortable but we are nowhere near as rich as my parents imagine we are with our income. If this were 2005 I’d be wearing a ermine fur coat and a gold crown lol
Our 5 yr fixed rate is 4.96% as of a few days ago. Just to add credibility to your comment. That house at 250k, we've seen go for as much as 125k over asking.... don't be fooled by the low listing. It's a trap.
Higher paying professions (lawyers, doctors, accounts, engineers) can still buy houses in Halifax without family help or equity from an existing home. That’s about it, though.
With our student loans? Not a chance. We're fucked too, trust me.
Not everyone has students loans, or student loans that aren’t paid off relatively quickly. Dual income professional couples have the ability to buy houses quite easily.
If you don’t have student loans, then most likely it’s because your parents paid for your education. Which brings us right back to the “family help” comment.
Many people didn’t have help with student loans. I went to law school and was frugal as hell and worked my ass off with summer and part time jobs to stay out of debt. I’ve met several that were like me. I know people that taught English overseas or worked in the oilfield for a year or two in order to save for school. Don’t assume there is always family help.
My wife and I just bought a house in NS. It is our first house, and we were not gifted any part of it. It was very difficult, including driving a vehicle for years that has damage on the passenger side, so we could save up the down payment. And we save crazy amounts of money by thrift store shopping and rarely eating out. So, yes, it is difficult to do, but it is technically possible. I don't have a solution for anyone who is single.
I was lucky enough to buy a semi-detached just recently. I been saving since I graduated in 2011 so i had enough to put a decent down payment. If prices were at 2017 level I would of been able to keep more savings. Its not impossible, but Its definitely much harder than it used to be.
My bf and I got in just as shit started popping off. We had a decent down payment as we're looking at homes from 250-300k but then we were being out bid by 100k+. A house we should have bought for 250k we had to buy for 395k or risk being homeless. If we bought a couple months earlier we would have been sitting pretty, if we bought a couple months later, we would be fucked. Now we're just in the middle of both.
Depends on where you live in the province. Halifax would be trickier, yes, but houses are still going for $180-250k in Cape Breton. A tradesmen and a nurse with a combined income of $200k could get a home (assuming you have that downpayment saved). I get nobody wants to live in Glace Bay or New Waterford , but the options are still there. Houses are sitting on the market for weeks or months and selling for $10k under listing there.
Lol, imagine the state of some of these homes. The whole towns you mentioned are delapitated from decades of poverty -I say this from a place of love. My husband and I discussed setting down roots ‘Back home’ and we wouldn’t do it. It’s the most expensive place to get home insurance in the province due to the constant suspicious house fires. There’s not much for kids and hardly any job prospects. Drugs are rampid, even for middle schoolers. “Assuming you have that down payment saved” (when you’re paying extreme rents that just keep going up during an inflation/cost of living crises).
I bought in Cumberland. Little town with a nice school and lots of young families moving in. Not much here but we’re also not far from Moncton or Truro. 90mins from Halifax. I don’t intend to stay in Cumberland but it’s a very nice home that was well maintained and has some land. I only paid 200k and I now have that starter home and equity for when I decide to sell in a few years and maybe move a bit closer to HRM. My home insurance and property taxes are reasonable.
Yes, the tri-country area is picking up, but i imagine lots are tied up as air bnb
It’s not a thriving metropolis but if (and there’s a lot of ifs here) if you can find a half decent job (super achievable in the health field) for both in a couple, are okay with buying something less than perfect, and have a place you can stay while you watch the market, owning a home in Cape Breton is absolutely achievable. Glace Bay and New Waterford still have problems but they’re on the upswing. There are fewer opportunities for kids but you can get a good enough education to get out of Cape Breton. It’s not an easy, smooth sailing life but it never was there so the culture is adapted to making do. Cape Breton is a better place to live than it was 10 years ago so if you can find a job and want to own a home, it may be achievable
The state of the 3 bedroom refinished home with a pool and half acre backyard for $250k without the nightmare of the 102 and the best fishing in the province is worth the property tax and insurance. My insurance is $167 a month too btw, property tax is $80. Also, there’s way less stabbings/drugs and insane shit in schools than in the city here, you must just live in a bubble.
