Canada where every other car is a BMW or Benz according to Socks
 

Socks the economist in another thread extols the wealth and standard of living middle class Canadians enjoy while in his words middle class Americans struggle mightily. According to him the average Canadian drives a BMW or a Mercedez Benz.

Let's take a look at what the average middle class American and Canadian earns and the cost of the North American dream - home ownership - and what your money buys in cities of similar population size

Compared are Toronto and Dallas, two of the largest metropolitan areas in North America and two medium sized cities, Winnipeg and Memphis.

Per capita average incomes are quite similar, husband and wife both working, it's a decent middle class income.

Average salary Canada $46,000 a year

Per capita income USA $42,693 a year

Here's your middle class Toronto dream home priced to sell at $300,000, they won't list the square footage for obvious marketing reasons, imagine how good your beemer or benz will look in the driveway of this mini estate ......wut...... there is no driveway, must have one of those fancy underground driveways like out of a James Bond movie. The stylish resin patio chair comes with the house.

http://www.catieminx.com/toronto_home.jpg

Now here's your middle class Dallas dream home priced to sell at $299,990 with 2,460 sq ft

http://www.catieminx.com/dallas_home.jpg

Here's your middle class Winnipeg dream home priced to sell at $259,000, a whopping 1,360 sq ft of Lebensraum - six months of -40 below temperatures are included. Your beemer or benz will not look out of place here, you are the squire of Winnipeg

http://www.catieminx.com/wpg_home.jpg

Here's your middle class Memphis dream home priced to sell at $249,000, with 2,600 sq ft of living space, with the $10,000 savings you can go on a snow vacation if snow is important to you.

http://www.catieminx.com/memphis_home.jpg

Pretty obvious Canada has it all over the US, the Dallas and Memphis homes are no doubt in neighborhoods teeming with black criminal activity at all times of day and night. And don't forget that Canada comes with all the free healthcare you can consume so smoke, drink and eat to your heart's content, it's all on the house, you just might have to wait a little while. Don't forget the multiculturalism that will enrich your life, you can't put a price on that.

Where are the beamers?!

very nice and informative post

Canadians are modest, beemers and benzes are stored in underground garages and only driven on special occassions. The 600 sq foot $300,000 Toronto home is a clever bit of camouflage, the 'house' is only an entrance, inside is a secret passage to the real home, a subterranean palace stretching over 10,000 sq feet complete with home theater, gym and indoor pool. Sorry for misleading people.

Im in canada and only own a jeep and a camaro. Looks like im gonna have to trade one in for a mercedes to keep the numbers straight.

Obviously the house prices are going to vary by region, the same as the US. If you want to live in toronto then youre going to get ripped off. I live about 2 1/2 hours from toronto and have 8 acres and a custom built log home for less than 300000.

i did it as fair as I could, all 4 homes are within the city boundaries, not in suburban bedroom communities. you should see what you can get in a suburb of Memphis I saw, McMansions for $150-250K.

To be fair, Dallas is a pretty affordable major city. Dallas is massive so land is cheap.

I think a better comparison to Toronto would be Chicago or San Diego. "Upscale" cities where property values are high. With that said, last time I checked, $300,000 will get you better in both Chicago and San Diego then those Toronto images. Those are pretty ghastly, LOL.

Ya I dont think its a secret houses are generally cheaper in the us. Now if all americans could see what we have to pay for a case of budweiser or a pack of smokes theyd really be laughing at us.

and a thousand other products - including products manufactured in Canada - it's a secret 'Canadian tax', where everybody just charges more to fellow Canadians for a product because they know Canadians will just pay it, it's a conspiracy everybody is in on and the little guy who works for a salary takes the majority of the hit.

overall texas is CHEAP

I was going to use LA but I looked up metropolitan population and Metro Dallas and Metro Toronto were very close in size. You're right that there are American cities where the gap isn't as big, San Diego being one of them - but come on, you're comparing the Pacific Ocean to Lake Ontario.

Mutt, there's no need to start another pissing contest thread between Canada and USA. I'm sure that a lot of Canadians here would be able to post pics about every major cities in the USA showing ugly overpriced houses.

I don't see much Canadians bashing USA in others' threads. But a lot of americans do so here. Why would we need to be jealous of your country?

lol, come on, that's all some of the posters here live for.


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gfy is loaded with canadians bashing america, on a daily basis. i especially get a kick outta the ones that include something about the canadians burning down the white house.



re: the op, could canada be ripe for a housing bubble burst?

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1100960/th...HART-570.jpg?4

also, i agree with sly chicago would be a better city to compare.

My bad, as you can see I don't post often. Maybe it's just coincidence that I've seen a lot more threads bashing Canada.

Well it sucks to have pissing matches between neighbours. :disgust. We all have our pros and cons...

Lets keep that competition for hockey games only ! :thumbsup

Have a good saturday everyone !!!

