Thanks for the visit and the comment. I’d say that you got in at exactly the right time. Congrats!

I just came a cross this “blog” and found it a fascinating read. There are always “opinions” on what stats mean and the extremes. Is the glass half full or half empty? The bigger question is what do we do now?

My experience is that it is almost always better to get “into” the market. Even if prices are high, interest rates are decent. It is hard to look at such a major investment as a house in short term – we need to be looking 10 – 20 years down the road.

I got in the market in October 2006 – If I had waited even 8 months I would be in something drastically smaller. But you have to start somewhere, or just stay out – your choice. And that is the economics of our society – it is a big business led democracy.

Everywhere else that has a good strong economy has had it for years and years and yet we’re paying more for housing because we’ve went from 0 to something.

Newfoundland, Saskatchewan enter ‘new era of prosperity’: StatsCan

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=03a079ec-a8a3-4f98-9e5a-a99abbd628a1

Well I’m glad we agree then!

From that point i went for the interview in edmonton, where they told me what they would pay usually in a starting position which at that time was late $20′s an hour. I got offered the position with my portfolio and such. When i brought up wage they mentioned that they talked to the office in Regina (which they weren’t allowed to do according to thier own human resources department) and told me that becuase i was ONLY making $17 an hour in regina, that i must have a lot to learn or they would have been paying me more, so edmonton offered to pay me the exact same wage in edmonton. I turned them down and let HR know what practices they did.

Long story short, a person can get screwed anywhere, be it here or there, it all depends on the companies. I would wager though that with more companies and more competition and more need in the bigger communities, there is a wider range of companies to apply for and to pick and choose from so that one CAN get a wage they are worth.

I applied at another firm in the city, no names, they wanted me right away. Wanted to pay me $17.50 an hour at most which would be a 3 dollar drop approx from what i’m currently making. They tried to make it up by sayign i could work all the overtime i wanted…

I turned them down and when they asked why? I told them that is no way to run an architectural firm…like a restaurant…where you can pay your people peanuts and expect them to live off the tips..the other people working there may accept that but i’m sorry i’m worth more than that.

Sorry for the long winded blab.

Employment in Saskatchewan jumped by 8,700 jobs last month compared to April of last year, as the province’s economy continued to boom.

http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/story.html?id=d3a7057d-fbcd-49b4-8bef-0ea21867055d

Are you an actual architect or a draftsperson? I ask this because one of my very close friends is an architect and moved to Calgary from Regina two years ago. At the time he had 6 years exp and was making about 40k for a wellknown archtitectural firm (one of the largest in N.America) When they moved him to Calgary they bumped him to 50k without him asking. He thought he was getting a pretty good deal until he found out new grads started higher than him. So he got an offer from another company and tried to resign. When he did the firm immediately said “we were just thinking about how you were underpaid and were JUST about to bring you up to market salary” which was 65k. This was pretty conveniently deceiptful mind you as he just finished his designation and now should be worth a min 75k in Calgary but that’s besides the point. The point is, for this specific industry Calgary pays MUCH higher than Sask….OR my friend was WAY underpaid the whole time….which is possible too.

You implied that this blog is dominated by “a pack of lions eating…” I’m sure those people are here, but they’re certainly not very vocal.

You stated that “incomes haven’t increased a DROP.” This is clearly untrue. While you embrace StatsCans news about the economy in general you suggest that income stats from the same source are flawed in spite of evidence to the contrary.

Finally, you seem perfectly comfortable putting words in my mouth and suggesting that I’m saying things I’m clearly not, in spite of my repeated insistence to the contrary.

Certainly! I think that’s a sensible observation. So what then is to happen to all the people who could have afforded a home without anyone questioning it, who now can’t afford a home?

By simple extrapolation, how can we then continue to assume current theories on handling the market are anything but enabling if not creating all the problems we face?

Leaving things be will only allow it to get worse as it assumes that somehow people will develop a method to gain the upper ground on those wealthier than them.

We only need to look at the past 2-ish years to see that.

Relying on the good will of money obsessed people (investors, starry eyed home owners, flippers, landlords) references my “pack of lions” statement earlier. You’re not going to massage good and beneficial intentions for the *people* by telling these animals stories of hardship. They know no restraint and they know the damage they cause.

There’s an imbalance here that’s failing to be recognized and every time an adjustment is made, their wealth allows them to climb back to the top every time! Surely this is plain as day obvious by now. People don’t have the resources or the time to out-decide those with more money and more time – so why does every solution seem to involve people becoming slaves further yet to the wealth of others?

Examples?

Look at ideas for private/public apartment collaborations from some people here. It’s practically an equity vending machine at the cost of the public! What would they get out of their investment? No guarantee!

Affordable housing initiatives – spare me the defense of the poor, I’m blocks away from worse – take the poor and put them in homes, sure. Homes worth nothing, that will never act as the kind of leverage other homeowners get. Generally speaking, those getting in on affordable housing do not live hand to mouth either, they are respectable people!

The CMHC makes a home more expensive only when one can barely afford it. Seems a bit backwards to me!

Any more? You probably know of more than I do.

The irony here is that many ideas involve the evil government free market idealists so love to chastise. Yet somehow it’s okay now that it’s working for them!

Like the common factors in any other situation that warranted regulation all of them are now present in housing. There could be stunning overnight improvements to our economy by putting the brakes on *greed* right away and stacking the deck in favor of the people for a while.

I’ve compromised a fair bit more than I think anyone should given the way wages are now (thank the greed of companies). I paid $120,000 for a house I know should never have gone for a cent over $80,000. But demand has increased – this much is true.

But the response, Norm, should never ever ever ever have been to capitalize off of that in such a way that it would throw our country’s youngest into years of crippling risk and debt.

If you didn’t outright say anything, what’s being implied? I can understand if you want to hold back on divulging that opinion, but why are you coming at me so hard when I’m only stating the obvious: Things aren’t working right now.

I LOVE the ‘guess you’re in the wrong field’ statement too.

What would be nice would be proof of positions that have high wages in all kinds of fields so people could get a better more unbiassed view. Though as per usuaal we’d see you can make a lot as a ‘manager’ of anything. It’s not enough to fool some of us though.

Many IT positions are exactly the same.

Now is the time for the age old “guess you’re in the wrong field” statement…

If wages are doing so great, why are there so many issues with rental rates increasing?

I don’t know how anyone can outright say that current wages are in step with costs – and worse still: The way costs are going.

Callum: “sojourning genie”

just look at the link from statscan I gave earlier. It gives a pretty good summary of different industries and occupations.

Ouch! That’s a lot of venom.

I truly am interested in the facts. I’d also appreciate a breakdown of which brackets had the increases.

I want to make sure we aren’t misrepresenting the impact of appeasements to dismiss the issue.

An average can be easily lifted by gains in higher brackets.

Where’s the breakdown? Are the rich staying rich while the middle class is forced to tread harder?

Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives disagrees with any notion that people are doing better *anywhere*. Who are any of us to disagree with them?!

I won’t apologize for using direct observation as my basis. First hand experience is fairly compelling. Not to mention the steady stream of evidence pouring from news sources constantly.

Bother me with the facts.

I had forgotten that Conrad posted it.