Housing Choices - where you choose to live

[Pavlov]

Originally Posted by KoolKool

Moving to Calgary next month with my sister, we are living in a small condo that's like 2 block away from the calgary's tower .
And I'm planning on to look for a student job in there too, any suggestion around the city centre or belt line area ?

I would check with the City. It has a number of summer job opportunities.

[KoolKool]

actually summer is like 4-5 months away from now, i'm talking about now. Anyway thanks for the suggestion

Originally Posted by Reesonov

I would check with the City. It has a number of summer job opportunities.

[suburbia]

A challenge in the apartment market for families is very few options of the three bedroom variety. While bunks can be an option, for a family of four (2+2) with two mid-aged children, three bedrooms is often seen as a necessity (and that is not accounting for families who like to have a guest option in-home).

As Calgary's condo market looks to diversify offerings, I thought an interesting touchstone from London UK might be appropriate. The first point here is, London is way more dense and way more expensive than Calgary, so using an example from there for larger apartments is interesting.

Gas Holders:
https://gasholderslondon.co.uk/

Brochures including one with all floor plans:
https://gasholderslondon.co.uk/brochures

Here we have a great mix of studios (starting at about 425sf), one bedroom, two bedroom, and three bedroom offerings (most in the 1,350 to 1,600sf range). Several of the two and three bedroom units are across two floors, with other options having a large footprint on a single floor. The entire King's Cross redevelopment is actually quite interesting, but I'll leave that for yourselves to discover if you choose.

I recognize this is not a Calgary building, but beyond a touchstone of one complex extending from studio through to three bedroom, the project is also just simply cool in how it is maintaining connection with history in the interlocking gasholder triplets. The interior and use of patterned shades as a functional element that adds to external aesthetics is also interesting.

[suburbia]

How condos killed Vancouver

https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columni...o-vancouver-forever-for-better-and-worse

Some random quotes from the article:

... it’s reasonable to estimate 35 to 40 per cent of the province’s strata units are investor owned. That would mean more than 300,000 apartments are not lived in by those who bought them ...

Another result of investment and speculation is that many units remain empty, even in the midst of Metro’s housing and rental affordability crisis. There are hundreds of condo towers in Vancouver’s downtown core, and Gioventu estimated 25 to 35 per cent of their units are vacant.

That is just one of many factors that have led to condominium stresses: Between people who live in their apartments, those who rent them, speculators and recreational-property owners who leave them empty and investors who turn them into businesses through Airbnb.

The condominium rental study for Vancouver City council discovered complaints absentee owners were “less willing to spend on additional or unforeseen maintenance” and were negligent at screening renters, some of whom crowd into small units.

Too many condo owners don’t realize they’re liable for all damages, complaints and illegal activities related to renters, including those who sub-rent through Airbnb, Gioventu said. Not only do some Airbnb “guests” cause noise problems, flood bathtubs and use their units for illicit purposes, a portion take advantage of their condo security access to break into storage lockers and the units of others.

[suburbia]

From the construction thread:

Originally Posted by Suburgatory

I live in a house over a condo right now because my dog has health issues and has nothing to do with having a child or children. Once my old dog is no longer with us we're going back to condo life!

Originally Posted by Suburgatory

At times her meds make her need to go out multiple times in the night. She also isn't friendly with other dogs, so elevators and other dogs mean lunch. We had a year of that while living out east so bought a house when moving back.

It is an important point that Suburgatory is making here. Many condos are not very flexible, so if you had a change of circumstance as s/he had, you're in effect forced to move out. In this case, Suburgatory needed a house with a yard and with outside access even after dark. I'm assuming it worked out, but imagine if you're in a lease situation but an evolution in life has you contravening the condo bylaws. Maybe your condo allows dogs up to 10 lbs, but the holiday time resulting in a pinch of over eating and your pup is now 10.5 lbs. What do to?

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by suburbia

From the construction thread:




It is an important point that Suburgatory is making here. Many condos are not very flexible, so if you had a change of circumstance as s/he had, you're in effect forced to move out. In this case, Suburgatory needed a house with a yard and with outside access even after dark. I'm assuming it worked out, but imagine if you're in a lease situation but an evolution in life has you contravening the condo bylaws. Maybe your condo allows dogs up to 10 lbs, but the holiday time resulting in a pinch of over eating and your pup is now 10.5 lbs. What do to?

