The First World Problem Thread...Voice Your Struggle

[TedEH]

Very fitting for this thread, a big wrench that has always been jammed in the idea of buying, for me, is that I don't know where I want to live, and buying feels permanent. There are some places that I think I'd like to try living, but they're likely out of my price range, and would be a huge lifestyle adjustment. I both do and don't want to stay where I am - because everything I do, everyone I know, etc., is here, but also here is kinda lame in every other way. I'm in a little isolated suburban-ish bubble glued onto the most boring sizeable city in Canada, but my bands are here. I'd love to have all the advantages of ownership, but it's hard to commit to staying here.

I've said it to several people over the last couple of years, the bands are the only thing keeping me here. If they dissolve, I'm out. I'll try living in Montreal maybe. Or somewhere in Ontario. Or maybe I should hop on a plane and leave Canada entirely, I dunno.

 

[p0ke]

house owners, what made you decide on the house you bought? Curious to know what decision making goes into that.

TBH it had nothing to do with any rational reasons. My wife discovered our house on sale and told me about it, I said "yeah, we're not gonna buy a house any time soon but we can still go look at it if you want". We went, and we both just instantly loved this house so much, we had no choice but to make an offer. We tried for months to come up with reasons why we can't buy the house, we even went and looked at a dozen other houses to get convinced there are better options, but none of them just gave the same feeling.

This house was too expensive for the state it's in, but on the other hand everything works, the location is perfect and it's got a shitload of potential for all kinds of things. For example I started working remote a while after we moved, and I instantly had a room I could turn into an office without kicking anything else out.

For the future though, I gotta
* Change the heating system from oil and electricity to geothermal or a heat pump system
* Redo all the sewage pipes
* Redo all the electric stuff
* Fully renovate the main bathroom
* Fully renovate the kitchen
* Split our girls' shared room into two

Just to name a few things But none of it is urgent, thankfully. The heating would make sense to deal with first, as we could easily save more than 1k€ per year by doing it, but it's also expensive to do (especially since the oil heating pipes are covered in asbestos which is expensive to get rid of).

 

[Moongrum]

Our place is now worth more than twice what we payed

Wow! I live about 30 miles North of you in Snohomish county, so things aren't that wealthy. My brother bought a dinky lil new house with no yard in Lake Stevens in 2020 for around 400k, and according to RedFin it's now worth 195k more, still quite appreciable, though.

Very fitting for this thread, a big wrench that has always been jammed in the idea of buying, for me

I don't have anything of value to add, but I'm glad I'm not the only one having similar feelings

we had no choice but to make an offer.

Nice, rarely things work out so well!
As you listed out, though, maintenance does seem like one of the biggest drawbacks of home ownership

 

[soldierkahn]

Wow! I live about 30 miles North of you in Snohomish county, so things aren't that wealthy. My brother bought a dinky lil new house with no yard in Lake Stevens in 2020 for around 400k, and according to RedFin it's now worth 195k more, still quite appreciable, though.

I don't have anything of value to add, but I'm glad I'm not the only one having similar feelings

Nice, rarely things work out so well!
As you listed out, though, maintenance does seem like one of the biggest drawbacks of home ownership

didnt know i had any SSO brethren near me in the PACNW..... im down in Olympia

 

[BlackMastodon]

I totally understand the benefits of owning a home, I'm interested in hearing how people ended up in the house they have now, since it's usually a balance of what one can afford/what one wants. Like money aside, do you choose a place close to work or a place that's rural, do you have to consider if the location is good for your industry's profession if you lose your job, etc. Sounds like your criteria was a workshop, fixer upper, and a laundry room? Or were you just comparing house vs apartment?
And you're right, a house isn't a death sentence. As someone who has no debt and likes the security of a large savings, the idea of getting a mortgage is a mental adjustment. Living in the USA, though, I'm not sure there's any greater investment/security for one's future than home ownership (maybe a fat 401k).

Just comparing house vs apartment. Mine and my partner's 1st house was definitely a fixer upper in a pretty shitty neighbourhood, but we cashed in those chips for a much nicer place in a much nicer neighbourhood.

Realistically, we live in this city and general area because we grew up here and both of our families are here, plus she's going to grad school and I've got a solid stable job. Once she finishes school, though, we'd like to move to the west coast and chase the good weather, but honestly that kind depends on this election and subsequent 4 years.

