Posted by on Aug 28, 2009 in Housing | Comments Off

Sue and I have recently signed on for another rental unit. This one at 942 Yonge street. That will put my daily commute somewhere in the area of a 3 to 5 minute WALK. I’m finally living the dream.

On the other hand, this is devastating to everyone that hoped we would purchase a place and finally “settle down” (i.e. hire some workers for the baby factory). This is also not happening anytime soon. We’ll have to send condolence letters.

The new unit is nice; laminate flooring, large, well designed layout + parking and locker. The price was great at 1500 a month which is a step down from our last unit + saving on ttc tokens. I expect rental + ttc savings of about 150 bucks a month.

The temptation to purchase a place was present of course. Interest rates are extremely low right now. Unfortunately, that means prices are wildly high since first time buyers are rushing in with promises of fortunes and low monthly payments. First home prices seem aggressive while the upper market feels less so. In my mind, this is a bit too much activity for what the economy justifies. Interest rates are low now but cannot stay low forever. If they do then we’re in even worse shape since that would mean our economy is in the tanks and has been for some time, Japanese style. Nobody wants that. So I’m actually looking forward to interest rates rising. That puts me at odds with pretty much everyone I can think of but my reasons for higher interest rates – improved economy – are sound.

Also, I’d LOVE to flush a lot of these new riskier home buyers from the market with a crushing 10% mortgage. People aren’t risk averse and generally think they can take on anything during good times. It’s the bad times that matter and interest rates at 0.5% are VERY good times indeed.