On the plus side I think they're simpler to get ready to sell, and of course lack of yard and solely owned building envelope means less maintenance work.

I say this as someone who doesn't like tower living, simply because when I open my front door I want to see the world, not a hallway of doors.

[Suburgatory]

Originally Posted by suburbia

From the construction thread:

It is an important point that Suburgatory is making here. Many condos are not very flexible, so if you had a change of circumstance as s/he had, you're in effect forced to move out. In this case, Suburgatory needed a house with a yard and with outside access even after dark. I'm assuming it worked out, but imagine if you're in a lease situation but an evolution in life has you contravening the condo bylaws. Maybe your condo allows dogs up to 10 lbs, but the holiday time resulting in a pinch of over eating and your pup is now 10.5 lbs. What do to?

Seriously man? You're cross posting that just for the purpose of creating an argument? Making it your point, not mine. Immediately after you private message me telling me to stop taking jabs at you. Rich. Very rich.

I rescued a middle aged husky-shepherd mix just off surgery removing tumors from a shelter while living in a 1 year rental of a condo in downtown Toronto while my wife completed her 16th year of medical training.

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by Suburgatory

Seriously man? You're cross posting that just for the purpose of creating an argument? Making it your point, not mine. Immediately after you private message me telling me to stop taking jabs at you. Rich. Very rich.

I rescued a middle aged husky-shepherd mix just off surgery removing tumors from a shelter while living in a 1 year rental of a condo in downtown Toronto while my wife completed her 16th year of medical training.

Dude - I was empathizing with your situation. I think it says a heck of a lot about you to have changed your living arrangement so that you could do better for the dog.

16th year. That's gotta be two sub-specialty fellowships. That also means you two have many, many options on the table (that most do not have). Good on ya'!

[Suburgatory]

Originally Posted by suburbia

Dude - I was empathizing with your situation. I think it says a heck of a lot about you to have changed your living arrangement so that you could do better for the dog.

16th year. That's gotta be two sub-specialty fellowships. That also means you two have many, many options on the table (that most do not have). Good on ya'!

Cut it out. Empathizing? No, you were using it to find a negative slant on condo living.

You just can’t help yourself. Enjoy your forum.

[nick.flood]

Here’s a really interesting article at marketwatch about how single family homes are unnecessarily large and this image shows just how much of that space is actually being used.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-th...is-way-overrated-in-one-chart-2018-05-21

This is based on 1600 square feet. Imagine the difference 3500 would make!

As you can see, most square footage is wasted as people tend to gather around the kitchen and the television, while avoiding the dining room and porch.

“The findings were not pretty. In fact, they helped prove how little we use our big homes for things other than clutter,” Adcock said. “Most families don’t use large areas of their homes — which means they’ve essentially wasted money on space they don’t need.”

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by nick.flood

Here’s a really interesting article at marketwatch about how single family homes are unnecessarily large and this image shows just how much of that space is actually being used.

Isn't that one of the big points of being successful, being able to spend money on things you don't really need.

[DizzyEdge]

Meh, when it comes to things like this my preference is make sure everyone is paying the 'real cost' of where they live (sfh, apartment, inner-city, suburbia) and then let people spend their money as they wish. If everyone is paying the real cost then no one's lifestyle should be a burden on society so live and let live.

[240glt]

Originally Posted by nick.flood

Here’s a really interesting article at marketwatch about how single family homes are unnecessarily large and this image shows just how much of that space is actually being used.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-th...is-way-overrated-in-one-chart-2018-05-21

This is based on 1600 square feet. Imagine the difference 3500 would make!

This is an interesting diagram and proves exactly what we've long thought about our house. We have a 1400sf 3 bed 2 bath rancher with an additional 1000sf finished basement. The 2nd bedroom is an office/ storage room that we never use, the back bedroom is a guest bedroom that gets used a couple times a year when my sister comes up for work or friends stay over after a get together. We use the dining area (not really a room, it's open to the kitchen & living room) maybe two or three times a year. Down in the basement we've got a rec room with the big TV, and a den area where my stereo system is set up. both those areas could really be shrunk by 30%. I figure we actually use about 50% of the finished space in the house on a regular basis.

