That said, free healthcare counts for a lot. Also, as a dev in a Canadian tech company, you are probably not going to see as much stress and volatility as your average Silicon Valley company.
The high property prices are messing up lives of young people who don't have rich parents. In my friend circle, I can see it as a key source of strife among married couples. Buying a house ties you to a city .. even if you get a better offer some place else. I don't think real-estate is being recognized as the beast it is. The last Bank of Canada rate decrease seemed only about oil prices and oblivious to the flames in YVR and YYZ housing.
Sigh ... what a mess :(
I now work at Google in Kitchener, and commute from a hobby farm near Hamilton. Quality of life is outstanding. I dread ever having to work in Toronto proper again.
The startup scene in Toronto is a clique. The quality of management talent is sad. After working as employee #4 in a Toronto startup, I jumped ship to work for a late stage startup HQ'd in NYC and the contrast in their management skills and treatment of employees was night and day. Working at a 'hip' company in Toronto they expect you to feel blessed and to take intense sacrifice on their behalf just because you have the privilege of working for something that isn't a bank or insurance company. Meanwhile compensation lags significantly behind what you'd get elsewhere in NA.
And then the rest of the non-startup scene in Toronto is primarily large financial companies, and the work is soul crushingly boring.
In any event, I think for the first time there's a really good cohort of Toronto founders with American-style vision and ability to execute. I don't think we're too far from seeing a couple of unicorns in Toronto that will help to build a stronger ecosystem. And yes, where necessary that means importing American management at great expense.
Toronto has a lot going for it. It's not everyone's cup of tea, as you can attest, but I think it's as good a place as anything to do something great.
In general it seems like VC-funded companies that go through acquisition here get a far weaker deal than similar companies in the US. And the employees a lesser share of the pie. Maybe that's changing now, but unless the capital is there to invest, I can't see how.
We can always whine about how things in Canada are never as good as in <x>, in this case the Valley, but overall it's actually pretty good. I guess the secret sauce is to just get on with doing what you'd do regardless of your circumstances. I personally am not motivated by whether or not I'd get a 30% boost on an eventual exit if we were in the US.
Having said that, I have references that Wattpad in Toronto is a great place to work. I believe that every place is quite unique and there are diamonds to be found amongst the rough.
https://angel.co/shopify/jobs/88003-software-developer?utm_s...
And it goes up from there, especially once you start looking at positions that include less sexy startups, less common technologies, or more responsibility (like being a team lead).
Just saying, average house price in Toronto is 1 million. It should not cost 10x a dev's income to buy a house in Richmond Hill. In the Bay area, total comp of 400K is not unreasonable ... that makes the 2.5 million dollar homes in MV seem reasonable ... an uncomfortable 6.25x of a dev's income.
I don't think Shopify being in town has anything to do with that, just that the ceiling is higher than you may think.
Why would you do this? There's been nothing but talk about a housing bubble, especially in Vancouver and Toronto. This seems like the worst possible time to buy property there, especially if you take any debt to do it.
I doubt it's very much, and they've got major downside risk.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/incoming/article26200269.ece/...
I'm estimating since the chart isn't precise. It looks like, from 2013, the average change is:
single family home: 1.1 million --> 1.4 million = 8.37% return
condo: Hard to tell. Not as large.
Am I reading that chart right? Of course, that doesn't tell you the increase in price in existing homes. And that return rate comes with interest, fees, property taxes, maintenance and the massive downside risk if we're in a bubble.
This is a very rough calculation on my part, so let me know if it's wrong.
That said, as to the original question, which was whether someone should invest now: With the massive economic slowdown + the large drop in Calgary real estate prices, this seems like a particularly bad time to invest, even if it might theoretically have been better a few years ago.
It's not really better than the inexpensive healthcare that comes with any good job in the US. If your choice is between $70K with free healthcare, and $120K with inexpensive healthcare, I know which I would pick.
If you're young and childless, it really doesn't.