Rent or Buy in Calgary

[The BMW Guy]

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[lasimmon]

I would personally never live at home as new grad, but I digress.

I voted buy with no real reason why.

[A790]

Tons and tons and toooons of vacancy out there.

[ercchry]

Completely dependant on goals, and what you feel comfortable putting your money into... cause if you're able to save up that much that quickly... well you're gonna have to do something with it eventually cause it's not doing you any good in the bank

[msommers]

If you can buy right now, even if your parents have/able to help you with a down payment it's the right time.

Otherwise, stay at home and save money unless you hate living there. If you do, I'm looking to rent my condo out at the beginning of March.

[chkolny541]

60k as a downpayment on a house with garage is extremely small, just so your aware. Thats going to push you preeeeeeeeeetty far out in the burbs. Do you work in the core at all? I dont think people really take into account the commute as much as they should, in winter weather you could easily be spending 2.5 hrs+ of your day in traffic. Also I remember your thread on reddit

[pheoxs]

Originally posted by The BMW Guy
I’m a new grad with a great income. Been living with the parents since graduating and have paid off all my loans while building a sizeable down payment ($60k). I’m debating between buying my own place and building equity, or renting a place (rental market is fantastic) but the rent money becomes sunken.

To add to it, I’d want to buy a house with a garage to work on cars/projects, I don’t mind being in the suburbs with a long commute. On the other hand, if I rent I’d only rent downtown so my commute to work is short. Otherwise I might as well keep staying with the parents if I can't do either option.

I wouldn’t mind more opinions on the whole rent vs buy situation in Calgary.

I would lean towards buy given that you have no debt and sufficient downpayment / income to buy something (assuming you dont buy something on the edge of what you get approved for) but I would caution to look at your job realistically of how long you want to be there and consider: What if you move jobs and what if the next job is outside downtown?

Living in the suburbs is nice but if you live in the North and end up working in Quarry Park it can suck. Likewise living in the south and getting moved up by the airport blows. Although that shouldn't be a deal breaker because otherwise no one would ever buy, still just something to consider.

Also definitely look near a Ctrain station if you can which would save a ton on commuting and parking. Although downtown parking is a lot easier to find now, if things start booming again it can get out of hand pretty quick.

[ercchry]

How is $60k extremely small?! That's plenty for a detached home with garage in this city. With the new rules it's not like you can even over extend yourself anymore either

[A790]

Originally posted by chkolny541
I dont think people really take into account the commute as much as they should, in winter weather you could easily be spending 2.5 hrs+ of your day in traffic. A

>Be me.
>Live in New Brighton.
>Work from home full-time (feelsgoodman.jpg).
>Drive wife to work on days I need car.
>Drive wife to work yesterday. Spend 40 minutes to go 7km straight down 52nd to 114 ave.
>Feelsbadman.jpg

[ercchry]

Or just avoid the Deep South... quarry park or riverbend. Direct glenmore access, skip all that bs south of anderson

Or on the other side of the south, north of fish creek skips a solid 30min of suburban traffic

Or sneak into the west depending on salary...

[jwslam]

This is what happened to me a few years ago:

Friends were looking to move out and buy one of the new builds downtown, so we saw all the show suites (in the $200's then) - nobody actually bought anything
I decided I also want a garage, so onto townhouses I went ($300's)
Ended up in a detached home move-in-ready (14 yrs old), while my friends who were looking at the time continued to live at home for a few more years.

Things I like about my choice:
-There is an express bus that comes practically door to door from/to home/work
-Detached means I don't deal with neighbours as much
-I get my own garage, driveway, lawn
-I don't pay condo fees so that monthly expense can go into my mortgage; also not susceptible to paying money into damages of common property i.e. special assessments.

Things I don't like about my choice:
-Money suddenly becomes TIGHT. Even with a sizeable income.
-The bus only comes 5 times each way, on 15 minute intervals, and it's a 40min ride on a generally full bus
-Detached means I don't interact with neighbours as much. The new neighbours that moved in 6 months ago have never even said hi.
-Dealing with shoveling, mowing, etc

Things I would do over again:
-Still buy a house, but closer into the city
-Be willing to put some reno's into it rather than being keen on move-in-ready. Allows me to really make the place mine.
-Rent out and get some roommates ASAP; I'm a few years into this now, money is still a bit tight and I would consider roommates but I've never lived with anyone else and feel like I'm too old now to go through that stage of life. That said I'd still be willing to rent out a room if the right opportunity comes up in my social circle.

