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In the past few months, real estate sales have rebounded to record-high levels in many of Canada’s real estate markets, in spite of the winter season. But selling your home at this time of year requires a different approach to ensure that your home is showcased at its best potential. Here are some tips to ensure you’re set up to wow potential buyers during the snowy season. DO – Highlight Your... [read more]

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Mortgage delinquencies "worm has turned" warns Equifax More Canadians are running into serious issues with their mortgage payments according to a new report. Consumer 90-day mortgage delinquencies rose 1.5% to 0.18% in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to a year earlier while the comparable non-mortgage rate increased 0.4% to 1.07%. The figures from Equifax follow two significant quarterly increases in consumer bankruptcies. “As we expected, the worm is turning in... [read more]

Wedding or home? The decision facing many young Canadians Young Canadians are facing difficult financial decisions with the cost of living increasing and the cost of becoming a first-time homebuyers unaffordable for many. That means that the high cost of a wedding – average $46,000 – may be the difference between homeownership as singles or married life as renters. An analysis from RateSupermarket.ca found that an overwhelming 84% of respondents would rather spend their... [read more]

Growing numbers of first-time homebuyers are venturing farther in search of an affordable first home. While leading metropolitan cities like Vancouver or Toronto will always be strong draws, they’re challenging markets to crack: in December 2018, the benchmark price of a home hit $1.05 million in Greater Vancouver and $796,800 in Greater Toronto. Homebuyers have driven booms in revitalized municipalities like Hamilton, Ont. and Surrey, B.C. These growing cities offer great value for... [read more]

TREB MARKET WATCH - JANUARY 2019   TORONTO, ONTARIO, January 4, 2019 -Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported a total of 77,426 residential transactions through TREB’s MLS® System in 2018. This result represented a 16.1 per cent decline compared to 92,263 sales reported in 2017.   Total new listings entered into TREB’s MLS® System were down by 12.7 per cent over the same period to 155,823. The overall average selling price for 2018 transactions,... [read more]

An increasing number of Canadians can’t meet their financial obligations, another sign rising borrowing costs are taking a toll on household balance sheets.   The number of consumers seeking debt relief jumped 5.1 per cent to 11,320 in November from a year earlier, the Ottawa-based Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy reported on Jan. 4. October and November combined saw 22,961 consumer insolvency filings, the most for those two months since at least... [read more]

Canadian realtors are predicting modest gains in the Toronto area re-sale housing market in 2019 — a return to a pre-bubble balance that will see home prices climbing in the low single digits. Royal LePage is expecting a 1.3 per cent price gain to an average of $854,552 next year, including houses and condos, in the Toronto area. That’s a sliver above the company’s 1.2 per cent national forecast. Re/Max is slightly more optimistic, forecasting a 2 per cent price increase... [read more]

The Canadian Real Estate Association will be adding historical home sales data to its realtor.ca website and make it available without a password. It follows a Supreme Court decision which ended Toronto Real Estate Board’s bid to protect home sales data. Although the case focused on GTA data, the ruling set a precedent. CREA will not automatically add the information though and crucially it seems unlikely that Toronto data will be included. That’s because realtor.ca will only... [read more]

Homeowners could be facing two interest rate rises in the coming months according to an updated forecast. CIBC Capital Markets said Thursday that it was already expecting a rate rise in October due to anticipation that a NAFTA deal would happen. The agreement of the next-gen trade deal USMCA supports the earlier forecast. However, economists are now calling for a further rate rise in January 2019, slightly earlier than it had been forecasting. That’s due to recent positive data... [read more]

Canada’s economy faces a major risk through the next three years from how debt-laden consumers cope with higher interest rates, according to economists from three of the country’s largest financial institutions. Risks in the housing market remain, even after the slowdown in sales earlier this year after the government imposed new regulations, according to Frances Donald, head of macroeconomic strategy at Manulife Asset Management. Consumers still have to prove they can be... [read more]

Canada’s housing affordability is at its worst level since 1990 and its going to get worse. A newly report from RBC Economic Research shows that its aggregate housing affordability measure was 53.9 in the second quarter of 2018, based on the share of household income required for ownership costs including taxes and mortgage payments. The figure is up from 43.2% just 3 years ago and although house prices are responsible for the initial rise, interest rates are the bigger influence of... [read more]

A new tower will set a new high for the Mississauga skyline, soaring 81 storeys to become the city’s tallest by a strong margin - and take its place among the GTA’s giants. Rogers Real Estate Development has announced the third of its M City towers along the western edge of Mississauga's emerging downtown. "M City is the first residential development for the Rogers Family and we are thrilled to once again be partnering with the City of Mississauga. Our goal is to... [read more]

Toronto’s home sales activity last month was the third weakest nationwide, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association. The city saw its sales-to-new-listings ratio decline to 48.8 in August, down from 59.3 during the same time last year. Only Calgary (47.9) and Edmonton (45.8) had slower activity last month, Better Dwelling reported. It’s not only sales that are seemingly winding down in Toronto. Data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation also... [read more]

