Owning a Home

Owning a Home is Not For Everyone is an article by Ben Carlson on his site of A Wealth of Common Sense. Ben Carlson gives the pros and cons about buying a house and whether it might be worthwhile to rent. Some of the basic stuff would apply to us and Toronto.

I grew up living in houses. First, I lived as a kid in the Pape/Danforth area. I loved living in this area. Then when I was a young teen my parents moved to what was then a suburb of Thornhill. They loved it because we had a half acre lot. I hated it. There was nothing to do and I had to go to High School via the TTC to Thornhill Secondary School. The buses ran every 40 minutes in rush hour as I remember.

After I graduated from Grade 12, my parents went on holidays and I moved to Toronto and got a job and refused to go back home. My parents go over it, eventually. I was lucky because this was 1964 and a woman having a degree did not help much in business. I started at $54.00 a week. A woman with a degree started at the same time and got a few more dollars a week than me but did basically the same work as me. (Of course, men at that time were hired as Management Trainees.)

I was lucky because I worked for a Life Insurance company that would pay for any College or University course an employee would take if they passed the course. I took fully advantage of this going to Ryerson and taking some math and computer courses and then to U of T for a variety of courses including accounting. I ended up in a good IT job.

When I moved back to Toronto, I used shared-accommodation ads in the Toronto Star to find roommates. I shared a number of 2 bedroom apartments with 4 other girls, until I moved to where I am now which is a three bedroom that I started off sharing with 2 other girls. It was great fun sharing an apartment. I am still friends with some of the women I shared with. I discovered I loved apartment living.

When I decided to live with my future husband, I was only living in the 3 bedroom apartment with one other girl. My future husband moved in and my girlfriend moved out. Because it was a three bedroom apartment, it was no problem staying when I got pregnant.

I must confess I did have a cottage at one time. I bought it with the life insurance I got paid after my husband died. My sister was a school teacher at the time and she offered to look after my son for each summer if I got one in her area, which was Kingston. I sold it when my son was older and did not want to go to the cottage anymore. I must admit that when I had it, there was always something that needed repair each year. But in the end, I sold it for more than I paid for it.

I think about buying a condo every once in a while, and maybe someday I will. But I love apartment living and I love the area I live in. I think whether your rent or buy has a lot to do with your preferred life style. I would never buy a house, but I might consider a condo in the right area.

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