Hi folks,
I completely agree and highly recommend the concept of buying a home. With soldiers going on deployment and coming back with a fair amount of cash burning a hole in their pocket, they should be looking to buy a home (as opposed to cranking on the first Ford F250 they see). In Petawawa, folks who did this five years ago have seen their houses increase in value by a significant amount. I personally purchased a house in Petawawa in 1977 for $36K. That same house is now worth about $150K. In 1986 I purchased another house in Petawawa for $80K; that house is now worth $180K. In 1993, I purchased a farm in Pembroke for $135K and that property is now worth $300K. I am not bragging but just showing you the increase in value in an area that has lagged behind the rest of the country.
The trick is to keep buying a house if you are posted. The danger is that a lot of folks, however, tend to buy up as they move from house to house ending up with too large a mortgage so that the time until they eventually become mortgage free keeps moving far into the future. I am personally very lucky to be mortgage free and you cannot really even begin to think about retiring until you have a house without a mortgage. And God knows every soldier wants to retire!!
If you are single, buy a house and rent rooms to your single friends. I have to thank all my single friends (some of whom are now doing well in their own homes as they learned a good lesson) for paying for the house I am now living in. Thanks guys! The shacks have not improved over the last few years, so you will always have single guys looking for a home to live in. Oh and it is all tax deductible against your mortgage interest. I lost $10K a year tax free when I got married because I had to kick all the single guys out! My new wife was worth it!!
My advice to anyone who complains about CFHA is to move into your own house and become your own CFHA. I am not saying "If you don't like it, move!" I am simply saying, move and start investing in your future so that in twenty years (believe me twenty years will fly by in the blink of an eye) you will have some serious equity. I always remember a freind of mine who worked for me and retired and started to look for a house. He was shocked that a house was actually going to cost him $100K. Imagine what it is like retiring with seventy percent of your salary (or less) and trying to service a $200K mortgage...can't be done!! That is why many folks retire and start to work at Home Depot...or just don't retire.
Good luck and get yourself a good real estate broker (if you are in Petawawa, call me and I will refer you to one),
Ed Gagnon
Ex-slum lord of Lisa Crescent