Sign of the Times: Help Wanted

[MikePal]

Your kids are bang on average...

Median family income is steady in 2019

The median after-tax income of Canadian families and unattached individuals was $62,900 in 2019, up 0.5%, which was not a statistically significant change over 2018.

For non-senior families, where the highest-income earner was under 65 years of age, the median after-tax income was $93,800 in 2019. Couples with children's median after-tax income was $105,500, while the median after-tax income of female lone parent families was $52,500.

The median after-tax income of senior families, where the highest-income earner was 65 years of age or older, was $64,300 in 2019.

Unattached individuals under 65 years of age had a median after-tax income of $33,800, whereas unattached individuals aged 65 years and older had a median after-tax income of $29,500.

[dean.f]

Keep in mind, home ownership is a luxury/investment, and not a necessity. Plenty of people never own a home and do just great for themselves. If people weren't so caught up in "needing" things, life would be a lot less expensive and stressful.

[greatwhite]

It's still not hard to afford a home if you really want it and are willing to make sacrifices. When I purchased my first home we were at what Ontario considered the poverty level. I made sacrifices something today's generation doesn't understand.

Keep in mind, home ownership is a luxury/investment, and not a necessity. Plenty of people never own a home and do just great for themselves. If people weren't so caught up in "needing" things, life would be a lot less expensive and stressful.

[greatwhite]

It's still not hard to afford a home if you really want it and are willing to make sacrifices. When I purchased my first home we were at what Ontario considered the poverty level. I made sacrifices something today's generation doesn't understand.

Keep in mind, home ownership is a luxury/investment, and not a necessity. Plenty of people never own a home and do just great for themselves. If people weren't so caught up in "needing" things, life would be a lot less expensive and stressful.

[dean.f]

That's exactly what some don't understand, you sometimes need to make sacrifices to become successful. I lived eating nothing but the cheapest food, no beer, no cable or internet, nothing unnecessary and worked every single hour I was offered for a couple of years after I bought my house. Now I get to reap the benefits.

Back to the topic of people not applying to low paying jobs, I considered taking on a second job back then (10 years ago) at 1/2 the wage just to get ahead. We live in a country where money is here for the taking, all you have to do is get out of bed and find it.

Sadly some choose to abuse the government safety net making many middle class earners bitter about how the tax dollars are spent. But it's there for a reason, if I were to be critically injured or ill, I expect to receive the benefits I've contributed to.

[js4fn]

And that what Trudeau doesn’t get he’s never been there. Silver spoon child

[smitty55]

Keep in mind, home ownership is a luxury/investment, and not a necessity. Plenty of people never own a home and do just great for themselves. If people weren't so caught up in "needing" things, life would be a lot less expensive and stressful.

Thing is, these days it costs a fortune to rent even a 1 bedroom apartment, I've seen them go for $1500/month out this way in CP and Almonte. And with the price of homes these last few years younger people will never be able to afford one, even the ones who have managed to recently could very well be up the creek if interest rates rise too much over the next few years.
In '96 after those crazy interest rates up in the 20% range went down enough I bought this home out in the country for 125K as a single parent with 2 kids and a steady job paying close to $19/hr. That was my certified max at the time and I was using the real estate agent's financial guy so she knew. I got lucky in a way, the house had been vacant for 3 months as the original owners had decided to move back to the states and it was late December. So it turned out back then the best decision I made was using the same agent as the seller they took my offer and even forked out a check for a grand to cover repairing a couple of deficiencies found during the building inspection.
To me it was a necessity and an investment, damned if I was going to spend my life renting houses and paying someone else's mortgage. Now over the years I had to refinance a few times to pay things off but I always knew the rising value of the house and my little chunk 1 acre chunk of Lanark made it all worthwhile. I've only ever owned used vehicles Today I could easily get 600K+, not that I have intention of moving, like why would I want to give up the peaceful country life I get to enjoy every day. I still have a mortgage too, but with Principal, Interest and Taxes (PIT) I'm only paying $450 biweekly and I live in a large pretty nice home where every direction I look I see trees. It's a good life overall being finally retired, unless I need to visit Princess Auto or maybe Cabelas next door I have no need to go into Ottawa at all anymore.
Off topic a tad next time I do that tour I will definitely include a trip to the Golden Place for their world famous egg rolls. Last dozen I bought were $24, my daughter brought a dozen over a few months back and now they're $30 a dozen. Still the best and cheap compared to what they charge at the Sens games, they've lost a huge revenue source with these public freedom restrictions and the arena closed.
Cheers