Something for you to consider:
Rent a room somewhere out in the burbs. Why?
-Allows you to figure out if you can stand the commute and if you can accept that long term when you decide to buy
-Cheaper than renting inner city; more savings into your future down payment
-Probably can find somewhere with garage space you can use rather than be restricted to no car-work in a condo parkade / outdoor parking stall
-Lets you figure out if you buy a house whether you could live with other roommates (assuming this is your first time moving out, lived at home through school etc.)

[max_boost]

it just depends on your life style bro.

what matters most to you? write it down and evaluate it.

I don't know if renting is sunken because home ownership not like you are getting your property taxes, insurance, utilities etc. back.....sure if you buy a place and it goes up in value. Has anyone's property gone up recently?
renting isn't a waste because you are getting something in return lol

Mortgage is just forced savings to keep up with inflation. of course a game changer could be roommates, get a few to basically pay for everything

[msommers]

Getting a few roommates sounds awful Definitely one though, helps a lot to offset costs.

[pheoxs]

Originally posted by msommers
Getting a few roommates sounds awful Definitely one though, helps a lot to offset costs.

Two was ideal for me. One in the basement and one upstairs (bonus points that one of them worked shift work up north and was never home).

It's crazy how much the two roommates covered $ wise, after util, taxes, insurance, mortgage I was out like 400$ a month on my entire house. Pay that and throw huge extra payments on the mortgage and you can take years off your mortgage pretty quickly. 2-3 years of sacrifice to save 5 years of interest payments.

[roopi]

Since you already live at home and probably never get laid you might as well move to the burbs. It couldn't be much worse.

[ercchry]

There is the financial side of things, then also the psychological aspect of knowing you have your own place, which one could decide on a monetary value for...

So basically you could write an equation like:

Rent+utilities +tenants insurance=X

Then for owning:

(Mortgage + utilities +insurance + taxes)-(rental income+mortgage principal + psychological value)=Y

Buy house if Y is greater than X


But then you also have to factor in time... time is the big one. How long will you be in this house? Will you rent it out? What's it going to cost to sell it? Do you see value increasing over that timeframe? How about rent? Will you be able to maintain the current rate during that time frame? What do you plan to do after said timeframe? Buy in same city? Move somewhere else? Rent larger home?

Just so many personal variables

[chkolny541]

Originally posted by A790

>Be me.
>Live in New Brighton.
>Work from home full-time (feelsgoodman.jpg).
>Drive wife to work on days I need car.
>Drive wife to work yesterday. Spend 40 minutes to go 7km straight down 52nd to 114 ave.
>Feelsbadman.jpg

lmao, ouch!

I live right in the core but had to spend a few nights at my parents last week and that alone has scarred me enough to never move into the burbs. My commute from downtown is ~20 minutes (give or take 5 minutes), however from evergreen it became 1.5 hrs with the insane traffic lately.

Also going along with this, a cost that not everyone takes into account is fuel. Sure the time sitting in traffic is bad but when you also realize how much gas your burning its insane. I spend ~50$ a month in fuel since living in the core allows me to walk to 99% of places I need to get to. My coworker lives in airdrie and commutes in and spends 300-400$ in fuel monthly (his vehicle is slightly larger then mine, but nothing substantial). So thats a massive bill that also needs to be budgeted in.

[mzdspd]

I would rent for a year... Try it out and see how much everything costs. This will give you a true gauge of what everything will cost to live on your own (assuming that you have always lived at home).

So I would not rush into buying.. I would suggest renting for a year in the area where you want to live and then make a decision.

But do not buy in the suburbs until you at least rent there for a year.

[The BMW Guy]

I am leaning more towards buying right now and getting roommates. I've thought hard about buying a live up, rent down house. All the ones I can actually afford (under 400k) are incredibly small though and a bit run down. Was hoping for a place near the C-Train or future Green Line.

Regarding the commute, I'm already living in the far suburbs right now. I pay $180/month for parking close to the core so I figured if I added a little more ~$800-$1000/month I could just rent a condo and cut my commute out completely. Main draw is how cheap rent is right now.

Still debating what's more important to me, short commute or bigger place with a garage...

[Manhattan]

If rent is money is sunken so is everything else you buy. For the price of rent you get a ROOF OVER YOUR DAMN HEAD. Sure it costs money compared to living at home but it's a lot of fun having your own place as a 20 something and having your friends over.

Sure you'll save a lot of money living at home but you're only young once. Besides, if you're making decent coin right out of school your earning potential in another 10 years will dwarf what you're making now and it'll seem ridiculous that you live at chose home to save up a bit of extra money vs enjoying your life.

It all comes down to how much you value your freedom. If you have cool parents and don't mind having them around then you can have best of both worlds by staying at home. Renting vs buying is a no brainer - why pay half a mil for something you can rent for about a grand each month.