Stop moving so much, it’s ruining you

 He’s moving again, buying another house — his third in about seven years. Or should I say a good friend of mine has once again thrown away a huge chunk of his money.

Is there a bigger wealth destroyer than selling and buying houses? The transaction costs will kill you every time.

“You are depleting your wealth with every move,” says Vince Gaetano, a principal at Monster Mortgage. “Realtors will beg to differ, because there is a self-interest there, but you will never get that wealth back.”

Just to be clear, we are not talking about people who fix homes themselves, live in them and then flip them. That’s still the best deal in town and about the only way not to pay any tax on your labour because principal residences are exempt from capital gains taxes.

No the reasons for moving can sometimes be more negligible. A 2010 survey by Toronto-Dominion Bank found 16% of Canadian repeat home buyers planned to move because they were “bored” with their home. The bank did the same survey again in 2011 and found 42% of respondents were moving sooner than they expected.

TD’s director of mortgages, Farhaneh Haque, responded to the results by saying research indicates Canadians “don’t stay in one home too long.” She’s not wrong, the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professional estimates the average Canadian will own 4.5 to 5.5 homes in their lifetime.

My question is why? Part of it no doubt is the flawed thinking that the move is not costing them anything because the value of their home went up so they are still in money. 

Garry Marr