Is Homeownership a Luxury or a Necessity? | Toronto Housing Market

Is Homeownership a luxury or a necessity in Toronto? What are the alternatives to homeownership? Is homeownership really important?

In this video, I’m going to discuss these questions and a really important topic, homeownership in Toronto.

Of course, having a place to live, a roof over our heads, and a safe space to just exist is a basic requirement for all of us, but then, most of us get confused between owning a home and having a home.

YES! You read that right, there is a difference between them, and there are people out there who have invested so much money in properties simply because they never knew this difference.

If you want to know more about homeownership then you should definitely watch this video until the end.

Let’s move back a little bit to be able to evaluate what homeownership was just three decades ago so, I know my parents and a lot of other people’s parents uh baby boomers especially went through a huge struggle in life to work extremely hard to be able to buy a single-family house for their own selves.

Now, typically they would work all their lives to be able to save for a single property. Do you understand that a person would work their entire life-saving everything that they earn to be able to afford to buy a single home?

Now, in today’s time what happens is when you move to Canada or if you’re living in Canada and you come off age where you are able to afford to buy a house typically in your 20s or in your 30s you’re able to buy one because there are so many incentives and programs by the government where you can put a lower down payment and have a mortgage.

To be able to buy these properties now, the problems that start happening from here is we get so used to this that it becomes a system and it becomes a norm for us where we’re like oh my god everyone is buying a house, everyone owns a home so, it’s a normal thing for us to have and at this point, we forget that it is actually a luxury that we are able to get right.

So, for example, if you have been brought up with rolls, Royce and you’ve only seen a rolls Royce throughout your life. Rolls Royce is not going to be something special or spectacular for you. It’s going to be a normal thing for you.

Now if that roll’s Royce is taken away from you you’re going to cry and you’re going to say oh my god I miss it this is my necessity, this is something I need, I cannot go anywhere without a rolls Royce and that is a problem now.

This is a huge mindset issue that we are facing and we are going through right now where people are saying: what I need to be able to afford a million-dollar house, I need to be able to afford a property in Toronto downtown, I want to be able to buy a property in Yorkville.

Now see that’s the thing yes you want to buy it that is perfectly fine but that is not a necessity, that is not something, that is deemed absolutely necessary for you to be a homeowner. yes, a residence is absolutely necessary for Toronto.

Maybe you work in Toronto downtown, maybe you want to be close to work, and maybe that is an important thing that is a huge deciding factor but home does not rely on that. You can possibly or potentially rent a property in Toronto. You can actually move out to the suburbs like many other people who are actually doing that right now and they’re commuting every day.

Average commutes in Toronto are 45 minutes to an hour so, maybe that is something that is an option for you. This is my opinion I’m not asking you to change yours I’m just asking you to open up your mind in terms of understanding that the affordability crisis that we’re facing is a crisis.

Yes, there it needs to be solved there are a lot of things that need to be carefully considered to be able to make sure that we don’t get into trouble and there’s not an economic crisis which is a much bigger problem than we could be facing.

But at the same time to think that we have or believe that we are privileged enough to have homeownership by default. By whatever means possible that is not the right way of thinking or approaching, it is so if you aren’t thinking that way, this video is not for you. But if that is something that you believe and that is something that you have been chasing please do start looking at it from a different perspective.

It used to take a whole lifetime to earn and save for yourself to be able to afford a house now it just takes you a few years of savings to be able to put 5-10 & 15-20 down payment to be able to buy a house. In a lot of cases, if you’re going into pre-construction houses you just need to put in a deposit you don’t even have a mortgage for a few years.

At the same time, you’re already making some money there’s some growth and appreciation, there’s some equity being built up, and by the time you’re done closing, you make a decent amount of money. Also, there are a ridiculous amount of options outside of this golden horseshoe region, right there are different provinces that people are investing in.

There are a lot of property prices that are going up in Ottawa, if you look at nova scotia and new Brunswick there are so many different options where it is more affordable so, maybe if you’re thinking of investing in a property, buy a property in one of those regions that are affordable and you can rent a property in Toronto.

If your work is requiring you to work from there with all of the work-from-home processes and options available now a lot of people are actually choosing and opting for buying properties further out. They’re living there and they’re still working for jobs in Toronto so, this is something that I just wanted to bring up to you guys.

So that you have an understanding that you know what you’re not just limited by this so this is my reasoning of what is Toronto housing like.

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