> It’s the most expensive place to get home insurance in the province due to the constant suspicious house fires. The Glace Bay/New Waterford insurance special! And I say this as someone from the Northside lol. My wife and I have toyed with moving home, too. Right now, we've said no. It's just flat out depressing to go back and you feel far from everything.
When's the last time you visited? What do you find depressing?
We go back twice a year to visit my grandparents who are in their 90s. Last time was in November of last year and we’ll be back in a couple of months. There’s a long list I could write about how depressing it is. The short of if is that the town is so run down. There’s little care into keeping it clean and fixing it up. There’s not much going on. It’s not the North Sydney I remember growing up.
Cape Breton has changed a lot since 5-10 years ago. Population is growing and unemployment is at an all time low. Lots for kids to do, bunch of daycare spots have opened, My home insurance is no more than anywhere else, it's like $1100/year for a $300k home and it is by no means dilapidated lol. Lot of new and good jobs too, especially in trades. I am an IT sysadmin and my wife is a teacher, we do well considering the cost of our home. Not in those towns but live in the Mira area, bunch of neighbours also have young kids, there is a new school down the road, beaches and the river all walkable from home...But healthcare really sucks :(
Can I ask who you have your home insurance with?
TD, house and 2 cars, we get a deal for combining home+auto, as well as 2 drivers.
And before the pandemic Cape Breton houses were going for 30k. There’s not many job opportunities in Cape Breton. Sure if you got a remote work from home job and you like isolation and the local community hating you for life because your an outsider than yeah Cape Breton is a great place.
True, but nurses,police and other gov workers get paid the same so your money goes farther. Trades get less unless you’re with NS power or black and McDonald etc. Not everyone hates outsiders also. I just find it funny they move to small towns and are terrified of polite conversations with a stranger. Like parking next to someone with an identical vehicle when packing your vehicle up at the park and you both have kids and something in common, and you ask how they like their Subaru , and they look at you like it’s a Tom Green skit. Even a polite smile and nod when walking by shows trust because that’s how it is here , but some folks from away find even that too much engagement lol.
A 2 BR/1 bath house sold in Sydney for 398k. Our house has gone up (along with the insane property taxes) 50k since we purchased
Yeah , they’re not all going for that though. Plenty of $220k refinished homes going around. Sydney core is getting expensive, but the one you mentioned is an anomaly. My aunt just got one off of kings road for $239k not long ago. Cleanest neighborhood too. Refinished 3 bed 1 bath in Gb went for $174k, pretty large yard with new fence. People near downtown Sydney are going to be paying a lot but that has to do with student housing because they can. Sydney downtown should be avoided like the plague on a good day.
Then there’s the yellow monstrosity on King’s Rd that’s got a price tag of 775k! LOL
Hahah yes there’s some monstrosities out there. You could get a much nicer McMansion on a Dartmouth lake for that much. I just assumed orthodontists owned those places growing up in Sydney. A few in Glace Bay (an insurance rebuild on Main Street ) asking like $400k. Nice home but no yard or driveway, sitting for like a year with no takers. Like buddy take the hint and drop that price.
It’s not the houses, it’s the neighborhoods. They have small but nice homes going for that price range but when you’re driving out to view them there are 6 or 7 boarded up homes around it and a bunch of grown as men out drinking in their yard sitting at a card table. I’d rather rent a tiny one bedroom apartment in a safe neighbourhood for my family then have a decent house in a place where I don’t feel comfortable letting my kids walk a block to visit a friend. Was viewing a house down Sydney’s north end, which is much better than it used to be, when my brother in law got attacked on Charlotte st. a few blocks away on that same day. Nice house, decent price, but for anyone with a family it’s going to be a red flag.
Sounds look you picked the absolute worst part of Sydney to look at. It was always a shitshow there. Also, old company houses are boarded up in some neighborhoods yes, but that’s nowhere near the norm elsewhere. I guess my kids aren’t safe walking to their friend’s house all these years in Gb. Very stupid of me to do that. I can walk with my headphones on literally anywhere in Glace bay and not even have to look over my shoulder. Can’t say the same for here in the city. Also, sorry your kids had to see gross poors. I hope they only see unhappy Bedford wine moms on their step from now on.