 

[Moongrum]

Just comparing house vs apartment. Mine and my partner's 1st house was definitely a fixer upper in a pretty shitty neighbourhood, but we cashed in those chips for a much nicer place in a much nicer neighbourhood.

Realistically, we live in this city and general area because we grew up here and both of our families are here, plus she's going to grad school and I've got a solid stable job. Once she finishes school, though, we'd like to move to the west coast and chase the good weather, but honestly that kind depends on this election and subsequent 4 years.

Getting a bit off topic, but for the same job, is it much easier to afford to live in the USA than Canada? I know for most jobs, especially STEM, the US pays a lot more and I get the impression housing is cheaper here, too. For how much Americans love to catastrophize about housing, I feel like we actually have it pretty good compared to other Western countries

 

[BlackMastodon]

Yeah, Canada is pretty fucked it feels like. I used to like ribbing my American co-workers about how I got free(ish) healthcare but that seems to be in a death spiral since covid. Things feel pretty bleak so I'm lucky I'm in the position I'm in.

 

[thebeesknees22]

Yeah, Canada is pretty fucked it feels like. I used to like ribbing my American co-workers about how I got free(ish) healthcare but that seems to be in a death spiral since covid. Things feel pretty bleak so I'm lucky I'm in the position I'm in.

that was one of the biggest reasons why I bounced back down to the US. Things are just so prohibitively expensive across all of Canada now.

For me it was stay and give up on having a real home music studio, but be more secure in my job with the canadian tax breaks (although Quebec is reducing theirs at the end of the year so I don't know how the vfx industry will change there), or I move back to the US and take the chance to make it happen.

So far I'm still hanging on by a thread at work in the US with the slowdown lol. If I can stay employed through fall then I think i'll be pretty safe for a good while, and I might be ok to buy a house next year. Otherwise, if I do get laid off then I may end up having to go back to Canada. ...or wherever the vfx industry shifts next.

edit: and it kills me that Canada is in the place it's in economically. So many preventable issues that everyone saw coming 15-20 years ago. And it kinda really makes me mad too still since I worked my butt off to try and make it work there.

 

[Moongrum]

that was one of the biggest reasons why I bounced back down to the US. Things are just so prohibitively expensive across all of Canada now.

For me it was stay and give up on having a real home music studio, but be more secure in my job with the canadian tax breaks (although Quebec is reducing theirs at the end of the year so I don't know how the vfx industry will change there), or I move back to the US and take the chance to make it happen.

So far I'm still hanging on by a thread at work in the US with the slowdown lol. If I can stay employed through fall then I think i'll be pretty safe for a good while, and I might be ok to buy a house next year. Otherwise, if I do get laid off then I may end up having to go back to Canada. ...or wherever the vfx industry shifts next.

edit: and it kills me that Canada is in the place it's in economically. So many preventable issues that everyone saw coming 15-20 years ago. And it kinda really makes me mad too still since I worked my butt off to try and make it work there.

What is exactly Canada's issue? I know real estate has been high for a while, are the zoning laws really rough there so there's nothing being built?

 

[TedEH]

are the zoning laws really rough there so there's nothing being built?

There's certainly stuff being built, in my area at least, but it's not basic homes for normal people - they can't afford it anyway. Lots of condos though. And plenty of big ol' apartment buildings that one of the big corporations that own most of the realestate in town will be happy to rent out for "fair" prices.

 

[thebeesknees22]

What is exactly Canada's issue? I know real estate has been high for a while, are the zoning laws really rough there so there's nothing being built?

real estate is SOOOoooooooo high that there are basically 2 classes in canada now. The ones that already own, and the serfs that will never own 'cause they'll never save enough at this point with the average salaries.

add on top of that 30%+ for any and all goods compared to the US due to the low CAD exchange rate. It's sometimes more due to import duties.

Currently the CAD is roughly averaging the lowest it's been in 20 years outside of the massive short drop during covid.

Also Canada's housing market is a bit different than the US. You can't do a fixed 30 yr mortgage. you can only do like 5yrs or whatever outside of special exceptions from what I know. So you got that nice near zero interest rate during covid? 5 yrs later that interest rate is going to hit hard when you have to renew.

But yes the core problem is not building enough for the rate the population is growing.

And there's a huge problem with corporations buying up everything. It hit canada a lot earlier than it did the US and in a big way, but you're seeing that in a big way down here now too. People just can't compete with it....and we're not building enough in the US either so the problem just compounds. You'll see the problem worsen in a big way in the next 2-5 years... but I digress!