This is why, when we build our house in BC in a few years, we plan on buying bare land and building ourselves. I want a house designed specifically for us (two adults no kids) with little to no wasted space. No extra bedrooms, no formal dining, compact and efficient, with more emphasis on outdoor interaction than space inside. I'd like to keep it under 1000sf on the main with a basement walkout that could accommodate an in-law suite. Don't need a huge house. It's just encourages us to buy more stuff. I'd rather save money by building smaller and use those savings to build better.

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by 240glt

This is why, when we build our house in BC in a few years, we plan on buying bare land and building ourselves. I want a house designed specifically for us (two adults no kids) with little to no wasted space. No extra bedrooms, no formal dining, compact and efficient, with more emphasis on outdoor interaction than space inside. I'd like to keep it under 1000sf on the main with a basement walkout that could accommodate an in-law suite. Don't need a huge house. It's just encourages us to buy more stuff. I'd rather save money by building smaller and use those savings to build better.

Makes sense as life stage changes and needs change.

I would agree with the diagram in that the formal dinning room gets utilized the least. Even when we've had 40-50 people over, we often do not really use it, instead making the rest of the spaces porous and utilizing the large spaces in the basement.

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by nick.flood

This is based on 1600 square feet. Imagine the difference 3500 would make!

That drawing is not a 1,600sf house. That two floor house is 50' deep - it is pushing 1,400sf on just the first floor without any bedrooms (and I'm not counting the porch). It is also a very odd design - I mean, the laundry is open to the kitchen, the square open space in the kitchen is 100 sf with the fridge on the other side, and the dining room is like 18' x 18'. Who has a 324 sf dining room? While I would love an 18' x 25' formal living room, that's pretty rare (though I won't knock that as I'd love a living room that size). While I think it is pretty impressive that the main door is 4' wide, I think that is rather unrealistic for this house. And who has a 60" x 84" table top? That's one massive table!

[suburbia]

Dp

[suburbia]

Just a quick general observation following on from my above response to the $6.5M special assessment ...

Noting that the issues in the above case were only discovered by an engineering review conducted 10 years post construction at the request of the condo board, it begs the question how such construction deficiencies are supposed to be caught before possession? The review was requested by the condo board, but when the building is first completed there is no condo board. If I'm buying a new house, I can pay a few hundred dollars and get a review done - it will at least catch if the drain spouts are designed correctly (if I find a decent inspector). If I have already sunk deposit money in a condo unit, I'd want to do the same thing, but I'd not be able to cover a review of a 300 unit complex. There are clearly learnings to be had here, and I'm wondering what best practice should be. I'm also averse to finding a way to get a full engineering review done also - I mean that should not be needed on the brand new place, but how do you get around builder design issues at the end of the day?

ALSO:

Can anyone explain why the condo board would have told all the owners not to speak out about this, saying that it could risk the result of the law suit? I believe this is basically standard practice and that is why we only hear about one out of ten massive special assessments, but what drives the strong request for secrecy?

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by thegoodlife

There have been plenty of special assessments which have been much higher than that. $24K, is not even unheard of for single-family homes.

You're not completely wrong. Indeed, when it comes to condos, $24K per unit is quite a regular occurrence (which is really what the story should be), while you're also not completely incorrect by saying that on extremely rare occasions $24K may even be required on a house.

Can you give me an example of a ten year old house requiring a $24K "surprise" fix because the builder used a shell company for creating their house that has since been liquidated?

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by suburbia

You're not completely wrong. Indeed, when it comes to condos, $24K per unit is quite a regular occurrence (which is really what the story should be), while you're also not completely incorrect by saying that on extremely rare occasions $24K may even be required on a house.

Can you give me an example of a ten year old house requiring a $24K "surprise" fix because the builder used a shell company for creating their house that has since been liquidated?

It's not a regular occurrence for condos either.

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by Corndogger

It's not a regular occurrence for condos either.

Well, in this single example, it represents it having happened in 288 individual homes, as the condo buildings in question had 288 units with a special assessment totaling $6.5M. Over the last few years it has happened in easily over 1,000 units. Considering there are fewer condo units than there are single family homes, the same ration would have thousands of homes with massive surprises - and in those cases you wouldn't have had condo boards squeezing people not to report the issue publicly. Condos corndogger their owners way, way more often, the facts suggest.