RENTING OUR HOUSE SUITS MY FAMILY JUST FINE, THANKS
My name is Julia Lipscombe and I’m a renter. Not only that, I’m happy with our current situation. That said, my husband and I are in our mid-30s. Among our friends, we’re in the minority. Despite the fact that owning a home isn’t as easy as it once was, most of our friends — not all — do own their own homes.
I thought about this while reading a recent Globe and Mail article which featured parents who are buying property for their children, worried for their futures.
And we’re not just talking about Toronto’s Brad J. Lamb, the millionaire condo king who purchased his five-year-old daughter a condo for $450,000 that he says will be worth $3 million when she’s 20. (Buying property in a market you’re wellversed in when you’re extremely wealthy is a no-brainer, after all.)
The article was talking about working parents, middle-class parents — ones for whom this is a massive lifestyle change — who are purchasing houses for their kids now, trying to save them future headaches.
For example, the article features a single mom in Ajax (a town east of Toronto in the Greater Toronto Area), who bought each of her kids houses there. She rents them out, but carries the debt burden, and pays an extra $1,000 out of pocket each month. I certainly respect her concern for her children and she can do what she wants with her hard-earned money. But I sometimes wonder what all the panic is about.
I’m a parent. I know about worry. I worry constantly. It make sense that parents worry and want their kids to be set up. House prices have skyrocketed in recent decades and salaries haven’t exactly kept up.
Home ownership isn’t what it used to be.
But, does it have to be? Here in Edmonton, buying a house is definitely achievable. But it’s getting more difficult, especially with new federally implemented mortgage rules that require buyers — even those putting down 20 per cent — to submit to a financial “stress test” to ensure that they can endure an interest-rate hike.
A 20 per cent down payment for one of the nice but far-from-ostentatious homes on my street would be $120,000. I can’t even imagine putting that aside right now. Our mortgage on top of that would be $100 more than we currently pay for rent. Plus taxes, and fixing floors and roofs and pipes when they burst and the overall hassles of being responsible for a property. Nothing about the prospect of trying to buy a house appeals to me.
I’m also picky about where I live. Being centrally located is essential to our quality of life (not everyone’s, but ours) — since so much of our lives are downtown and I prefer to keep one car. I’ve become attached to our neighbourhood (Westmount) and our wonderful community of neighbours.
Given all that, we’re so not ready to buy a house yet.
Most people, I guess, save some money, get married, save a bunch more money, buy a house, then have kids. We didn’t do that (although my husband did once own a house).
We rent a three-bedroom, three-bathroom 1920s-built home with a furnished basement. It has its original floors, doorways and beautiful, era baseboards. The 1920s architectural and design touches are very charming. It also has an ugly kitchen, remodelled — I’d guess — a few decades ago and a main floor bathroom that leaves a lot to be desired. The outside could use a coat of paint.
We have occasional and expensive problems with the house — all of which I’m more than happy to leave in the hands of our wonderful landlords — friends of ours who are trying out acreage life.
The downside, of course, is that there are no guarantees and we could be asked to leave at any time. And we’re not investing in equity by way of a mortgage.
But there are other ways to save. Increasingly, studies and experts say that renting and choosing other investment models is actually smarter for some folks nowadays.
Sometimes, I do want to own a house. There’s a certain sense of permanency about that. But I think about home ownership the way I think about marriage. Do I want it because I want it, or because society told me to? Is it necessary for happiness?
Marriage was important to me, so we got married. Home ownership isn’t, so we haven’t bought a home yet.
It’s a different world. Among my peers, I hear a lot of lamenting that we’re the first generation that won’t be able to buy a house and retire at 55. But is that a realistic goal? And how many generations, exactly, were able to do that?
We look back wistfully at the days when folks worked for 30 years at one job and received a lovely pension that carried them through retirement. But is that the standard we should expect? Or was it a blip on the radar some of our grandparents were extremely fortunate to have. Although my grandfather retired early, certainly my grandparents’ parents did not have any notion of Freedom 55.
And neither my husband nor I pine for retirement yet.
Investing for your future is important. Living for today is important for me, too. Going on the odd holiday and treating ourselves makes us happy.
While I can’t see myself buying each one of my kids a house, I’d like to put a chunk aside for their educations or a business they’d like to start.
Do what makes you happy. Certainly home ownership and having a home means happiness for a lot of people. It’s a wonderful goal. But it’s not everybody’s.