The banks will have more incentive as the market will froze. So you locked in a low interest mortgage fix for a few years and sell it when the market improves in a few years.

I had 2000/year for maintenance which is what we spent in our 40 year old home/year, now we live in a new home and it’s about 400/year only.

Home improvements are optional so I didn’t include them, you can also spend more money on rentals if you want.. If you buy a house make sure it matches your needs so you don’t spend 20k on a new kitchen etc right away in my opinion.

Nathalie — where are you looking? Houses in my part of North York (Don mills) detached 3 bedroom start around $400K. Even a semi would be more than the 250 you have above, unless it’s North york as in Jane/Finch and even then, maybe not. You’re also ignoring all the home improvement costs, which the various housing bears are sure to mention. To me, it’s not about the numbers, i’ts about being able to make an informed choice and the poster doesn’t have enough information to make a truly informed choice yet.

Cost of buying the house:
(assuming house costs $250k and you put 90k down)
Mortgage payment: $860/month (at five year fixed rate of 4.1%)
Property Taxes: $300/month ($3600/year)
Water: $100/month ($1200/year)
Maintenance: $166/month ($2000/year)
Insurance: $60/month ($720/year)

Total cost per month: $1486/month + heat, hydro, phone etc..

Looks like owning the house is slightly cheaper, most times when you rent an entire house you have to pay the water bill as well.

I guess it depends on whether you think the market will go up or down over the next 5 years. Personally I would buy, you’re staying long enough to want to paint, make changes in the house etc and there are plenty of nice townhouses in your price range in the North York area. I would live close to husband’s work so he doesn’t miss your kids growing up also.

I know it sounds scary, however a house of 400K would cost you much more in the long-term:

Interest/Opportunity costs: 20K (~5%)
Property tax: 4K
Utilities: 3K
Maintenance:3K
Total: 30K per year or 150K in 5 years.

I’m biased towards purchasing Real Estate as you can tell. At the same time, I don’t believe buying Real Estate is for everyone at every time in a person’s life.

I could give you many reasons why you should buy. I guess the big question is – are you looking for an investment or a place to call home. They may not be the same thing. Happy to help you out if you need some support.

Anyone know any reputable rental agents in the GTA who are paid by owners looking for tenants?

There should be plenty of posts on rentals.

Good Luck!

I would consider using a rental agent to look for you. Many get paid by the owner (I think the usual cost is a month’s rent), so the service would be free to you, and since you are out of town this could be a real time saver. You give them your requirements and they do all the leg work. There are too many rental units out there that are terrible, or the ads are misleading, etc.

For the money and sheer square footage, I would also suggest that renting a home, not a condo, would be much better in your situation. Some of the newer condos are unbelievably small. Houses (especially the older ones) have the advantage of having way more space, perhaps a backyard, and you don’t have to worry about inflated rent prices to cover the condo maintainance fees (which are considerable in many cases).

More info: When we move our kids will be boy (age 12) and girl (age 10) so we are really looking at 3 bedroom places.

I don’t know where I’d be working yet.

So far the consensus seems to be ‘Don’t even think about living separately unless he can get his workweek down to 3 longer days” and “seriously consider renting if you are there for 5 years or less”.

Rick – I think multiple perspectives are very useful so do read greaterfool. However, it must be said that the central prediction Garth made — that Summer of 2009 real estate market will be the time of the crash — has instead turned out wrong. (Use the date function on his site to read his postings for August 2008). That’s not to say it might not happen in 2010, or 2011 or 2014 when the 5 year lockins are over, but Garth has managed to gloss entirely over that. For me, for a prediction to be useful, both the event and the ‘when’ have to be right. It’s not hard to predict that eventually house prices will fall, the timing has to be right too. After all, the sun will explode one day and all property will be worthless too…. ;)