 

[crushingpetal]

Also Canada's housing market is a bit different than the US. You can't do a fixed 30 yr mortgage. you can only do like 5yrs or whatever outside of special exceptions from what I know. So you got that nice near zero interest rate during covid? 5 yrs later that interest rate is going to hit hard when you have to renew.

Wait, wut? That doesn't make sense. You renegotiate every 5 years? If that's right that's really... dumb? What am I missing?

 

[BlackMastodon]

You can go as low as 1 or 2 years but yeah, typically the 5 year mortgage has a slightly higher interest rate and 3 or 4 year ones are the sweet spot. You can also get a variable mortgage rate if you're feeling spicy, but I don't like the idea of my mortgage payment changing every month as the prime interest rate changes. I know some people that got a variable rate during covid when we had super low interest rates, and now their rate has more than doubled. As my partner said, "where the fuck was it gonna go??"

 

[LordCashew]

Re-floored all the carpeted areas of the house, converting to vinyl plank. Now that I'm done it's time to start bringing in piles of stuff we stacked in the garage. Yesterday I had to figure out a way to Tetris about 40 cases of wine into every nook and cranny of the master bedroom. It was exhausting...

 

[thebeesknees22]

Wait, wut? That doesn't make sense. You renegotiate every 5 years? If that's right that's really... dumb? What am I missing?

yeeeep

I have seen articles over the last year bringing up allowing 30 yr fixed like the US does, but it's just talk.

You can go as low as 1 or 2 years but yeah, typically the 5 year mortgage has a slightly higher interest rate and 3 or 4 year ones are the sweet spot. You can also get a variable mortgage rate if you're feeling spicy, but I don't like the idea of my mortgage payment changing every month as the prime interest rate changes. I know some people that got a variable rate during covid when we had super low interest rates, and now their rate has more than doubled. As my partner said, "where the fuck was it gonna go??"

Ohhh yeaah variable seems super dangerous. I had some coworkers in BC that did that. They bought with an ultra low rate during covid and then their mortgage payments essentially doubled once the rates started going up.

 

[SalsaWood]

Buddy blew his mower up. Gonna have to take it to warranty for him tonight.

PSA: Engines need oil and men need trucks.

 

[BlackMastodon]

yeeeep

I have seen articles over the last year bringing up allowing 30 yr fixed like the US does, but it's just talk.



Ohhh yeaah variable seems super dangerous. I had some coworkers in BC that did that. They bought with an ultra low rate during covid and then their mortgage payments essentially doubled once the rates started going up.

I can see the benefit of a variable rate when rates are high and "expected" to go down (like the have been for the last year or so), but I'll keep repeating it for the people that got variable rates when they were at a historical low: WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU EXPECT THE RATE TO GO?!?

 

[crushingpetal]

You can go as low as 1 or 2 years but yeah, typically the 5 year mortgage has a slightly higher interest rate and 3 or 4 year ones are the sweet spot. You can also get a variable mortgage rate if you're feeling spicy, but I don't like the idea of my mortgage payment changing every month as the prime interest rate changes. I know some people that got a variable rate during covid when we had super low interest rates, and now their rate has more than doubled. As my partner said, "where the fuck was it gonna go??"

Like, what the fuk? I'd go nuts if I needed to renegotiate every year for a mortgage. This seems needlessly complicated. Who is this benefiting?

In the US you can do a 15 or 30 year loan, and you can get a fixed rate. If interests rates go lower, you can always refinance with a different company (or sometimes the same).

 

[crushingpetal]

PSA: Engines need oil and men need trucks.

Second part is dum. Trucks are stupid expensive. Buy a used (prestige) Toyota Corolla. Rent a truck from Uhaul (uhell) for $19.95 if you need a truck for a day.

 

[MetalDestroyer]

Had a super rare board I've wanted since I was a kid pop up in my facebook marketplace feed. Unfortunately it's in AZ and too far for a weekend trip. So I messaged the guy asking if I could pay him to ship it to me and he not only said no but was kind of a dick about it. Like I gave this dude a name your price offer and said thanks there was no need to act like I'm insulting you.

Anyway, I guess a historical artifact of the golden age of downhill longboarding is gonna disappear into some teenager's collection or whatever.

If anyone is in the Phoenix area and can proxy for me I love you forever