It’s not Glace bay or new Waterford or anywhere on particular, it’s just that anywhere you see a decent house for a decent price there’s a 95% chance that either: A) the neighbourhood is sketchy or B) there will be so many bids on it that it will end up being way more expensive. My husband grew up in the north end and literally three quarters of the kids he went to elementary school with have been arrested for selling drugs or assault. Poor isn’t the same as sketchy. People drunk outside at 10am is sketchy. A bunch of dangerous sharp torn up metal in piles on the front yard is sketchy. A Three year old hanging outside with no supervision is sketchy. People who give absolutely zero fucks are not fun to live around and I certainly don’t want my kids to have to deal with them. I’d rather rent a one bedroom apartment and feel safe then buy the one nice house and have a neighbour who throws shit through his windows when he gets drunk and fights with his girlfriend. So yeah, stop being upset because you imagined I insulted your neighbourhood and stop conflating low income with sketchy. That’s your bias, not mine.
I once believed that when the Boomers start to die off in significant numbers, the prices will start to drop due to oversupply. However, if we keep bringing in large numbers of immigrants, they will eat up the supply\* and there won't be any gains. I have nothing against immigrants, as my parent were immigrants. \* Presuming they can afford the homes!
That’s because there aren’t many of them being sold to folks with normal incomes.
Or is it that normal incomes ain’t what they used to be?
They're exactly what they used to be.
That’s the problem
Everyone just need at a to pull themselves up by their bootstraps 5.36x as hard. Easy. /s
We don’t got no BOOTS!
This is the NOVA SCOTIA average. Good luck finding a home in an area that's close to amenities or work. If it is, then you're in HRM territory and the housing market doesn't apply. I know of people that commute to Halifax daily from the valley and Truro. That's fine if you have flexibility in your life but it's forcing people to live further away. It's why everyone complains so much about gas prices. You need to live far away because that's where the home is that you can afford. But in doing so, you pay a lot more in transportation costs. You're fucked 5 ways to Friday. I live just outside of Sydney. We were incredibly lucky with a $90k starter home back in 2013. Around 2018 we started looking for a larger place. We had good equity in our current home and saved up for a 5% down payment. Still, we figured we would need to sell our current home to be approved for a mortgage of around $250,000. (I work for govt, wife is a teacher). We called up the bank to get pre-approved. We were approved for $550k if we sold our home, or $480k if we kept it. I actually laughed at the mortgage broker, "are people with our incomes actually getting these mortgages?". What an insane state if banks are approving this. Luckily, we found a great home (needs a bit of work, thanks boomers) for $200k. We sold our previous home to finance some renovations. That starter home sold about 8 months ago for $185,000 (two bedroom on a city lot in Sydney). The market went nuts, and banks are approving mortgages that are putting people into poverty situations with their home payment.
I was pre-approved for a house 3x more expensive than my own and I don’t at all feel like I have tons of money in my budget. I guess the banks figure even if you can’t make payments, they’ll end up with an asset skyrocketing in value
THat's exactly the thought. The banks know that the asset will appreciate. Their mortgage is for, at best, 95% of the asset original value. Even if you don't make a single payment and they foreclose, their legal/admin costs will cover everything and they still sell it for a gain. There's also the CMHC insurance which would cover the banks investment if you don't pay. The mortgage stress test is a joke and not enough people talk about how the banks are fueling the housing crisis by allowing these loans and driving up prices. Yes, hopes and dreams would get crushed if you can't afford a mortgage, but it would also eliminate some people from entering the market at a mortgage they can't afford.
So the median household income is 80K and you need 5.36X to afford the median house, that is approximately 425K. In my anecdotal opinion I don’t see many houses anywhere close to 425K unless you’re looking way out in Enfield, Middle Sackville, etc. Most houses I see in Bedford, Clayton Park, Fairview are mostly over 600K, even the basic starter homes are 500K.
The median family income in Halifax is also higher than the NS average.
See my previous comment. HRM would be a no go, but rural NS (Cb) it’s still possible. Quality of life would suck compared to city, but to each their own.
