Tenant or Owner

In today's global economic slump, one sector which had been greatly affected is the real estate industry. In the U.S. , the mortgage industry which fuelled the boom in the housing sector actually started the economic nosedive. Thousands of houses have been foreclosed and are now being sold for prices well below their original value.

Ontario's housing market is also experiencing such a slowdown. In Windsor, for instance, one newspaper reported that you can buy a house for the same price as a car. Also, in Metro Toronto, apartment buildings have a growing vacancy rate and mortgage rates have gone down.


When I came here in the early nineties, finding an apartment was hard; vacancies were rare. And because a new wave of immigration was just taking shape, landlords were wary of newcomers knocking at their doors. Nowadays, you see apartment rentals adding incentives such as a free flat TV or one month free rent, into their leases.

In today's inflationary times, if you are a homeowner, renting out a room or the basement of the house makes good business sense. This can especially be ideal for the single or for the divorced who may not like living alone; at times, the added income pays for the single lifestyle or for paying out alimony to the ex-spouse. But the more common landlords, next to the corporate aparment owners, are those working familes with big finished basements; oftentimes the income from the rental pays for the family's monthly mortgage. To rent out a basement of a house, though, one needs to get approval from City Hall; too many basement apartments have already been found out to be illegal.

When I was still living in the U.S. , I remember that apartment subleting was a very common thing; so was having room mates. Like any Pinoy, I used to live with relatives when I first landed, then rented a room in an old lady's apartment, then rented another one in a house of a Fil family, then finally getting my own apartment in Jersey City, then in Sayreville.