gordholio at vancouvercondo.info August 4th, 2011 at 8:39 am –
“My girlfriend and I have now completed our move. $1650/month rent for a very likable house in south Surrey (right on the border actually), just a ten-minute bike ride from the beaches of White Rock and a five-minute drive to cheap gas/groceries in Blaine.
Hmmm…$500,000 for some blah, mouldy 70s-era box in rainy, blah Mission at a time when prices are dropping hard, or mortgage-free, reno-free, repair-free, property tax-free, purchase tax-free living in sunny, desireable south Surrey? Yeah, it was a REAL HARD choice.
The toughest thing for me when we sold our house in Delta last October was getting used to not owning. I’d owned that thing for a dozen years, and the idea of not being total master of my domain was a bit unsettling at first. But I gotta say, now that I’ve had a few months away from it, I don’t miss it nearly as much as I thought I would. In fact, I look at the untold costs of ownership – the way it would slowly eat away at my disposable income with trips to Home Depot, nurseries, lumber yards, etc, etc – and I can honestly say I now prefer renting.
Would I buy again? Sure, but only if prices drop *severely* – as in 50%. And if that doesn’t happen, I simply do not care anymore. For us, in a situation where we have a lot of up front money and couldn’t really take advantage of low interest rates, buying anywhere near the top just makes no freaking sense whatsoever.
In the meantime, I’m truly happy to be practicing what I preach. For us, renting in the midst of insanity truly is the far, FAR better option.”