Archive for the ‘Buying Real Estate’ Category
Setting up a home can be hard
Sylvia Putz – Metro Canada
If you’ve just bought your first home, I bet you’re learning that the process of setting up a home can be exciting, but also a little overwhelming.
But don’t fret. Focus on looking after a few important logistical details first, and then you can enjoy deciding on décor and furniture and all the other delightful stuff.
Before you move in:
• Change or re-key your locks.
• Complete a change-of-address at the post office.
• Transfer or set up new utilities.
• Purchase home insurance.
• Set up automatic mortgage payments with your lending institution if you haven’t done so already.
• Ensure you have window coverings in bathrooms and bedrooms at the very least, even if they are temporary.
In those first few weeks:
• Locate the main circuit breaker in the house and label each breaker.
• Locate and know how to operate the main and other water shutoffs in your house.
• Find out how to look after your furnace and any other appliances that need regular servicing.
• Make sure you have working smoke detectors.
• You should have easily accessible fire extinguishers on each floor of the home, preferably hung on the wall near the entrance to the kitchen and near the entrance to the garage.
• Set up an annual schedule of important servicing or maintenance duties at your new home, so they are not overlooked in the years to come.
• Also have an emergency exit plan in place and make sure all family members know exit plans.
• Purchase and install a carbon monoxide detector if you don’t have one.
• Write down and keep important emergency numbers close to the phone.
• Put together a first aid kit for your new home.
• Find out which day of the week is garbage/recycling/compost pickup day. Also find out the rules in your area, and make sure you buy raccoon-proofing straps if you store your garbage outdoors.
• Cut plenty of extra keys for yourself, and your family. Give one or two to trusted friends, relatives or neighbours in case you or family members forget or lose a key.
• Check out the neighbourhood and find the nearest grocery store, drugstore, walk-in medical clinic, gas station, hardware store, post office, beer and liquor store, good restaurants, fast food, parks and recreational amenities, and so on.
• Introduce yourself to your new neighbours.
Things you may need sooner or later:
• Assemble or purchase a few basic tools, like hammers, assorted screw drivers and wrenches, a hacksaw, a small drill and drill bits and a tape measure.
A stepladder and an outdoor ladder are handy. You may also want to buy assorted nails and screws, sandpaper, paper yard waste bags, plastic garbage bags and any other house repair items you think you may need regularly.
• If you’ve got a lawn or garden, you may also want to purchase a few gardening tools, such as assorted shovels, including a pointed-tip shovel suitable for digging, a rake, a hoe, trowels, a water hose and watering can, gardening or outdoor workgloves, a lawnmower, and an outdoor broom for sweeping off steps and porches.
Depending on how much gardening you do, a wheelbarrow can be handy as well.
A snow shovel and ice melter or salt will also be a necessity.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960
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Durham real estate rebounds
The Durham Region Association of Realtors is reporting the best March in six years, and the best first quarter ever, in terms of sales.
The group reports 1,110 sales of single family homes in Durham in March. That helped toward a best-ever first quarter, with 2,461 sales.
March’s average price also reached a new height, coming in at $306,140, an increase of 16 per cent over March 2009′s average price of $263,970.
“It’s worth noting that although the annual rate of growth is currently quite substantial, the market will likely level out to smaller, single-digit rate increases soon,” said Dierdre Mullen, president of the Durham Region Association of Realtors. “As new active listings continue to grow and provide vaster options for buyers, eventually, availability will outweigh demand and the market will level out.”
As of April 1, there were 2,132 active listings in Durham. A record 2,016 of those were newly listed in March, the largest influx of new listings Durham has seen in one month.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960
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As mortgage rates rise, is it time to lock in?
Rob Ferguson – Yourhome.ca
Like many homeowners, Sarbjit Kaur has been riding the knife edge of record low mortgage rates for well over a year, waiting for the right time to lock in as cheaply as possible for a longer term.
“I keep watching,” says the young mother and owner of Kaur Communications in Mississauga.
And for good reason. Experts warn rates are creeping up as bond markets react to concerns about high international debt levels and expectations the Bank of Canada will raise rates soon to quell inflation as the economy improves.
“The big question is where will mortgage rates be in five years and what could my payment be then?” says Kevin Moffatt, vice-president and mobile mortgage specialist with TD Canada Trust.
Another issue facing buyers is the new mortgage qualification rules designed by the federal government to cool the housing market and make home shoppers more realistic about what they can afford.
Taking effect Monday, April 19, the rules set tougher criteria for lenders assessing a borrower’s ability to carry loans insured by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, in cases where the down payment is below 20% of a home’s price.
The new standard is the ability to repay the five-year fixed mortgage rate, now posted at 5.85%, instead of the three-year rate, now at 4.35%, meaning many buyers will need higher incomes, larger down payments or have to opt for cheaper properties. As a rule of thumb, banks say mortgage payments shouldn’t exceed one-third of a family’s gross income.
“There are people who will not be able to buy a house,” says Pauline Aunger, president of the Ontario Real Estate Association. “If you were on the edge before, you’re below now.”
Amid concerns that low rates have encouraged Canadians to take on too much debt, Moffat has lost count of how many customers have been enjoying variable-rate mortgages around the tempting 2% mark.
“That just isn’t realistic long-term,” he says, urging both home owners and new home buyers to do some “what if” calculations to chart out how their mortgage payments could change depending on how high rates go.
“You have to be very careful,” adds Aunger, a real estate agent in Smiths Falls, near Ottawa.
As a single parent of two young girls, Kaur has one eye on her budget and the other on the mortgage scene. Rates for fixed terms of more than three years rose six-tenths of a%age point a couple of weeks ago.
At some point, perhaps this summer, she’s set to trade the advantages of her low variable rate mortgage for the peace of mind that comes with the lowest fixed rate she can get. It will be higher than she’s been paying, but she wants financial predictability.
“I would like to save money as long as I can,” says the former communications director for a Queen’s Park cabinet minister, noting falling interest rates have put an extra $200 in her pocket monthly.
Moffat says the hardest people to convince that historically low interest rates won’t be around forever are home buyers in their 20s or 30s, who’ve lived their adult years in a period of steadily declining and reasonable rates since the late 1990s.
“I tell young people today that my first mortgage, in 1988, was 11.5%. They almost fall over dead,” he quips. “I don’t think we’ll see rates like that, obviously, but the 6 to 8% range is possible one day.”
The difference in payments between a 2% rate and 6% is astounding.
For example, a $400,000 mortgage at 2% costs $391 weekly, rising to $485 weekly at 4% and $591 a week at 6%. Adding it all up, the difference between 2 and 6% is an extra $865 a month out of the household budget.
The message is, don’t buy more house than you can afford. And if it looks like higher rates could create a household financial crunch, try to pay as much down on the mortgage as possible before the renewal date to reduce borrowing costs. In the first years of a mortgage, most of the payments go to interest, not paying down the principal.
Experts note that over a 25-year amortization, the interest paid can easily equal the amount borrowed. On a $400,000 mortgage at 2%, total interest costs over 25 years are $108,141. But at 6%, that rises to $367,766.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960
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