Friday, June 5, 2009

No house

Here's a quick update. I (or I should say my real estate agent) negotiated for four days to buy a row house in Ottawa. It ended when I gave a firm and final offer to the seller. She said no and countered. I walked away. Then her agent verbally offered to meet me at my price. I said no.

The thought process is long, but here goes.....

The Ottawa market is undergoing a boom and the newspaper has reported that the boom is based on all the government jobs created to administer the fiscal stimulus package. Logically, in a few years the rest of Canada will be pulling out of the economic downturn and Ottawa will begin deficit cutting. This means that these new positions will likely disappear.

It seems to me that it would be a foolish idea to buy a home at the top end of a boom when there is a good chance that the boom will end about the time that I am posted elsewhere and have to sell my home. For this reason, I think that I will shop around some more and wait for a more reasonable home to come on the market. There are lots of row houses in Ottawa so I just need to bide my time until someone decides to sell.

It should be a tough decision but I'm actually glad that I have more time to look around for a house. When I do buy it will be on my terms, not on the sellers.

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