Vinyl Me Please (store, exclusives, swaps, etc)

bdrummond said:
I posted in the Toronto thread elsewhere here, but man some of these new release prices I'm seeing coming through just makes VMP look ahead of the curve. We're talking $60-70 CAD for 2LPs in some instances now.

Definitely time to start enjoying the collection I have and stream the rest.
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Yeah, $60 CAD is about $45 USD, so about 5-10 USD above where everything new seems to be these days here in the States.

As an American visiting Toronto in October I was shocked at how far my money went. Prices were comparable at restaurants to what I pay in my college town taking the exchange rate in consideration.
 
wmeugene said:
Yeah, $60 CAD is about $45 USD, so about 5-10 USD above where everything new seems to be these days here in the States.

As an American visiting Toronto in October I was shocked at how far my money went. Prices were comparable at restaurants to what I pay in my college town taking the exchange rate in consideration.
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Toronto is insane in a lot of ways though. House purchases, rent, food and liquor costs are ludicrous. It's getting up there as one of the most expensive places to live.
 
bdrummond said:
Toronto is insane in a lot of ways though. House purchases, rent, food and liquor costs are ludicrous. It's getting up there as one of the most expensive places to live.
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Yeah, the hotel or the Raptors game was not a discount at all so I can imagine real estate being super pricy. But certainly most retail and restaurants were cheaper than any other large East Coast city in the States.
 
Mather said:
Yeah real estate is batshit around here. I'm in Toronto proper and we're talking 2 bed 2 bath unrenovated 1960s bungalows for like $1.3 million. New build just down the street from me on the same size lot I have just went for $2.7 million. NOT SUSTAINABLE.
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It's insanity.
I saw a barebones 2bdr condo on St Clair selling for $1.9M yesterday. There is absolutely nothing special about this condo except the price.

Going to enjoy looking at the $4k price point for anything other than a tiny 1+ den condo when we're moving in April.
 
bdrummond said:
It's insanity.
I saw a barebones 2bdr condo on St Clair selling for $1.9M yesterday. There is absolutely nothing special about this condo except the price.

Going to enjoy looking at the $4k price point for anything other than a tiny 1+ den condo when we're moving in April.
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Yeah, the best thing you can do is to try to find a well kept older building, no new builds. Easier said than done I know. But the older "apartment" buildings rather than "condos" tend to have larger units and the less insane amenities the building has the less the condo fees should be. Ideally. But these days anything inside Toronto is just bonkers. Guelph is a nice town. Only a 45 minute drive.
 
Mather said:
Yeah, the best thing you can do is to try to find a well kept older building, no new builds. Easier said than done I know. But the older "apartment" buildings rather than "condos" tend to have larger units and the less insane amenities the building has the less the condo fees should be. Ideally. But these days anything inside Toronto is just bonkers. Guelph is a nice town. Only a 45 minute drive.
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Honestly, it's a tradeoff.
We lived in Kitchener, and bought when the market was still low, and sold just after the peak...so we made a bit of money which was great. But the main driver was we missed almost everything about the city, living in the burbs like that is super isolating.

We're in a new build now, and honestly it's absolute shite, and we're paying $3800. Everything's falling apart, management is a bunch of goddamn bumbling idiots and we're breaking lease early just to get out of here.

Definitely looking at an older building next, but we like the dishwasher/washer/dryer that a lot of these older dedicated rental apartment buildings lack, so that's a bit limiting.
 
bdrummond said:
Honestly, it's a tradeoff.
We lived in Kitchener, and bought when the market was still low, and sold just after the peak...so we made a bit of money which was great. But the main driver was we missed almost everything about the city, living in the burbs like that is super isolating.

We're in a new build now, and honestly it's absolute shite, and we're paying $3800. Everything's falling apart, management is a bunch of goddamn bumbling idiots and we're breaking lease early just to get out of here.

Definitely looking at an older building next, but we like the dishwasher/washer/dryer that a lot of these older dedicated rental apartment buildings lack, so that's a bit limiting.
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I really liked Kitchener, but I was just a visitor, not living there. That said, I imagine the isolating feeling your talking about being similar to my tail-end of high school years, and just after, living out in Maple Ridge while all my friends were in New Westminster and Vancouver proper - that definitely was awful.

New builds are absolute trash. I'm sorry you're having that experience and am glad you're getting out.
 
avecigrec said:
I really liked Kitchener, but I was just a visitor, not living there. That said, I imagine the isolating feeling your talking about being similar to my tail-end of high school years, and just after, living out in Maple Ridge while all my friends were in New Westminster and Vancouver proper - that definitely was awful.

New builds are absolute trash. I'm sorry you're having that experience and am glad you're getting out.
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Yeah, Kitchener visiting is way better than living there. The downtown though can be absolutely horrifying. We found it was scarier than most places in Toronto by a long shot.
 
bdrummond said:
Yeah, Kitchener visiting is way better than living there. The downtown though can be absolutely horrifying. We found it was scarier than most places in Toronto by a long shot.
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Yeah I absolutely get that, it's why I mentioned Guelph though. It's a fully formed small city, with nightlife, great restaurants, beautiful historical downtown. It's one of the prettiest and well kept cities I've been to in Ontario. There's houses and condos and lofts all available. It ain't exactly "cheap", but it's cheaper and more to the point is an actual liveable town with a large beautiful university right at it's core. I have spent a lot of time there over the years and it's the one spot outside of Toronto I could definitely live and be happy in. And if you need the big city it's a short 45 min drive or even shorter GO train ride away. And they have at least two records stores as well.
 
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bdrummond said:
Toronto is insane in a lot of ways though. House purchases, rent, food and liquor costs are ludicrous. It's getting up there as one of the most expensive places to live.
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I always find it interesting when I see Toronto and Vancouver on the "Most Livable Cities" lists - most livable if you come from familial wealth I guess?

That said, housing costs across Canada (and presumably all of North America) have skyrocketed since the pandemic to the point now where it's untenable. Even up here in the middle of nowhere, the average house is $700k. I'm thankful I bought 17 years ago and will have it paid off soon, but I worry for my teenage kids and what the future holds for them. Alas, our society has normalized Capitalism and neo-Liberal economics, so something that should be a basic human right in housing is now viewed as an investment.
 
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TCell said:
I always find it interesting when I see Toronto and Vancouver on the "Most Livable Cities" lists - most livable if you come from familial wealth I guess?

That said, housing costs across Canada (and presumably all of North America) have skyrocketed since the pandemic to the point now where it's untenable. Even up here in the middle of nowhere, the average house is $650k. I'm thankful I bought 17 years ago and will have it paid off soon, but I worry for my teenage kids and what the future holds for them. Alas, our society has normalized Capitalism and neo-Liberal economics, so something that should be a basic human right in housing is now viewed as an investment.
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Anecdotally, our path to Toronto home ownership (we're renting for now until the market someone stabilizes) involves the following:

1) Death in the family providing us with a decent sized inheritance
2) Buy in at the low end of an up and coming market.
3) Selling at the high point of said market.

Without #1, we would likely not have purchased.

It's sad working with a lot of younger people coming to the realization that they're likely not going to own at any point in the near future.
 
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