[tricky_ab]

As for people getting in over their heads, I can see how it happens. When we were getting our pre approval from our bank, they gave us a rather high number based on our credit scores, equity, and down payment. We didn't spend nearly what the ceiling of the amount was while shopping for our second home.

Alright I guess I'll post up a little story or sorts.

Our first house was a townhouse that was 1500 Sq feet, single car garage that was a brand new build. Now it's in the suburbs of Toronto (30-45 minutes out), and it's a younger family area.

Anyways, it was $330K, with a down payment of $35K. It was custom in the sense that we were able to select whatever we wanted to place in it (and pay for it). My wife and I were saving while living with my parents for a few years while we graduated school. I'm thankful that my parents were super encouraging during the process, and did not take a dime from us (even though we would try for the longest time).

So it took around 2 years from signing the papers till we had the keys in hand. We LOVED it! It was our first place! I ended up finishing the basement and learned a lot along the way from my father in law, and from the trades people who I subbed out specific jobs.

Anyways, once we decided to have a child the place felt a bit too small, so we decided to move. We wanted to live in the same area, so we looked at new builds and 1 year old and less houses that were for sale in the area.

We ended up finding a place that we liked that was a about 12 months old, and ponced since my wife was VERY pregnant and we needed as much time to plan things out. The price? $480K. It's a 1900 sq foot 3 bedroom, 3 bath single car detached. Yeah, it was a bit much. But not out of the realm of what we could afford to pay for comfortably. Anyways fast forward a bit, and we sold our townhouse for $422K. Again, this was about a year old at this time. So if you're doing the rough math, we made $120K in equity in a year!

So there really was not much of an increase to our monthly mortgage rates, since we gained a bunch of equity in the process.

Some of you would be shocked to hear how much houses in my area cost. The house across the street from me is a 1650 Sq foot double car garage home that just sold for...
...

.... $560K!?! The record for that same model sold just down the street for $574K!!! The same model house we are currently living in is selling between $530-$550K. It's nuts! We have agents constantly asking us if we would like to sell.

The average cost of a detached home in my town is $520K. I don't get it, I'm just happy that we got in before the madness really kicked off.

We love the area a lot... but to get into a larger house with a double car garage with the amenities (upgrades) that we like, the house would be $600-700K Easy.

We plan to live here for the next 10 or so years, so we will see what happens... Though we regularly check listings in the area, so you never know HAHA!

I posted a bunch of pictures but then I took them down since no one else was posted examples of their homes in the areas with costs associated. I do find it interesting how the cost of homes varies from city to city in Canada, let alone the US. I would KILL for some of the costs that some of you guys pay for a house.