[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

No and that's my mindset - that if I don't buy now, a year from now it'll be even worse.

Basically the decision point I'm at is buy now, or come to terms with the fact that I will be leaving Calgary in the next few years to become a home owner elsewhere.

My main concern right now is that if I do this now, I will leave myself with little to no margin of error. I work in an industry that is highly unstable and I could find myself out of work without much notice (and I realize that job stability is very uncommon now so this is nothing particulary unique) - that concerns me, when I will have to basically take my nest egg down to virtually nothing to make this happen.

If I choose instead to rent for a year, I can add to my savings and then sometime down the road in the next couple of years take that savings and take it to another market where I can get way more house for my buck.

Decisions decisions.

The thing is though, that if you believe that the housing market will continue to be strong, then job security shouldn't be that big of an issue.

If you lose your job at least you have increased equity in your home which you could presumably sell at a profit and take with you somewhere else. If you don't lose your job then you are still going to save money on your home now, and if you decide to move elsewhere anyway, you still have the increase equity in your home to take with you.