John Fereira says:
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There's also the real estate market. Last fall my mother-n-father in
law
bought a house about 10 minutes from "downtown" Ithaca. It's a nice
two
level 3br, 2ba house with a huge two car garage on 25 wooded acres.
They
paid less than $200K for it.
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You're certainly not going to get that around here.

But it reminds me of a recent radio discussion of real estate prices
across Canada. The economist suggested that prices are actually much
higher in Winnipeg than in Vancouver. Whilst picking his jaw off the
floor, the host blurted out, "That's ridiculous!" To which the
economist responded, "Not if you factor in the fact that, when buying
real estate in Winnipeg, you also have to live there." Of course the
economist was having a bit of fun with words, but it did make me think
about the various trade-offs we make in our lives.

Cheers,
frtzw906