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Alex, take it from another Alex in Montreal, me... real estate can be a great investment, but there are plenty of pitfalls.
Taxes, maintenance, utlities, and so on all go against the deal.
If you are buying a primary residence and plan to live there a few years, then you will see that things are usually pretty good. You have to consider what you would have paid out in rent to live somewhere else, and understand that what you spend in your mortgage comes back as equity and return on investment. Remember also that your gains on reselling your principal residence are TAX FREE in Canada. So if you go through a series of houses (1 every few years) in your life and sell at a profit each time, you are making tax free profit in your pocket.
The downside on real estate is timing. If you buy on the high side of the market, it can take you many, many years to come up on the positive side of things. If you buy at the very bottom of the market and an upswing comes, you can make out like a bandit in a very short period of time. It isn't 100% certain, so there are risks inherent to getting into it.
You have to have somewhere to live, so if you can swing the expense, it is almost always worth it to buy.
PS: I bought new, and net net net I am up probably 80% in 5 years.
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