Fredericton — Of all cities across Canada, a new report has deemed Fredericton the best place to buy real estate, and the best place to live in your new house with no money at all for extras like gas and groceries.
The recent MoneySense report says that Fredericton is the ideal city in Canada to purchase a home — so long as you’re comfortable being “house poor,” meaning you can sleep at night knowing 90 per cent of your income goes toward your mortgage, property taxes and home insurance.
The report claims that while demand still greatly exceeds supply, if you can manage to outbid the many baby boomers looking to add a rental property to their portfolio and snag an overpriced house, you’re financially better off doing so in Fredericton than anywhere else. While houses in Fredericton are expensive, they’re even more exorbitantly priced in major cities like Toronto or Vancouver.
“What even is ‘house poor,’ though?” pondered local real estate agent Jennie Young. “If you own a spacious home, I think you’re rich in the way that really matters. Who cares if you can’t afford Christmas presents or childcare costs or vacations? That’s why credit cards were invented!”
The Manatee found one Fredericton resident who agrees.
“I figured I could buy this gorgeous house built in 1956 that was only $850K — a steal, really when you consider it has two bedrooms and a shed out back,” said northsider Alicia Durling, whose two teenage children are now old enough to get part-time jobs to support the house purchase.
“It’s not in my ideal location and isn’t really near anything, so I’ll have to commute a lot, but still — look at that beautiful grey laminate flooring and stainless steel fridge! Pure class.”
Durling plans to draft up a budget that ensures she’s only going into a few hundred dollars of additional debt each month. “I can maintain that until I retire, and then the kids can take it on. Or, you know, maybe the world won’t even exist by then, with the way things are headed. Either way, not my problem.”
We asked Durling how she managed to make the down payment.
“I’m not proud of this, but I used the kids’ college fund. They won’t miss that $80K. They didn’t even know about it!”