Gail Vaz-Oxlade Gets Candid on Home Ownership
People dive into home ownership with eyes half shut. Many do rough budgets and rely on their mortgage providers to tell them what they can afford. But few are prepared for the realities of home ownership.
People step into the housing market with the minimum deposit and the assumption that they'll soon grow equity. They believe real estate prices always rise, they'll always have a job and the sun always shines. Few plan for unexpected expenses like leaky roofs and busted appliances. Even fewer plan for unemployment.
Instead, they binge on house porn and the orthodoxy of marble finishes. This sets an extremely high bar for interior design, squeezing the final drops of their borrowing capacity to renovate otherwise perfectly functional living spaces.
All this has worked in the past as house price appreciation created equity that helped people turn their houses into ATMs.
Today, however, incomes have been gutted and about 16% of Canadian mortgages are being deferred.
New buyers entered home ownership with zero bandwidth for financial trouble. Even those who owned for a while, benefiting from the tail-end of a housing boom, have pissed away their gains by keeping up with their friends and neighbours. New cars, travel, outings. Nothing was sacrificed to pay down debts.
The people behind these mortgage deferrals are on financial life support. They effectively can no longer afford their homes and are depending on government handouts and the 'kindness' of creditors. While some are victims of bad timing, many of the wounds are self-induced.
Below, in a rare interview (she is retired) money maven Gail Vaz-Oxlade provides her candid, in-depth thoughts on the current housing situation. In it, she discusses with John Pasalis (President of Realosophy Realty) the following and more:
Is it time to buy a house?
When is the right time to buy a house?
How does home ownership change your life?
How do you know you're financially ready for home ownership?
Source: MoveSmartly.com/summit