Pictures: this moment

[Harry]

At the end of the street, looks like another farm field bites the dust. Looks like a dozer is going to start putting in roads. Harry

[RoamingGnome]

@Harry Guess that's another option for the saying ~ 3 things are certain in life ~ around here it seems to be "Death, Taxes and Urban Sprawl..." I'm constantly amazed at how much farm land is being paved over for new subdivisions of cookie cutter McMansions.

[Eugen]

@Harry Guess that's another option for the saying ~ 3 things are certain in life ~ around here it seems to be "Death, Taxes and Urban Sprawl..." I'm constantly amazed at how much farm land is being paved over for new subdivisions of cookie cutter McMansions.

And yet, a family with a good salary cannot afford a house within 100 miles of Toronto. I honestly don't mean to go into politics, but our kids cannot buy a house and that makes me mad.

[Eugen]

@Harry Guess that's another option for the saying ~ 3 things are certain in life ~ around here it seems to be "Death, Taxes and Urban Sprawl..." I'm constantly amazed at how much farm land is being paved over for new subdivisions of cookie cutter McMansions.

And yet, a family with a good salary cannot afford a house within 100 miles of Toronto. I honestly don't mean to go into politics, but our kids cannot buy a house and that makes me mad.

[Toolslinger]

Yea, the sprawl keeps moving. South of my mountain, in the Allentown area, the number of huge houses on nothing lots boggles my mind. It's literally 1000's of units. The prices are astronomical. I honestly don't know how it's going to play out as there simply is no way it can continue on the path housing is on. The higher rates should have slowed it down, but I know people trying to buy, and the bidding wars continue. And what's even worse, is the houses are built like garbage. It'll creep over my mountain at some point. Unfortunatly there's plenty of banged up family farms in the area. The kids don't want to, or can't afford to stay in ag, so they try to get something out of the land.

[JSinMO]

I’m seeing the same thing south of here as you guys are. Thankfully nothing around here yet. Places that were open county or farm fields not long ago are covered in houses all sitting on top of each other. And the prices are crazy for what you get. I often wonder what these “construction grade” houses are going to look like in 15 or 20 years when there falling apart.

[thebuildist]

I don't know about Canada, but around here we've had about 24.5 million new residents in the last three yrs, all needing a home. (4.5 million authorized immigrants, plus, based on 8.5 million official illegal immigrant encounters, total illegal entries are estimated between 12 million and 40 million. I'm assuming 20 million.)

That's a 7.3% increase in population in 3 yrs, while housing units only increased by around 4%.

That's why my kids can't afford a house around here. Way too many buyers chasing too few available houses. And new buyers arriving in town every day.

And don't assume that they're too poor to be buying. One such family just paid 270k for a (waaaay overpriced) distressed/borderline unlivable house near mine. High interest rates and all. And even with that house payment they then proceeded to buy two cars, both newer than either of mine.

I don't know where their money comes from, but they're getting it somewhere.

[MattA]

I often wonder what these “construction grade” houses are going to look like in 15 or 20 years when there falling apart.

I wish my house took that long to fall apart. My house was built with contractor special junk sold at home depot and lowes. It looks nice but doesn't last and costs more in the end. Now I get to buy the stuff all over again

[DavidBarkey]

I don't know about Canada, but around here we've had about 24.5 million new residents in the last three yrs, all needing a home. (4.5 million authorized immigrants, plus, based on 8.5 million official illegal immigrant encounters, total illegal entries are estimated between 12 million and 40 million. I'm assuming 20 million.)

That's a 7.3% increase in population in 3 yrs, while housing units only increased by around 4%.

That's why my kids can't afford a house around here. Way too many buyers chasing too few available houses. And new buyers arriving in town every day.

And don't assume that they're too poor to be buying. One such family just paid 270k for a (waaaay overpriced) distressed/borderline unlivable house near mine. High interest rates and all. And even with that house payment they then proceeded to buy two cars, both newer than either of mine.

I don't know where their money comes from, but they're getting it somewhere.

Bob we have the same problem here , only the numbers are different and for different reasons . The powers that be keep bring poeple in from all over the world with NO reguard to where they live or work yet we have a homeless empidemic . The rules and regulations to build a home here are insain made up be poeple who have never touch a tool in there lives . That home you are talking about here goes for over $500k here . To build a house in Barrie a larger city an half an hour away will run about $300 in fees and permits and inspections . That does not include the land or build materials . That is why they are build as much house on a postage stamp as possible so as the builder can make profit. Small home don't sell for enough to get there money back . So a "fixer Upper " has takes a lot of those fees out of the equation . And if you can quietly fix it up(just repairs) on the inside without notice you can avoid a a lot of permit fees .

[Eugen]

@DavidBarkey the permit for the addition to our house and for the septic system is just a little less than $5000. That's just the permit. By the time we paid the architect and engineer, and truss design, altogether we were near 15k. And we have not started building anything, we just gave up.

Some chinese company bought a huge piece of land here in the village, on the lake. That used to be CP rail land, besides being historic piece of land, it's also very prime real estate. The historic ship "The Keewatin" was docked there, the last ship from the time of the Titanic. The chinese company said "take it away from here" and they did. There's a rumour that houses will be built, but I'm not holding my breath. Rich chinese park their money in Canada in real estate while we cannot afford to buy a house because they outbid everybody. Like you guys said, the newest trend is huge houses on tiny lots, just a few feet around the house.

And that's my rant for today.