Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Buying a Property in Alberta

Housing market is really bad nowadays. They say it's a buyer's market but with what budget? I had two chances to buy a property and lost both and here I am now! Once I received a call from my bank and I was offered to go through the process and I denied. That was shortly after I had a job movement and I think I had lost the second one or something like that which made me not even go through the application. It was 2006.
The second time I, with The Lady, saw a Mortgage Specialist and she offered us a reasonable loan but The Lady refused it, citing the cold winters of Calgary as a reason for not staying here as well as the possibility of separation! She had planned for everything!
I saw a Mortgage Specialist just about a month ago and with this stupid job of mine he recommended not to go anything above $300,000! What can you get with that money in Calgary?! Nothing! Unless you don't mind living with drunkards and drug-addicts in a dingy apartment!
I decided to go out of the city limits and see places in nearby towns. Not much improvement! A small detached 3-bedroom house in a street so narrow that you can see your front neighbour's wife cooking in the kitchen(!) with a nearby school for $299,900 and it's built in 2009! Other places I saw worth not even to mention!
The funny thing is the Government has recently introduced a sort of incentive to help low income families to purchase a property. If you pay 5% of the cost of the property as down payment, they pay another 5%, interest-free but when you sell the property and if the value has increased, you would pay the increased percentage back. I'm not eligible for that because my plan is to put 20%-25% down.
Now after that disappointment, I have decided to either cancel the purchase or look further out! The next post will, most likely address that.

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