Mutt is a Canadian, isn't he?

i agree.

here's a very nice older home in Chicago for $298,888 with 2,700 sq ft - look at the interior pics, beautifully remodelled

http://photos2.zillow.com/p_d/ISh7h9...0000000000.jpg

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/61.../3661256_zpid/

i don't really understand what this thread is about... it comes across like you think it's a good thing house prices in the US are in the shitter?

Another point is that the average beamer or benz are just the same as a toyota or honda now. All middle class. In germany everyone drives a bmw or mercedes, does that mean everyone in germany has a high income? My friend needed a car fast a while ago so i helped him bargain a bmw for €900. Balling! :1orglaugh

that is a nice house. it's interesting that canada and the u.s housing markets followed the same trends until 2006 and then split, thus the 60% difference we see today. i wonder if that trend will continue or if the graphs will eventually line back up.

US house prices were still better before the housing bubble/crisis.

And hell yes, for people who are employed or own their own business making a good living, it's a great time to be buying a home.

no doubt about that, but the reason house prices are low is because the economy is completely fucked. Exactly like where I live - economy gets worse and worse, house prices keep going down.

In the shitter or finally starting to reflect true vs hyped values?

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Um, no it isn't. If you own your own business, unless you have a shitload of upfront cash the reporting requirement load is much higher than for someone with two years of W2. Credit of any kind for small bus owners has dried up.

How much is a kW of electricity in Canada?

I have lived in both countries and I can say without a shadow of a doubt it is easier to make money in the USA. not even close.:2 cents:

what are you considering a shitload of upfront cash - what % as a down payment will get a small business owner a mortgage these days?

real estate seems to be really cheap in the US - even here in CZ it's not much cheaper - if not more expensive.

but: (almost) no property taxes here - maybe $100 or $200 a year depending on size

Do tell....

a buddy just bought ahouse in the us last week, hes a contractor so he own business. I believe it was either 20 or 25% the put down and that was min.:2 cents:

this report is a joke. I doesn't mention that we speed on average 20% more on everything we buy, that we are taxed on average 30% more then Americans and that hour housing costs us over 80% more. I don't know anyone that drives a merc or BMW and if they do its bottom level ones.

here you go:
http://www.crackshackormansion.com/

Vancouver homes worth over a million or American Crack Shack game

6 cents...

Affordable Canadian housing....

http://www.visualphotos.com/photo/1x...0-00610586.jpg

lol - this is funny

Mutt in the other thread you were saying that taxes were 10% less in USA than in Canada. How can you claim now then we have health care for free? We work for it :2 cents:

no man actually its a fuckin shame. :2 cents:

The reason property values are so high in Toronto and Vancouver is simple. People want to live here, supply and demand. I bought my house in 2010 for 320k I can sell it easily for 425k today. It would probably only be listed less than a week. There is a lot of chinese and indian money flooding into canada these days.

Mutt, why all the hate dude? If you don't like canada so be it. Just relax lol

I'd pay to see where you live. :winkwink:

You will tell me there's NO trailers in USA nor ghettos? Come on. :2 cents:

Exactly no need to fight. We have overpriced houses and ghettos so do americans, so?

well, yeah, only funny from an outside pov probably

No the reason why the economy is fucked is because we've had one of the biggest housing bubbles in history that burst, that's what caused the crash. A giant ponzi scheme created by bankers and the fraudulent credit agencies giving junk bonds triple A status.

And yes actually, the average person paying a smaller percentage of their take home pay for their mortgage is better for the economy because they have more disposal income to spend. So lower house prices are good news, especially for first time buyers

No housing bubble = No house price crash

:2 cents:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghetto

:2 cents:

Whoa guys.. Canada is our bros... Lets not start fighting with our bros... Lets all gang up on Europe.

youre an idiot

I live in Northern California, a small town called Lincoln, and there is one street that connects newer suburbs to the older part of town. I always find it funny on Saturday afternoons when I drive down there and see every house there has a third car - a play car - be it a sports car or an antique, or maybe a motorcycle.

You can bash the middle class as much as you want, but here in my hometown things are pretty good.

It depends on the location and what method you use to buy, but while a W2 will flip out to pay 20% you will have to, and sometimes as high as 50% if you don't want to provide 3 years of docs for your business.

The problem is, for your business your whole goal is to reduce apparent taxable income. With a bank, they want to see high income. So even if you pay yourself a healthy salary they still require audited income statements for you to get the best rates, and unless you are doing it some genius way no one has ever heard of, you'll pay minimum 20% while W2 will pay minimum 3-5%.

Canada is awesome, BTW, awesome girls, great icewine, beautiful. We in the US are so lucky to have a smart, stable, nice, helpful nation like Canada to the north. Many many Canadians have added to our culture and success. Who cares if they have a few problems - we do too.

And your point is? Tell me you never heard of that expression other than from a useless wiki link, come on.

Have a good saturday fighting Barefootsies. :thumbsup

Cheers bro, I couldn't agree more. Have a nice one ! :thumbsup