Cannabis, also known as marijuana, will be legalized in Canada on Oct. 17. This means that it is no longer a crime to possess small amounts of cannabis. However, that doesn’t mean you can use it anywhere you wish. For example, some provinces won’t permit cannabis to be consumed in public places. When this law is passed, it will further grant the right to not be arrested for growing up to four plants. Again, it doesn’t mean you have the right to grow it... [read more]

Condominium living is exploding in Canada. CMHC’s fall report for the Greater Toronto Area reported nearly 50,000 pre-construction condo units were sold in the past two years, with up to 33,000 multi-family units expected for 2017. Skyrocketing home prices, changing demographics and greater acceptance of condo living are all driving this change. With this tremendous growth comes questions about why condos were created, their role and how management, the board and owners ought to... [read more]

Is now the time to lock in your mortgage? Here’s what to look for when it comes to debt and saving. Consumers who locked in their mortgage last fall or summer might be feeling smug following Wednesday's increase in flexible loan rates. But for first-time buyers and home owners looking to renew there is nowhere to hide from a rising interest rate environment. The big Canadian banks increased their fixed-rate mortgages to 5.14 per cent from 4.99 per cent last week, even... [read more]

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1. Find Out The Deposit Structure As an industry standard, pre-construction condos typically require a 20 percent down payment to purchase a property. The deposit structure is provided by the vendor and it will inform you of the timing of the deposits. For example, are you depositing 20% in the first year after contract signing or is it spread out over 2 or more years? When buying pre-construction, the lucrative advantage of a 20 percent down payment is the power of leverage. For instance,... [read more]

The Bank of Canada estimates there will be about 60,000 fewer jobs by 2019 due to the increases in minimum wages across the country, but that labour income will be higher due to the increases. In examining the impact of the wage increases, the report estimated that the consumer price index could be boosted by about 0.1 percentage points on average and real gross domestic product could be cut by 0.1 per cent by early 2019. The number of jobs lost was based on a 0.3 per cent decline in the... [read more]

Real estate was a major topic in the business world in 2017, and with some big changes on the horizon, the subject is likely to dominate headlines again this year. Here are five things to watch in Canadian real estate. Foreign buyers Policy-makers in Toronto and Vancouver have taken steps to try to curb activity in a perceived problem: foreign buyers gobbling up houses as investment vehicles, driving prices up for everybody else. Vancouver slapped a 15... [read more]

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December 5, 2017 -- Toronto Real Estate Board President Tim Syrianos announced that Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 7,374 transactions through TREB's MLS® System in November 2017. This result was up compared to October 2017, bucking the regular seasonal trend. On a year-over-year basis, sales were down by 13.3 per cent compared to November 2016. New listings entered into TREB's MLS® System in November 2017 amounted to 14,349 – up by 37.2 per cent... [read more]

New rules coming in January could disqualify up to 10 per cent of prospective home buyers who have down payments of 20 per cent or more, the Bank of Canada says. The new rules will likely cause those buyers to settle for smaller homes, put more money down or delay buying. Some may also take out riskier loans from alternative lenders that are not federally regulated, including credit unions and private mortgage lenders, the central bank said on Tuesday in its twice-yearly review of the... [read more]

Tougher mortgage stress-testing rules could make it impossible for 40,000 to 50,000 Canadians to buy a home each year, driving down real estate sales and reducing the anticipated pace of new mortgage-lending growth, according to a new analysis. A report by Mortgage Professionals Canada, a national mortgage-broker industry association, forecasts about 18 per cent of home buyers – or about 100,000 people a year – would not qualify for their preferred home purchase option... [read more]

The boom in condos and stacked townhomes pushed sales of new construction homes in the Toronto region up 18 per cent year over in year in October — accounting for 91 per cent of the overall 5,377 purchases. The remaining 9 per cent of sales were low-rise, single-family homes, including detached, semi-detached and town houses. A 70 per cent decline in the number of transactions in the low-rise category in October, compared to the same month last year, was accompanied by a 30 per... [read more]

Bank of America Merrill Lynch told its clients Monday that the weakness in the oil industry spreading out to other industries will prompt a further interest rate cut by the Bank of Canada when it meets on January 20. In a note to investors the bank called for a cut of 25 basis points. With some of Canada’s largest banks having recently increased some mortgage rates a cut in interest rates may not cut the cost of mortgages, however it could mean that there are no more increases for now... [read more]

Most Canadians agree that house prices are too high and most say they have no plans to buy real estate this year according to a new study released Friday. The Angus Reid Institute found that 32 per cent of Canadians overall believe prices are “unreasonably high” with another 23 per cent deeming them to be “high but understandable given the area.” Another third (32 per cent) believe prices are “reasonable overall” while 5 per cent think they are... [read more]

More than a third of Canadians have withdrawn funds from their RRSP before retirement with home-buying the number one reason. A survey from BMO found that 25 per cent of those that had released funds from their retirement savings account has used it for home purchase with 21 per cent using funds to pay down debt. Living expenses and emergencies were the other major reasons. With tax implications of early withdrawal of funds, experts generally do not recommend it, although home purchase can... [read more]