Health Insurance

[Brookenstein]

Forgive my ignorance, but as a Canadian I have to ask how you all afford premiums and medical bills like this.  Is everything (mortgages, cars, etc) really that cheap down there?  Last census info I saw, we have a higher average earnings, public (minimal cost) health care, and yet residual income appears similar.  What gives?

Cheap, I dunno about that...  I think its called we live in debt with eternal hope of winning the lottery.


Uh... a 1200sq ft house in my neighborhood (I live in the oldest/smallest/cheepest in the area) will set you back about $450k.  If you want to buy a nice house the new(er) houses around me will cost you between $750-900k but they also have about 3000 sq ft.  Oh, but I don't pay mella roos so my tax rate is only 1% and theres is 1.8% for ~40 years.

A Honda Odyssey (minivan) will set you back about 25k.  A Yamaha R6 motorcycle will run about 10k.

My husbands insurance is 100% employer paid... we just have the crappy coverage that costs us (tens) of thousands out of pocket each year.

[Brewman]

Around here, a median or average single family home in this area runs over $250K, varies a lot by location, location, location.  
  Land in this area is becoming scarce and has become quite expensive in the past decade, and that's driving up the cost of new construction, which of course drives up the cost of existing homes right along with it.  

In 1990 I moved into a brand new 1000 sq ft. simple split entry starter home- paid $90K including lot, etc....

Sold that place 10 years later for abut $135K.  Now, 7 years later that house would probably sell for around $230K.

It's pretty impossible to build any new single family homes in this area for much under $400K now.  I don't know how people can afford those payments.

My current home is worth almost double what we paid 7 years ago, which is nice to know- lots of equity built up and all, but it also causes our property taxes to be high, too- based on home value.

Cars cost here what the cost anywhere else in the lower 48, I'd guess.

[Brookenstein]

We haven't had a lot of luck in the housing market.  Bought our first house for 90k sold it for 104k 4 years later... we had put about 15k in it in improvements and walked out of escrow with a check for 5k.  That house now another 4 years later is worth about $160.

Moved to SoCal and thought the houses were outragrous so we rented.  We watched the market go up and up... so after 2 years and 200k increase in value to houses we bought.  2 years later our house is probably worth about 90k more than we paid (we've put another $15k in improvements probably).  The only way we can 'afford' our house is with an interest only loan... in 9 years it becomes amortorized over 20 so in the end it is a 30 year fixed rate loan.... it just bought us some extra time to come up with the extra $$$.

[Cgy_Spa]

Interest only loans!  WOW, we do not have such a thing up here.  Mortgages are 25-35 years ammortization, and whatver term you want from up to 7 years. (you renew at whatever current interest is after the term expires)  If you take to high of a mortgage and interest rates jump by the time you renew, you're screwed (read: bank forecloses) unless you can refinance.  This happened in the early 80's when interest rates jumped to high double digits.

With a 25% down payment, an average house in Calgary right now ($400K) would cost you $1840/month + property taxes on a 5 year term, 25 year ammortization.
Average price was $250K only 1 year ago.  

A Honda Odyssey runs ~$35K.  Gas is about $3.10 a gallon here.

Health care is mostly Gov't funded. (taxes naturally)  This covers major medical. In Alberta, this costs $44/month per person.  A company health plan ususally pays this as a taxable benefit.  

Prescriptions, eyewear, dental, etc has to be paid the individual unless they have personal coverage, or through work.  With my company, I get $150/2 years for eyewear (not much), 100% prescriptions, 80% dental.

Combined Federal and Provincial tax will be ~26% off the top for the average individual.  Plus, we pay into the Canada Pension plan ($2K/year) and Employment insurance ($1K/year)

[Brookenstein]

I paid 30k for my Odyssey (no leather or DVD, this was in 04 haven't priced the new ones) but I was upside down on my old car and that included the sales tax/registration.  It should have cost ~$24, lol.  I'm down to owing just under $20, lol... and I saw in craigslist they still sell 04's for $24 so at least they keep their value.

They will do all sorts of things to get you in a loan down here.  They will do reverse amortorization loans... you only pay 1% interest even though the interest rate is say 7% and you are adding to your principal, but at least you have a lower payment now.  It's what a lot of people were doing when the houses were going up in value so quickly.  Hardly anyone down here puts much money down on a house anymore (except repeat buyers).  They do a lot of 0-3% down loans as well.  We are at least locked into a decent rate, so hopefully nothing bad happens...

Gas has fallen dramatically in the month or so.  I actually saw it as low as 2.69 this week.  A month or so ago we were paying well over $3, probably about $3.25.

Don't get me started on electrical rates though... My last bill was down to $250 for 1200 kwh.  My highest bill this summer was $450.  The rate increase to .49 kwh when over 100 of baseline goes into effect in November though.  That is a .15 increase.    

[Brewman]

I suppose with the price of housing down there, they have to get real creative with financing just to get homes sold.  
 We do have a lot of different mortagage programs up here, with the benchmark being the good old 30 yr fixed rate loan.  There are also many variable rate mortgages out there, and some interest only plans.  
 Our gasoline is selling for around $2.09 per gallon now, and I think our electric is probably around $0.08/kwh- but then they add in a few dollars worth of taxes and "adjustments" so it probably comes out to closer to $0.10/kwh.
 Blows me away what you guys in So. Cal. have to pay for electric.

Last year we got nailed with really high natural gas rates, and that hits hard during the heating season.  This year the price of NG has dropped significantly, so if we don't have too harsh of a winter, our heating costs should be more easy to stomach.

I guess we got really lucky when we built this place 7 years ago.  We were able to keep our mortgage somewhat reasonable because prices hadn't started to escalate yet, and we rolled all the equity we had from our other home into this one.  
 Property taxes are a killer, though, because they found out that it's easier to boost the value of your home than to try and pass a "tax increase".  
 And the premiums on our homeowners insurance have mort than doubled from what they were when we moved into this place.

Always something I guess.

[Brookenstein]

I haven't paid much attention to what our actual NG rates are... this summer we've spent between $20-25 mo.  Last winter we got up to about $60 I think.  We have gas water heater, dryer, stove, furnace.... but obviously mild temps.

I do know when we first moved to SoCal I spent less than $10 in summer and no more than $30 in winter so prices have increased, but compared to my electric the bill it is still much easier to pay each month, so I don't complain as much.