4 ms·

Yea, they can't spend 200k a year over 5 years as mature working adults. That's just preposterous right? You two in this thread sound like children. Grow up.

by Para2016 9y ago

Trundle 9y ago
They can do what they want. What they can't do authentically however is to try to claim hardship status. Which "cash strapped" does. These people had a backup condo to live in after selling their first house. You don't get to use 'cash strapped' when you have a backup condo.
- Para2016 9y ago
  Perhaps I missed it, I can't find in the article where they claim a hardship status. Could you point be to it? He's an education PhD and she's an online editor, they have two kids. They borrowed heavily and sold their old house to finance their new one. I suppose because it's written by a middle class woman and not a desperately poor person then her story is abhorrent to HN.
  - bshimmin 9y ago
    The strapline: "We were cash-strapped, desperate to move and hemmed in by a hot market." I read the article in full (nothing like a bit of procrastination on a Monday morning) and I think probably the two most abhorrent aspects are: 1) the utter and seemingly limitless stupidity of their decisions; 2) the way their back-up condo is casually introduced about halfway through - "Luckily, we still owned..." (An honourable mention goes to the wealthy English godfather making a sudden, ridiculous appearance. This bit sounded totally fictitious, to be honest.)
vacri 9y ago
The average wage in Canada is $50k. The median family income is $76k. That's before taxes and living expenses. If you can drop nearly three times the entire median family income per year for half a decade on renovations alone, you're not 'cash-strapped'.
- Para2016 9y ago
  They borrowed heavily. Are you really getting upset over "cash-strapped"? How about you just look up the definition of this phrase?
  - epmaybe 9y ago
    I think that colloquially we consider "cash-strapped" to mean significantly lower on funds than the authors were. You're not cash strapped if you have borrowed; by definition you are no longer low on funds. A minor point in the article, regardless. On the actual content of the article: Is the housing market really this bad in Canada? My SO has been pushing for us to consider moving there (Toronto, Vancouver) after school but the more I learn the more I am content living somewhere with a low cost of living. Another thing that does bother me: This seems like classic gentrification. Is there some fund in Toronto that goes towards the lower income/homeless folk who get displaced by these sorts of situations?
    - cdegroot 9y ago
      I moved from Europe, so I probably have a mildly more communist view ;-), but I'm appalled by Toronto's city government inability to do what I'd call table stakes beyond picking up the garbage - public transport and public housing. Neither seems to be going anywhere, and I have no clue whether it's finance ("we will not raise property taxes" is often heard), unions that frustrate everything, incompetent leadership or just outright lack of experience in running a metropolis. I love Toronto, but it sure has its share of big city problems. Housing market wise: expect to be in the CA$750k-1m range for something that doesn't suck bad. Given the weak dollar, that's not a huge amount of money for a major city but it's rapidly rising. Myself, I'm moving to a chalet with some acres of forest shortly, 2hrs from the city, but then I can work from home almost 100%. Toronto is a great place to live, but yeah - check your housing budget before moving here.
sctb 9y ago
Please take care not to inject inflammation like this—the threads never improve as a result. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Yea, they can't spend 200k a year over 5 years as mature working adults. That's just preposterous right? You two in this thread sound like children. Grow up.

Trundle 9y ago

They can do what they want. What they can't do authentically however is to try to claim hardship status. Which "cash strapped" does. These people had a backup condo to live in after selling their first house. You don't get to use 'cash strapped' when you have a backup condo.

Para2016 9y ago
Perhaps I missed it, I can't find in the article where they claim a hardship status. Could you point be to it? He's an education PhD and she's an online editor, they have two kids. They borrowed heavily and sold their old house to finance their new one. I suppose because it's written by a middle class woman and not a desperately poor person then her story is abhorrent to HN.
- bshimmin 9y ago
  The strapline: "We were cash-strapped, desperate to move and hemmed in by a hot market." I read the article in full (nothing like a bit of procrastination on a Monday morning) and I think probably the two most abhorrent aspects are: 1) the utter and seemingly limitless stupidity of their decisions; 2) the way their back-up condo is casually introduced about halfway through - "Luckily, we still owned..." (An honourable mention goes to the wealthy English godfather making a sudden, ridiculous appearance. This bit sounded totally fictitious, to be honest.)

vacri 9y ago

The average wage in Canada is $50k. The median family income is $76k. That's before taxes and living expenses. If you can drop nearly three times the entire median family income per year for half a decade on renovations alone, you're not 'cash-strapped'.

Para2016 9y ago
They borrowed heavily. Are you really getting upset over "cash-strapped"? How about you just look up the definition of this phrase?
- epmaybe 9y ago
  I think that colloquially we consider "cash-strapped" to mean significantly lower on funds than the authors were. You're not cash strapped if you have borrowed; by definition you are no longer low on funds. A minor point in the article, regardless. On the actual content of the article: Is the housing market really this bad in Canada? My SO has been pushing for us to consider moving there (Toronto, Vancouver) after school but the more I learn the more I am content living somewhere with a low cost of living. Another thing that does bother me: This seems like classic gentrification. Is there some fund in Toronto that goes towards the lower income/homeless folk who get displaced by these sorts of situations?
  - cdegroot 9y ago
    I moved from Europe, so I probably have a mildly more communist view ;-), but I'm appalled by Toronto's city government inability to do what I'd call table stakes beyond picking up the garbage - public transport and public housing. Neither seems to be going anywhere, and I have no clue whether it's finance ("we will not raise property taxes" is often heard), unions that frustrate everything, incompetent leadership or just outright lack of experience in running a metropolis. I love Toronto, but it sure has its share of big city problems. Housing market wise: expect to be in the CA$750k-1m range for something that doesn't suck bad. Given the weak dollar, that's not a huge amount of money for a major city but it's rapidly rising. Myself, I'm moving to a chalet with some acres of forest shortly, 2hrs from the city, but then I can work from home almost 100%. Toronto is a great place to live, but yeah - check your housing budget before moving here.

sctb 9y ago

Please take care not to inject inflammation like this—the threads never improve as a result. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html