ID4 - Home ownership

We spent over a year as prospective first-time buyers, focusing on the Henry Farm neighbourhood in North York. On our sixth attempt on buying a house, we outbid four other offers. Just over two months later, we picked up the keys to a detached two-story, and traded in the downtown lifestyle for lawn-mowing, renovations, and paying interest (and paying down principal) on a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, through Manulife One. Although there is flexibility, better access to amenities, significantly less home maintenance, and smug cost-comparison as a renter, there is a satisfying of a nesting urge, greater sense of community, and better value in home ownership, with the ability to invest in and improve on your surroundings.

On the financial side, within the first month of having a mortgage, I realize that we have an asset which is increasing in value as we pay back the actual cost of the purchase, and the costs to borrow. It has broadened our social network, in the real and not the Facebook sense, in the ability to host our families and friends dropping by or staying overnight. If your environment shapes you, we now have more room for our interests, our relationships, each other. We have gone from downtown efficiency to suburban sprawl, from spontaneity in going out to an ease at being home. A home has not been like any other purchase - it has meant entry into a different way of life.