| 
On the subject of "cost of living" I heard from someone
in South Africa today who told me about all the challenges that
they were experiencing. They then proceeded to tell me about
the wonderfully high “standard of living” that South
Africans enjoy and how difficult it would be to adjust.
I asked them to elaborate. It soon turned out that this “standard
of living” equated for this person, to the kind of cars
that people were driving.
The kind of car you drive is really no big deal in Canada.
Very few Canadians equate their standard of living to the car
they can afford. (And many do drive very nice cars indeed).
The reason is that simply, if you want to drive something really
“nice”, it can be quite affordable. Most Canadians
wouldn’t dream of spending the kind of money on their
car, as a percentage of what they would spend say on their home,
as many South Africans may be accustomed to doing. I couldn’t
help taking a look at the motoring section of my local newspaper
after putting down my phone, and sharing some car prices with
you:
BMW: 320i 2005 $34 900.00 cash or lease for $250.00 per month
3.5% lease rate
BMW: 325i 2005 $38 500.00 cash or lease for $350.00 per month
3.5% lease rate
Mustang Coupe 2005 $24 890.00
Chevrolet Venture Mini Van with power windows, DVD player,
CD player and too many other options to mention $23 784 - wait
for it…the dealer is throwing in gas (petrol) for one
year!
So, now that we're done with the "wheels", lets move
on to the roof over our heads...
Buying a Home
If you decide to buy your own home, you may require a mortgage
(home loan) to buy the property.
There are all kinds of mortgage products available in Canada
with every type of variation. There are even “interest
only” mortgages where your monthly payment services interest
only and not capital. Some mortgage products offer a very low
initial interest rate (like 1.95%) for a limited period, increasing
after that period of time has passed.
Generally consumers have the option of having a mortgage where
the interest rate fluctuates or they can decide to lock in to
a rate which will generally be higher, but which is locked for
a specific period of time and will not fluctuate for that period.
Had you decided to lock in to a rate during the week ending
May 27th, 2005, you would have found the following rates available:
1 year: 3.85%
2 year: 4.15%
3 year: 4.25%
5 year: 4.55%
10 year: 5.14%
So, how does this translate into your repaying your home loan?
If you choose to pay back a $100 000.00 mortgage over 25 years
and you selected the 5 year period above, your payment would
be about $556.26 per month. (Canadian Dollars) The monthly payment
would be fixed for 5 years, the advantage being that you would
not be affected by a sudden increase in your monthly payment
for 5 years.
Renting a Home
The property market has been very strong in Canada over the
past few years and continues to remain strong. Many immigrants
will rent a home for a while at least, the advantage being that
they can find out for themselves the areas of a city that they
most like, they can develop a trusting relationship with a real
estate agent who they are comfortable working with, and they
can find out more about the cost of living and what they can
afford to pay for a home. It’s anyone’s guess, but
there are many people who expect a market correction in the
future that could bring property prices down a little if not
substantially.
Here are the approximate average rentals for a 2 bedroom apartment
in 2004 in the following Canadian cities:
Saskatoon $580.00
Winnipeg $660.00
Calgary $805.00
Vancouver $984.00
When renting, expect to get a stove, fridge, washing machine
and dryer (or facilities in high rise buildings), often also
a dishwasher and microwave oven.
I also get lots of questions about the weather....
The Weather
Summer started officially today....time to play golf 'till
10 at night and take long walks along the sea wall here in Vancouverl......
Here are the temperatures for Tuesday 21st June 2005. Hopefully
they dispel the perception of Canada as the “great white
north” covered in snow all year round!
All temperatures are in degrees celcius:
Montreal 25 degrees (Eastern Canada)
Toronto 24 degrees (Eastern Canada)
Vancouver 24 degrees (Western Canada)
Thunder Bay 31 degrees (Eastern Canada)
Winnipeg 28 degrees (Central Canada)
Compare these temperatures to Los Angeles at 26 degrees today,
San Diego at 22 degrees, Seattle at 24 degrees, and New York
at 28 degrees!
Visit
our Homepage
|
Greetings
from Canada - 
I
hear from people who are looking for a job in Canada before
they initiate the immigration process. They send resumes (CV’s)
by the hundred to potential employers in Canada. They seem surprised
that businesses in Canada are not leaping up to employ them.
