COVID and the housing market

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nobbie48 said:
Inflation will make you rich so buy the most expensive place you can, leveraging a huge mortgage.

If rates go up, prices go down and any equity gets sucked down the drain followed by foreclosure costs.
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That's sort of what we did. Although the mortgage is painful, it's not big enough to risk sinking. So far return on this house has been ~6%/yr which is pretty crap but that is tax-free (and not adjusted for the leverage used) so not quite as bad as it first appears. Property tax, mortgage interest, maintenance etc cost less than renting a similar house (which I would never do, if I was renting, it would be smaller to save money). For a long time we (and most other canadian homeowners) were grossly overweight on housing. I'm still overweight on housing but things are correcting as markets appreciate at a far higher rate.
 
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Locally, some casual friends sold their bungalow for 98% of asking price in ~2 weeks. Good location and modernized. Fairly priced. They've already got a new one so good for them. I could have been tempted if it wasn't for the $300K to $400K hurdle.

Another listing nearby is a financial question mark. Huge lot with a 1 1/2 story house dating back to late 1940 or early 1950. Every other house of its age on the street has been flattened upon sale and made into a McMansion. This one has been done up to the 9's with granite, marble, hardwoods etc. All will likely end up in a dumpster. The huge (For Toronto) 57' X 167' lot is the drawing card.
 
The huge drop in outlying GTA prices has me shopping. I saw a waterfront place on a 1ac lakefront place on Big Bay point that was almost 1/3 rd less than the last purchasers paid in 2023.

Straight up swap for a place in Markham, just not crazy about the taxes in Barrie - $13.5k a year is about $7500 more than a similar priced house in Markham.
 
Mad Mike said:
The huge drop in outlying GTA prices has me shopping. I saw a waterfront place on a 1ac lakefront place on Big Bay point that was almost 1/3 rd less than the last purchasers paid in 2023.

Straight up swap for a place in Markham, just not crazy about the taxes in Barrie - $13.5k a year is about $7500 more than a similar priced house in Markham.
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Barrie waterfront taxes are insane. Friends with a nice house on the water are deep into five figures and I won't be shocked if that gets to six figures in the next decade or two.
 
GreyGhost said:
Yup. Waterfront house sells at something like a 30% premium to a similar house one row back but on water taxes are something like 4-5x. It's insane. Some of the waterfront houses were over $40K in property tax almost a decade ago.
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Being a baller ain't cheap...
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As for housing prices we have been watching some around us (Kingsway). There have been a few flips that have sold for ~10% below original (first) ask after months on the market (list, drop price, relist..). Those are the quality jobs with major work, the half assed ones tend to linger for half a year and go lease... Homes that are not flips seem to be going for ask and even 1% or 2% above (and pretty close to the flip final sales), and still move pretty quick. In the end it does not look to me that there is lots of meet for flippers these days.

One we went to look at just for fun, first time on the market, then again after the flip. Bit of an odd duck that the previous long term owners made an addition look like a medieval castle inside... Post flip, all the bathrooms and the kitchen were done, nothing else was touched. Agent at the open house had some screwball story about them buying it for their kid (four bedroom home...) but then they decided to go to university somewhere else... rrrrriiiigggghhhtttt..... sure. After many months on the market, it is leased now.
 
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backmarkerducati said:
Being a baller ain't cheap...
***
As for housing prices we have been watching some around us (Kingsway). There have been a few flips that have sold for ~10% below original (first) ask after months on the market (list, drop price, relist..). Those are the quality jobs with major work, the half assed ones tend to linger for half a year and go lease... Homes that are not flips seem to be going for ask and even 1% or 2% above (and pretty close to the flip final sales), and still move pretty quick. In the end it does not look to me that there is lots of meet for flippers these days.

One we went to look at just for fun, first time on the market, then again after the flip. Bit of an odd duck that the previous long term owners made an addition look like a medieval castle inside... Post flip, all the bathrooms and the kitchen were done, nothing else was touched. Agent at the open house had some screwball story about them buying it for their kid (four bedroom home...) but then they decided to go to university somewhere else... rrrrriiiigggghhhtttt..... sure. After many months on the market, it is leased now.
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I wouldn't touch a flipped and tarted up house.

I might not like their choice in colours of expensive stonework and workmanship is usually marginal.

Use cheap thinset and tiles come off like Post-it notes.

The house could look like new but there is no warrantee on anything.

Bondo gets used to repair rotted wood.
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