flemmings | (no subject)

Had my annual phone call from the money woman this morning, who says the money I want from them and the money they feel comfortable giving me exactly matches hurray, supposing markets don't completely crash, but also that at that rate I will run out of capital in nine years or so and will have to live on my house. Which she's nudging me to think about selling now, which hell no. Market is depressed, houses sit for weeks and months, no one's buying. We may never go back to the interest rates that fuelled the real estate bubble but they will go down eventually, enough to reassure buyers. And if nothing else, no rental will come as cheap as this place does. So I will be here for maybe another five years. If I can avoid complete crippledom, which sometimes I despair of. Maybe it would help if I did all my exercises as many times as I'm supposed to but dear god they're so dull.

Finished a couple of Maigrets. Maigret depresses me; I shouldn't read him. Think I will abandon Dark Lord of Derkhelm, which isn't doing it for me. Have David Mitchell's Unruly, and not sure I want it. There are two David Mitchells IIRC, and I think this is the wrong one. Anyway, Winter's Gifts arrived yesterday from across the pond and I'd rather be reading that.

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Which she's nudging me to think about selling now, which hell no.

Hell no is right. Money woman needs to live up to her name. Selling now doesn't seem like very sound advice, to say the least.

Seriously. Does this woman not read Toronto Life? ^_^

I can only assume her thinking is that if I sold my house, how much more money I'd have for her to play with. Never mind that I'd need double my monthly handout just for rent. People. Especially people who drive and think one can just take off to a small town where houses go for 250K.

And can you imagine how awful it would be to be stuck in a small town that lacked, among many other amenities, access to transit or taxi? I lived in a small town for a brief time many years ago, and I wouldn't repeat that experience for any amount of (theoretical) saved money.

Plus I'm pretty sure you'd have to go a long way--like maybe all the way to another province--to purchase a liveable property that was even close to $250,000.

Never mind that I'd need double my monthly handout just for rent.

Yes, this, exactly. I think money woman might need a lesson in the basic arithmetic of this plane of reality.

Edited (To fix formatting oopsie) 2024-09-27 22:57 (UTC)

Checked the listings in the two small towns people have suggested I move to. Um, yeah. Half a million just to not be next door to a highway. And the rents are at Toronto levels for the same 500 sq ft. Guess I'll be leaving here feet first.

Guess I'll be leaving here feet first.

That's the way I feel.

I would consider living in a market-value, city-owned co-op unit. (Market value for a co-op being radically different from market value for a private-sector apartment.) But I'm reliably informed that (1) many Toronto-area co-ops have closed their waiting lists altogether, and (2) among the ones that haven't, wait times for market-value units in downtown buildings are anywhere from seven to 10 years or more, depending on the building and location. By that time, I'll be more likely to be a candidate for MAID than for market-value anything.

I looked at some private co-ops before I bought my condo, and some of them were pretty nice and not expensive. But that was a long time ago, and of course nothing in this town is "not expensive" any more.

Twas ever thus. Co-ops were hard to get into in the 80s, never mind now.

of course nothing in this town is "not expensive" any more.

And going to stay that way. /gloom

I am very surprised the money woman gave you this advice. I don't know much about markets outside the UK, but it's hard to see this as a selling time.

She might only have meant to start considering, say, downsizing for when the markets recover but it certainly sounded like 'think about selling because they may not.'

General advice from our money lady on saturday was that interest rates are expected to drop, probably significantly, but they can't predict when of course. This in the context of refinancing the farmhouse that has been under renovation practically since purchase in 2019, and whether we should lock in a 3y fixed or go variable.

She probably meant downsizing, but how one could possibly downsize into, say, a one-bedroom condo in the current market without having 2 or 3 properties to sell, is baffling.

Exactly. I must assume I misunderstood what she was hinting at. Maybe it was Swedish Death Cleaning, which yeah, I should probably start anyway. There's lots of crap that accumulates in a four decade tenure.