# Canada or USA



## xanderj83 (Jun 8, 2011)

I can;t decide where I would rather live. I like Canada because of its British roots and beautiful mountains. I don't understand why houses are more expensive in Canada than USA. They're still a lot cheaper than UK though. Also I heard Canada has a huge welfare system like UK, and I believe this attracts the wrong types of immigrants. I don;t believe anyone should receive benefits unless they are disabled, and free healthcare should be for those that have worked in a country for a few years. I'll probably settle for Canada as it's easier to get into. Hope I can watch english football on tv there. he he


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## Auld Yin (Mar 10, 2009)

xanderj83 said:


> I can;t decide where I would rather live. I like Canada because of its British roots and beautiful mountains. I don't understand why houses are more expensive in Canada than USA. They're still a lot cheaper than UK though. Also I heard Canada has a huge welfare system like UK, and I believe this attracts the wrong types of immigrants. I don;t believe anyone should receive benefits unless they are disabled, and free healthcare should be for those that have worked in a country for a few years. I'll probably settle for Canada as it's easier to get into. Hope I can watch english football on tv there. he he


Canada's welfare system is as far away from that in the UK as it could possibly get, and thank God for that. The UK system has helped drag the UK close to bankruptcy. Canada is easier to get into than where?
There is English soccer on TV here. In fact, I think there is probably more live Premiership soccer shown in Canada than in the UK.


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## ClaytonP (Apr 15, 2011)

A lot of people are saying the Canadian housing market is in a bubble right now, so you may want to rent for a couple years before making a purchase.

Our prices are higher because we didn't go through the housing crisis like in the states. We suffered from the recession, but people weren't buying and selling unrealistic mortgages to the extent of the states. They have tons of people who have been forced into selling their houses at a loss and that drives down the price.


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## RGS (Jan 24, 2011)

I think the US housing market is cheaper "right now" than Canada because of the state-of-affairs in the US... with the post recession still dragging on the ecomony of the US. 

I frequently watch a program on tv where people in the US go house shopping for another house because they want something newer or bigger, or are being transferred to another city or state. Last nights program for example showed a couple looking for a larger house in Tennessee. They were looking at newer houses (but not brand new - never lived in). I was shocked at the prices (versus our house pricing). These people were looking at 4000 square foot houses in size, on 2 to 3 acre land, fully landscaped, with a swimming pool, and beautiful upgraded interiors. The house cost averaged between $500,000 to $600,000 US. In Canada, that same house in most major Canadian cities would easily be twice that amount... somewhere around 1.2 to 1.5 million. 

I know this to be fact because I've been recently in the past couple of months looking to move into a new house. I found two houses (bungalows) I really liked. One was 1620 square feet (landscaped yard, no swimming pool). The asking price was $749,000. Another house, which was a bit larger with a finished basement at 1698 square feet (not landscaped or no swimming pool), had an asking price of $879,000.

Most analyists agree that Canada's housing market is over-heated right now and in a "housing bubble", which can't last forever and will burst soon... and the housing prices will start dropping soon. But that being said, the province of Alberta is poised to go into another boom phase. The province will be hiring people by the thousands again (in fact that hiring has already started). And with major new oil refinery expansions scheduled to start... one of these projects for example will alone require 8000 jobs that need to be filled. So all this job activity will drive up the Alberta housing market even more than it already is as an influx of people from other provinces and countries come into Alberta for the high paying jobs, thereby requiring houses to live in. In the past when Alberta is not booming, a house for sale can easily sit on the market for several months before it's sold. During boom time... a house can easily sell in a single day (with multiple offers on the house). Thats the type of activity which drives up the cost of the Alberta housing market... which in turn keeps prices for housing high across most other areas of Canada.


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## xanderj83 (Jun 8, 2011)

I want to visit Canada for a couple of months so I can get a real feel for the place. There is a place called Kelowna which looks beautiful, and it's right by mountains for skiing and a huge lake to enjoy in the summer. Also the houses are cheaper there than in Vancouver. I was wondering what sort of combined income you would need to buy a house for $500000. I've got about £100000 saved, so thats $160000. I'm a pharmacist in England so will have to take equivalance exams. I;ve read there is a shortage pf pharmacists in some areas so they pay is pretty good, about $50 an hour (sometimes more), but it can vary a lot. Also I read you can have your own franchise of Medicine Shoppe or Shoopers Drug Mart. Do Canadians go skiing/boarding at weekends? This is the sort of thing I'd like to do, and when I have kids would be great for them. Is the Okanagan Valley area a good place to live?


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## nauru (Aug 23, 2009)

I think the southern US is the place to be right now. You can buy a nice fully detached house for $40-50k, or you can spend $100k if you want a bigger place. For $250k you can get a country palace complete with stables. Whatever your choice pay in cash, live debt free, and ride the comeback of the US residential real estate market. Wages in the US are higher than in the UK by a considerable margin, and also higher than in Canada (even after health care) yet housing costs are one tenth the cost of the UK (I'm talking about fully detached home with a proper pool in the back yard and some landscaped land near a useful urban area). If you are more aggressive, you may want to consider buying two or three homes in the southern US instead of just one. And if you are considering Michigan you could build an entire portfolio of homes, perhaps own 15 or 20 homes if that's your thing and you are betting on a big comeback for GM and the associated auto parts industries. 

To put it another way, the ratio of income to real estate prices is very bad in Canada and the UK, but is currently very good in many regions of the United States. Canadians leverage themselves to the hilt to buy homes in Canada; in Vancouver (where most UK people think of when they think of Canada) there are people working in banks making 35k per year, and taking out mortages on homes at nearly a million dollars. Have you seen what a million dollars gets you in Vancouver and Okanagan area? Basically a hovel. It's more expensive than London.

No point in buying in Canada at the moment, as homes are wildly overpriced. Even Canadian residents have been using their cash to buy second homes in Florida, Kansas, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, South Carolina etc, instead of buying in the badly overpriced Canadian market.

The United States has all the physical landscape of Canada, including the Rocky mountains... plus it has proper desert, which Canada doesn't have (Canada has tundra which is much less fun). The United States, when growth picks up again, has far more opportunities for an ambitious and educated young immigrant than Canada has.


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## roundfoot (Jul 11, 2010)

But the US is a lot harder to get into for an immigrant....


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## nauru (Aug 23, 2009)

roundfoot said:


> But the US is a lot harder to get into for an immigrant....


Yes, that generally seems to be the case.

However for someone with the luxury of a choice between the two, I think the US is a far, far superior choice over Canada. Only exception might be if you or your kid(s) are currently suffering from leukemia or brain cancer or some other serious disease which is brutally expensive to treat and takes many years of expensive treatment to deal with. In the US it is unlikely that any health insurer will cover you with that kind of pre-existing condition, but in Canada once you've been in the country for 90 days then you can have unlimited chemotherapy, multiple surgeries, rehabilitation, extended hospital stays, regardless of whether it all adds up to millions of dollars it is all paid for by taxpayers with hardly a penny out of pocket (though this may vary slightly by province, but in all cases I believe between 99.99% and 100% of the cost of cancer treatment and treatments of other life-threatening illnesses will be paid for by taxpayers, not by the individual).


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