Originally Posted by petee_c

My kids are 14 and 11, so being on their own will be after post secondary education....

Couple likely scenarios :

1. Live at home for a few years. Find work within a reasonable commute. Save for a down payment.
2. Marry rich.
3. Rent
4. Buy a starter home and take in a couple house mates....

Peter

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Originally Posted by r8v10plus

Looks like the RE bubble has moved out of Vancouver and into Toronto.

Originally Posted by PG993

The whole listing under FMV is the oldest tick in the book. I think it was invented by the Freemans realty here in the annex. maybe not! anyway. one day a few years back i was driving by a house on Huron street and saw their open house . I walked in and ask the selling price. the guy said 899K, I knew it was under listed so i went back to the car and came back with a cheque made for 899K. I asked the agent if i need to go to my bank and certify it. He obviously didn't bite but he got the point. It bugs the hell out of me when I hear "sold for 200K over asking....". it should be illegal to purposely list a property grossly under Fmv. Having said that some properties will truly sell considerably over asking for various reasons, but, come on, some of these agents are unbelievable.

Originally Posted by Imo000

He made you more money the 2nd day? He just got lucky that a second buyer was there at the right time. Could have just as easy went the other way. Real estate egent are leaches. Do they work significantly more for a $1M house than for a $500K one? I highly doubt it. Most houses for the better part of 15 years sell themselves. This entire realeste bussiness is a racket to steal a homeowner's hard earned money. They deseve an hourly pay and nothing more but since this has been done this way, people accept it.

Originally Posted by altesporsche

I couldn't agree with you more, the market is insane and being young (35) living downtown and knowing what a lot of my friends roughly make, I really do not understand how 95% of them can own or buy a home. I just went through the process of buying the Condo my fiancée and I live in now and I have a few rental condos downtown, each of them I own were nearly impossible for me to buy being someone who works overseas and all requiring 30-40% down and thinking about just the one we recently moved into and gathering the funds for the down payment was difficult and I make a considerable amount more than most if not all of my friends in Toronto, but even with 20% or 10% down is nearly impossible for a lot of people to buy a home anywhere near downtown Toronto. Most condos a family can live in downtown are in the $750k+ range and houses or attached home in the $1 mill plus range and even if the income is say $150k how can they afford it ? the market is just absurd right now and people are drowning in debt if they can afford to buy a home or they are renting and 100% of that money is then someone else's investment, most likely a foreign owner. I almost bought a unit in Ice II tower on York, a corner unit and well it went for $80K over asking in the end and I wasn't prepared to go that much over because it truly wasn't worth it for that unit.. but the real estate agent that showed me the Condo got back to me a few days later to inform me the same overseas owners, own the same unit 5 floors above and 4 below (So ten friggen condos) and he could get me into one of them for $100k more than the one I bid on.. it makes me sick because a lot of this is games by the real estate agents like it was in Vancouver. I simply told him where to go and not call me again ill get another agent as he was a slimey sack of ****. Ill not buy another place in Toronto as my last two were just annoying to deal with.

Originally Posted by BioBanker

The TO market will be fine, as will Vancouvers.

There may be big runs in any one year but unless you're buying at the worst time and right before the inevitable (and likely temporary) check back, and unless you need to sell in that period, my guess is that people wont lose money.

But yeah, starting out today must be tough. Wages have not increased to offset. I might not have been able to afford my first house (in Torontos Beach) today if I were starting out today with todays wages for the same job. And good luck to my kids trying to stay in Vancouver - which is way higher real estate than Toronto with little to no industry to pay for it!

Originally Posted by Cosmo Kramer

This coming for someone who works for the government!

Originally Posted by AllanH

Agree. One of the things that drove the sale at this time is the possibility that ON will do something similar to Vancouver to limit Chinese buyers. This is my second transaction to a Chinese buyer.
The Govt. will have to do something, the distortion to our housing market is becoming extreme. I would hate to be a buyer in T.O. right now.
Cheers
Allan

Originally Posted by StanThePorscheFan

My kids are 10, 15 and 20. We have 3 cash positive investment properties that we'll hand over to them as they are ready to carry them on their own. All it took is 3 small downpayments, drawn against our own home at very low interest, which in turn more than doubled its value. No complains here.

In fact, I want to thank my country for making it possible.
I would also like to thank the communist party of China for creating so much personal wealth, enough to spread it around the globe.

Thank you for making me and so many others instant MILLIONAIRES!!!