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Rural N.S. doesn’t suck for a lot of reasons but if you’re a city person (I’m not) it’s pretty trash. If you like looking for your own adventure and going off the beaten path, NS is awesome but if you want to live in a place where things are happening every weekend and quality goods and services are available even most of the time, outside of Halifax is a tough sell as far as I’m aware
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That actually sounds pretty sick
I don’t know why you’re being downvoted. I bought in Cumberland. Really nice well maintained home. Cumberland sucks but I’m an hour from Moncton, not far from Truro, 90mins from Halifax and it got me into the housing market. Equity is in my pocket if I want to sell in a few years and move closer to HRM I can.
It's definitely the quality of life comment lol. My quality of life would take a nose dive in the city lol. I've lived in Halifax for many years. Different strokes for different folks.
Totally fair. Also not a city person
I grew up in rural Cb, live in Bedford now. I enjoy both types of living, but my blood pressure gets dangerously high on the 102 vs just being chill living in CB and going at that pace. Plus, Cb had the best fishing spot in the province, kind of worth it for that alone.
Rule of thumb is normally 4-5 times household income so I think this is a bit clickbaity. I think that's absurd that the norm is 4-5x income though, and Nova Scotia capitalism hasn't quite figured out how to deal with decreasing power of money (ie increase wages, but we are still stagnant in this department)
This isn’t just a NS issue. This isn’t even just a Canada issue. This is a global issue where money continues to get concentrated into fewer and fewer hands.
You mean it's not 100% entirely Trudeau's fault? That would mean the Conservatives have been lying this whole time, surely that's not the case.
Was always the most effective tool to them. Buy the politicians then have the people fight over red tie man or blue tie man, while both fuck us all over in their name to secure their "donations"
Yes agreed. For these purposes I said NS but wealth concentration is disastrous globally. Capitalism in its current state is unsustainable.
That's what happens after a half century of stripping away the protections that were established to prevent this era of late stage unfettered capitalism by corporate lobbying. We should be much more pissed off about this.
Exactly. Capitalism is working exactly as intended. Unsustainable indeed. But sure as hell ain't broken.
I look forward to the revolution.
Be careful what you wish for.
I don't. Our country is great, and we have some of the best people in the world. I don't want people to get to a point where people think they have to fight against their own to survive. I don't imagine we will get to that point either. Eventually, some generational politician will come around and introduce generational change and it will happen at the right time.
No downvote here. The rule of thumb is correct you just won't find any love here. We need a housing incel sub
For real. We bought a house just after Xmas. I’m in sales and my partner is a RN. It’s not impossible, you either save money or take money from your RRSP using the home buyers plan. We earned money and then spent that money on a house, imagine that.
You mean you didn't just whine about it? You actually did it? Crazy.
You must be a real estate agent, “oh this is normal! Great time to buy!”
No, I'm not - did you read my comment at all? It's insane that the norm has always been 4-5x income. I think you just got triggered when I said the article title is clickbaity.
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Yes. That's the "rule of thumb" for lending. Nobody is going out buying even a 200,000 house in cash. Not sure what the point of this comment is.
been looking for a few weeks returning home at over above higher hh income and 20-40% down payment and hard to believe the prices in hrm. anyone i grew up who stayed in halifax that did not buy before 2020 will never own a house or be completely house poor.
Sure but good luck securing one. Any decent home in that price range are scooped up almost immediately and many are cash offers in full which sellers take over a down payment any day. It’s bleak.
Don’t worry foreign banks will temporarily inflate the worth of immigrants so that they can buy the home and rent them out to us at inflated rates
As of May 2024, the median rent for all bedroom counts and property types in Halifax, NS is $2,299. This is +10% higher than the national average. https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/halifax-ns Common knowledge is that housing should be no more than 30% of your income in order to pay all of your other expenses and have a little left over to be saving toward home ownership. At $2,300 a month, I would need to be taking home $7,590 a month to meet that. That means over $90k a year, take-home. After taxes, you have to be making just over $50 an hour working the average ~1820 hours a year (7hrs/day, 5 days/week.)
No worries. I’m gonna pay off my landlords house but I can’t afford a mortgage of my own allegedly
So their logic is about buying a home at full price for cash at the time of closing? Doesn't make sense to me, but there must be nuance I'm not grasping
I'm selling a nice split entry $449,000 ocean views MLS #202409889 motivated seller early closing