[line052]

Ok, will you start a company and pay your employees that rate of pay? DO you have a company and pay that rate of pay. You wont because running a company requires cash flow and a bank balance to stay viable. Unless you are trades based company 90% of all companies operate on a profit loss model, and wages by far are the highest expense of any company. Wages include WSIB and CPP. How do you pay high wages and continue to compete with other companies in the same field, and win jobs. See that is the issue, you build a business model based on wage/labour costs and operate a profit/loss company. The forced mandate of $15 hr caused more layoff then jobs, accelerated automation (self checkout) implementation in large corporation who have deep pockets to afford costs up front. Ask anyone who got the $15 raise, how much buying power do they have now with extra income, as inflation and commodities went up to recover the cost of labour.

See this is false narrative used by left to get votes, $15 per hour, why $15 why not $100 per hour...because we all know it will cause the cost of everything else to rise to pay for it - effectively negating and wage labour gains by workers.

If you both make $15 per hour and are married and decide to have kids, that's your problem and responsibility to provide based on your abilities. No one else is responsible for your choices and no one else owes you any duty to provide your needs. Furthermore, those complaining about $15 need to take a look at own budget, bet they have a nice phone, car payment, credit debt and therefore are poor (in debt). By your own account a couple making $15 actually make $30 and fit within your $24 rate..but that is not the kids of today responsible (for the most part, not all), they refuse to go without shiny objects and demand help for the bad choices they made...like student debt.

Lastly start your own evil corporation/small business and pay your people $24 per...and see how that goes, in the competitive market.

For an individual, in the $24 an hour area. If one was married with kids, I doubt one income would cut it.

And I doubt home ownership would be possible.

[canadaman30]

Sadly sacrifices alone may not get a home in the GTA and surrounding area.
Five hundred to a over a Million seems to be the prices outside GTA to the east.
Until our governments stop failing the people home ownership is looking tough..

[Fox]

It's still not hard to afford a home if you really want it and are willing to make sacrifices. When I purchased my first home we were at what Ontario considered the poverty level. I made sacrifices something today's generation doesn't understand.

Sorry no, with starting salaries coming in at $50K and rent being $1500 in Ottawa, for a 1 bedroom apartment, there is no way to actually get enough of a down payment to afford a house right now.

A $50K salary is about $38K when taxes have been taken off, that leaves $3166 left per month, rent off of that leaves $1666 per month. Now, assuming you need to be able to drive to a job you will have insurance, possibly a car loan because you could not safe up during school as you were paying for school. Lets be nice, $300 for a car loan and insurance, $130 in Ottawa if you exclusively take transit. You now have $1366 to live on. To be able to find a job you pretty much need the internet and a way to communicate, lets say you are going to the library and have a lower end cell plan, you are most likely down to $1300 at this point. Rent is also not all inclusive, so you have utilities, heat, hydro, water, going to run you $300 and that is being cheap. $1000 left in your bank account for the month. Now you have to eat, $300 on groceries a month? The average in 2017 was $200 but in the last 4 years the price of food has gone up. Now you are down to $700 a month, I have not included the cost of union dues, benefit deductions, professional dues, gas to get to and from your job, so lets say you have $500 left after all the extra payments you have to make in a job, as an engineer. The average raise now seems to be about 2%, which is at or below the cost of inflation, so it can be neglected from the equation.

You have $500 to go in to the bank each month. Condos sold in Ottawa for $425,000 at the start of June in Ottawa, not big single family homes, condos and town houses.

The basic down payment for a house at this price is $42,500, so that would take 85 months to save up, which is over 7 years yet the housing price increases will make that impossible.

Unless you are being given a down payment by your parents there are not really many sacrifices that can get you in to a home.

Even if you cut that rent down to $1000 a month, which is next to impossible to find, you are still looking at 3.5 years before you can afford a house in 2021 but it will be 2024.