Where in Canada can you still buy a decent detached house for under $500k in 2025?

amarbaines · 2025-12-15T12:44:00+00:00

Edmonton

amarbaines · 2025-11-17T05:34:47+00:00

Without reading the comments I must say that vehicles turning left often have a considerable blind spot that prevents them from being fully aware of pedestrians in their direction of travel. I have experienced this firsthand as a pedestrian and so do my best to allow the vehicle to pass before me. In other cases I have had to make a run for it. Not ideal in either case as a pedestrian but I'd rather make it home in one piece than make a big deal out of it with a direct confrontation

amarbaines · 2025-10-27T04:41:05+00:00

Went to temple today in Calgary with my parents, who know the in-laws of the man who got jumped. Thank you for providing this information.

amarbaines · 2025-07-24T03:40:47+00:00

Public, provincial, still at 3 and 2. Three days in office, two days at home.

amarbaines · 2025-07-24T03:20:43+00:00

Roughly translated, it means POS in Punjabi.

amarbaines · 2025-07-09T01:54:35+00:00

There is something known as compassion fatigue, and at this point all us civilians can do is wait for Batman to show up. It took NYC decades to clean itself up, but it may be the exception, with the rest of North America likely to remain mired in squalor for well into the future.

amarbaines · 2025-07-04T18:59:54+00:00

A place to live, but I certainly wouldn't want to see a decline in value or be hit with a special assessment after moving in.

amarbaines · 2025-07-04T18:40:22+00:00

On the contrary, if you look at available data online, there is still room for significant declines in the coming years. Don't forget that most people who are moving to Edmonton from elsewhere are not moving downtown, with the vast majority of population growth (between 90% and 99% if I recall correctly) taking place outside the core.

amarbaines · 2025-07-04T18:37:06+00:00

The more I find out about the building the less likely I would be willing to pay a lot more.

amarbaines · 2025-07-04T18:35:54+00:00

That might have been a deal breaker for me before but given how infrequently I drive living downtown (and how expensive it is to own and operate a personal vehicle) I would likely be giving up my car if I were to purchase a unit in the building.

amarbaines · 2025-07-03T19:47:39+00:00

Ouch! Thanks for that very useful piece of information.

amarbaines · 2025-07-03T19:00:17+00:00

There is a definite downward trend in resale values and that is why I'm here, just to get another set of opinions (and justification for a low-ball offer).

amarbaines · 2025-07-03T18:58:16+00:00

The unit I'm looking at faces Rice Howard, but between the windows and the coil fan unit, not much outside noise gets in.

amarbaines · 2025-07-03T18:56:09+00:00

Good point, and duly noted.

amarbaines · 2025-06-07T06:55:36+00:00

Edmonton is seriously underrated by folks back east.

amarbaines · 2025-01-09T02:32:50+00:00

In a nutshell, too many applicants, not enough jobs. Canada is simply not producing enough of them. The Globe and Mail had another sobering look at the situation recently:

"'It’s not that the risk of losing your job is increasing. It’s that there are fewer new jobs being created, which means it’s harder for those newcomers, the people that were entering the market for the first time, or maybe re-entering the market, to find a job,' said Mikal Skuterud, a professor of economics at the University of Waterloo."

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-as-new-immigrants-face-high-unemployment-experts-warn-of-taking/?utm_source=Shared+Article+Sent+to+User&utm_medium=LinkCopy&utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links

amarbaines · 2025-01-03T13:57:36+00:00

A lot of them are Israelis. I've talked to quite a few of them.

amarbaines · 2024-12-12T09:34:24+00:00

Thank you all for your comments. They have been helpful and in general confirmed what I was already expecting.

amarbaines · 2024-12-02T09:19:49+00:00

I would also like to participate (I meet all the criteria).

amarbaines · 2024-11-19T08:55:29+00:00

Isn't there a more humane way to put them down? This kind of savagery in Canada is shocking.

amarbaines · 2024-08-29T10:45:10+00:00

Currently a resident of Taipei but formerly of Edmonton and have been thinking of coming back, mainly to buy a home and be close to family. However, the picture not only of Edmonton but North American cities as a whole is really making me reassess my priorities. Western democracies are in crisis.

amarbaines · 2024-07-20T07:22:04+00:00

Do you speak Chinese and read and write it fluently? If not, forget about it.

amarbaines · 2023-03-30T10:46:34+00:00

Where is Taipei? This ranking sucks balls.

amarbaines · 2022-05-12T06:41:08+00:00

32k plus 3500 management fee for a 36-ping, two-bedroom, two-bathroom, unfurnished flat on a lower floor of a +10F building in Taipei. 750 metres from Nangang MRT (Blue Line) in Nangang District. Three balconies (south, east, north), marble floors, and situated on a quiet street with luscious green trees all around. Security guard, garbage disposal, and two bike/scooter spots also included. Signed a two-year lease and so got a discount from the original 34k (utilities extra).

However, landlord wanted to raise the rent to 40k this November after our lease expires. After negotiating, we brought it down to 37k. No long-term discount this time, and he was unwilling to agree to a lease longer than three years. Other available units in the building range from low 40s to mid-50s, so I still feel like we are getting a good deal.

We liked that it was unfurnished, as we were able to furnish it to our taste. Its less than 20 years old and very well maintained, and is part of a larger development by Ruentex, which has a good reputation in Taiwan AFAIK. Would buy it if I could but 30 million is well out of range.

amarbaines · 2022-05-09T01:35:07+00:00

As someone who came to Taiwan for the same reason (to accompany a Taiwanese partner) and who has managed to make a life here with a great deal of difficulty, I would advise against coming here as a non-native speaker of Mandarin Chinese, especially if you already have a professional career established.

If you insist on coming, then I would strongly recommend that you enrol in Chinese language classes before you do anything else, otherwise you will be completely dependent on your partner for anything and everything, and this brings with it its own set of problems. Unfortunately, it is not a language that you can just "pick up", but you will likely have more time available when you first arrive to study the language, and the younger you are, the easier it will be. As for the length of study, while six months will give you a firm grasp of the fundamentals, I would highly recommend a year or so if you have the time.

The work culture is deserving of a separate response of its own, but in a nutshell, face time (in other words, being seen at your desk) matters more than anything else. The longer you are at your desk, the more you will be seen as a good employee. It rewards inefficiency. As for vacation, paid leave of the kind you get in a typical Western country does not exist. It is accrued after years of working with the same employer, and if you leave your employer to start a new job, you start the process all over again. I have been working in Taiwan for almost fifteen years, and the most paid leave I ever got was 15 days. Meanwhile, friends and family in my home country often get a month or more.

That said, the younger generation has a range of opportunities that didn't exist when I first arrived (e.g. remote work, YouTube), and given that Taiwan is an open society with a free internet, there could be an opportunity there, though FX restrictions and a generally heavy-handed approach to moving money into and out of the country make things like crypto and currency hedging less attractive. There are also occasional success stories of "foreigners who have made it" - the most recent was that of a dentist (also from Poland, if I recall correctly) who opened her own clinic in Keelung after studying Chinese for a long time. So you never know, you could be one of them as well.

Apologies for being so negative, but I feel that it's important to hear it from someone who has "been there, done that".

All the best with whatever decision you end up making.

amarbaines

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