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I'm not. I'm going out now to enjoy the weather and do some more gardening. I don't expect to see any logical answers to my questions to people who challenge and complain about Canadian prices or whatever else not being the same as America's the way THEY think it should be. And to be honest I'm half expecting that when I come back inside tonight my above post will have been deleted because somebody will have complained that me asking a perfectly reasonable, logical question is a brain twisting riddle considered to be challenging trolling.
Yea I find that really strange why homes in Canada are so costly and places like Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg a middle class home or upper middle class home should well be no more than $200,000 base on population, hardly any population growth, and free land!! You could have 100 cities like Winnipeg in Manitoba and not use 2 percent of the land. And low income homes should well be below $100,000 in places like Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg.
And places like Thunder Bay, Sudbury and Windsor should be dirt cheap.
The US is way more densely populated and on the highway you always hitting cities and towns not like in Canada where you are on the highway and it takes for ever to hit the closest town.
Most of the timber the US use to build homes they buy from Canada so it not like there is shortage of building material and that is why it more costly.
And I don't think there is shortage of construction workers.
Where you live, the weather is much the same as where I live.
One has to weigh all considerations when moving countries. Canada can't be doing that badly if it's always rated highly in standard of living and quality of life.
I'v been to The Netherlands many times. I wouldn't say my friends there, have better lives than me, or better weather, or higher standard of living.
Standard of living statistics are almost completely useless because as a concept (to some extent) it highly depends on a personal evaluation. Sure, you can evaluate public transportation, public education, median salary and few other measurable parameters but there is much more to QOL than that.
Funny you mention the Netherlands. A friend of mine (Italian by birth like me) moved there last year (she worked in high end clothing retail in Vancouver) and I was the first one to be skeptical about the move but now she tells me she will never ever move back to Vancouver up to the point that she is ready to divorce her husband (native of Vancouver) if he wants to go back.
She claims she is making a little bit more money and her cost of living is actually a touch lower but the big difference is in housing cost where she claims, counterintuitively considering the difference in population density, that she can actually afford now to buy her condo compared to the Greateer Vancouver area. More mandatory vacation time (she got 5 weeks now) and other benefits.
She finds the food scene better, she love the facts that everything is much closer and she can fly all around Europe with Ryanair and other low cost airlines for 50 bucks not to mention being much closer to her family in Italy...for her, her quality of life improved dramatically and she told me she kicked herself for not doing the move earlier.
I personally rate QOL in Northamerica not that high for what is important to me.
My sister in Sicily, even if she makes a fraction and what I make, has a better overall quality of life compared to me under many aspects that the usual statistics do not capture.
Yea I find that really strange why homes in Canada are so costly and places like Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg a middle class home or upper middle class home should well be no more than $200,000 base on population, hardly any population growth, and free land!! You could have 100 cities like Winnipeg in Manitoba and not use 2 percent of the land. And low income homes should well be below $100,000 in places like Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg.
And places like Thunder Bay, Sudbury and Windsor should be dirt cheap.
The US is way more densely populated and on the highway you always hitting cities and towns not like in Canada where you are on the highway and it takes for ever to hit the closest town.
Most of the timber the US use to build homes they buy from Canada so it not like there is shortage of building material and that is why it more costly.
And I don't think there is shortage of construction workers.
For Canadians home ownership (other than your own) is also important as a source of income given the fact that, as far as I remember, the CPP benefits are quite less generous than SS at least for people in my income bracket.
Standard of living statistics are almost completely useless because as a concept (to some extent) it highly depends on a personal evaluation.
When 9 out of 10 studies rank one country over another on quality of life metrics the "personal evaluation" argument loses all credibility.
I know Europeans who are happy living in African countries and don't plan to go back to Europe. That doesn't mean that Africa has a better quality of life, it is just a matter of personal preference.
When 9 out of 10 studies rank one country over another on quality of life metrics the "personal evaluation" argument loses all credibility.
The personal evaluation has all the credibility because these surveys only capture some objective measurement usually public transportation, median salaries, medical facilities, education, presence of parks...there is much much more than that to QOL. Not to mention many of these "studies" can be biased in one way or another.
On top of that, these surveys often do not even take in consideration the cost of living compared to salaries and are based on expats experiences (often with costs covered by their employers)...it is similar to comparing nominal GDP figures....pointless.
I understand that what I'm saying could be hard to understand for someone that actually never experienced living in more than one place.
Many areas of Africa are so lacking in basic infrastructure that a personal evaluation/situation may not be able to overcome such shortcomings but you are proving my point...there could be people living in some areas of Africa (and we are not talking only rich folks) that may have a great QOL.
Differences between developed areas of the world mainly come down to personal situations since the "basics" are covered.....to say it in a different way, the fact that, for example, Vancouver may rank #2 and Milan let's say, #20 in a survey is completely meaningless.
Last edited by saturno_v; 06-18-2020 at 10:47 AM..
I know some one who got house for $800,000 in the suburbs in Toronto and some one in Houston Texas that house is $300,000 and it is even bigger house!!
Other person I know got house for $350,000 in the north east part of the US!! That house is big. It would be well over million in Toronto.
I know some one who got house for $800,000 in the suburbs in Toronto and some one in Houston Texas that house is $300,000 and it is even bigger house!!
Other person I know got house for $350,000 in the north east part of the US!! That house is big. It would be well over million in Toronto.
A freaking mansion with all the "trimmings" (all hardwood and tiles, stone patio, etc...) in Mt Pleasant, Charleston, golf course, swimming pool and near the beach for the price of a shoebox condo in Van....
What about this 3 level villa for just over half mil Euros in the outskirt of Milan..and this is a brick and concrete house not the typical North American middle of the road disposable plywood contraption.
Canada RE prices (and so Australia up to recently) are insane.
Last edited by saturno_v; 06-18-2020 at 11:24 AM..
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The Place however will simply NOT return my calls
