My Home About Me

Yesterday I started out discussing my financial resume (which all of us should attempt to do at least once to see how good a job we are doing with our moneys).

Today we speak of my second and present house and the purchase of it. At the time we had outgrown our old house and thought we could afford a larger house in a different part of the same town we lived in. It was about 80% more expensive than the current house we are in, higher taxes, larger floorspace and thus higher utility bills as well. There was another bedroom so at the time it meant each of my kids could have their own bedroom and it had an unfinished basement which we could expand into.

Financially the decision wasn't too hard, since interest rates were relatively low. We have since replaced the furnace, the roof, added gutters and have finished a large section of the basement (so that is money we have effectively put into the house, but they were also needed so I am not sure exactly how you balance that pay out). The investment itself currently is worth about 50% more than what we paid for it (if you believe the City of Ottawa's estimators, and from what I can see of the houses around us, that is not a bad estimate).

Was this a good investment? Housing is always a funny one for a strict black and white comparison. We needed a bigger house, we are in a nice neighbourhood, I am not planning on "flipping" this house to make a large profit on selling it (since I have to live SOMEWHERE), so I think thanks to an inflationary spiral in the housing prices in Ottawa this house looks to be a good investment, but housing prices are like stock prices, the only time it really matters is when you (1) buy them and (2) sell them, any fluctuations in between are simply "potential" profits, not real ones (unless you take out loans on the basis of the value, but I am not going to do that).

I think this would be a good investment for now. We have enjoyed living in it, we have to put more money into it, to replace windows and add some other parts to it, but all in all, a good place to put my moneys.

Tomorrow what else can I look at in my financial resume?

A happy note the Bank of Canada didn't raise interest rates yesterday, so another month of stable interest rates! Whoo Hoo!! 4.25% still and holding, good for us!

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