Archive for the ‘Condos’ Category
Pickering Village House for Sale – 38 Randall Drive
One Of The Most Affordable Homes In The Gta! Bigger Than It Looks, With 3 Bedrooms And Partly Finished Basement. Fenced Backyard And Your Own Garage. Through The Back Gate To Playground And Visitor Parking. Brand New Hot Water Tank. Freshly Painted Throughout. New Samsung Bottom Mount Fridge And New Dishwasher.
Pickering Village House for Sale - 38 Randall Drive
Fridge, Stove, B/I Dishwasher, Washer, Dryer, All Electric Light Fixtures, All Window Coverings. Also Include Chair And Sofa In Basement, And Patio Furniture.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960
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Canadian housing outperforms
Canada avoids the booms and busts of the property business so far
By Diane Francis – The National Post
Last fall, I wrote two columns about Canada’s real estate bubble created in part by undisciplined mortgage backstopping by Ottawa’s Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Huge allocations of additional funds were set aside for CMHC to do its thing and its thing was pretty irresponsible: Few physical inspections of insured properties; down payments as little as 5% on luxury homes, and to speculators, in huge amounts contrary to CMHC’s original raison d’etre of helping first-time buyers buy modest new homes.
I received a flood of mail supporting my piece and, to their credit, Canada’s banking chairs agreed and followed by lobbying Ottawa to pull in CHMC’s horns. Recently, to their credit, the Tories bridled CMHC by announcing higher down payments and other disciplinary tweaks.
But CMHC is not the only reason why residential real estate (not commercial and industrial which is in trouble) in Canada’s major cities has sailed through the world’s crisis unlike every other G8 nation.
Last week, in a real estate round table with professionals in Toronto, sponsored by Post City Magazines, there were some interesting tidbits:
- “Hot money” is increasingly pouring into Toronto and Vancouver and foreigners are snapping up the most expensive properties.
- Repatriating Canadians, fresh from Manhattan and London, are doing the same which is creating bidding wars again for select properties.
- Condo King Brad Lamb, pointed out that small condo units continue to be snapped up by boomers and empty nesters as investments for rental purposes or to house their offspring in starter homes. Buying interest is also generated by record-low mortgage rates and the massive transfer of wealth being handed down from one generation to the next.
- Lower priced housing is also holding its own, despite the continuing de-industrialization of Southern Ontario, because of immigrant families pooling their resources and in-country migration to Toronto from elsewhere in Canada.
- Both Toronto and Vancouver are the principal destinations for roughly 300,000 new entrants annually (both from abroad and other parts of the country).
Author and former Tory cabinet minister Garth Turner was bearish and suggested prices will drop when mortgage rates nudge upwards this summer and because Canada’s house price to income ratio is one of the world’s highest.
The TD Bank survey in February, came out yesterday showing frothiness with housing starts up to 196,700 from 110,000 the year before.
“The existing (resale) home market has been much firmer this time around. Price gains in Canada’s largest existing home markets have been strong, particularly in Vancouver and Toronto,” said TD.
Another reason for the uptick is that builders hope buyers will want to take advantage before harmonized sales taxes (in BC and Ontario) kick in on July 1 and add thousands to their purchase prices.
My guess is a levelling off.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960
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Resale prices up
Teranet-National Bank index sees month-over-month gain in December for Toronto
Helen Morris, National Post
Last week saw Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announce changes to mortgage qualification rules in an attempt to cool down the housing market.
Home prices in Toronto have continued to climb since the market entered recovery mode last year. Resale prices rose 1.2% month-over-month in December, according to the Teranet-National Bank House Price Index released this week. This amounts to a 7.1% rise on a year-over-year basis.
However, analysts suggest that factors other than stricter borrowing rules will likely rein in future gains.
“The pace of increase, especially in the Toronto area, might not be lasting,” says Simon Cote, managing director, property derivatives, National Bank of Canada. “New listings and new housing starts recently have both increased significantly. This added supply should at least reduce the rate of price increase in the Toronto area.”
(Only homes that have sold at least two times are counted in the Teranet index.)
At the national level, the composite index of six metropolitan markets also rose 1.2% month-over-month, pushing the index to a new record above the pre-recessionary peak. Nationwide, according to the index, resale prices rose 5.2% year-over-year. This represented the third consecutive month in which prices were up from a year earlier, after 10 consecutive months of year-over-year deflation.
“For this month, I would concentrate on the index value itself (rather than monthly or yearly increases). The national index (132.15) has reached a higher level than it was, pre-recession in 2007,” says Mr. Cote. “The supply will increase in the coming months [and then there's the] the Flaherty measures. All of this should at least reduce the pace of increase.”
In addition to Toronto, three other cities experienced rises in excess of 1% for December: Calgary (1.6%), Vancouver (1.3%) and Montreal (1.1%). Montreal recorded its first healthy increase in four months. The Vancouver price gain was the smallest in that market for the seven months since prices started to rise again.
Halifax prices saw their first decline in six months, falling 1.9%. Ottawa remained steady, inching up 0.4% month-overmonth. On a year ago basis, prices in Calgary edged up 0.1%, the first year-over-year rise for 18 months. All the other markets that make up the composite index saw 12-month rises: 6.2% in Ottawa, 5.1% in Vancouver, 5.0% in Montreal and 2.9% in Halifax.
South of the border, there was better-than-expected news as resale home prices edged up 0.3% month-overmonth in December. This represents the seventh consecutive monthly rise in the S&P/ Case-Shiller 20-city composite home price index.
“The message here is that the stabilization in the housing market itself has continued apace in the U.S.,” says Millan Mulraine, economics strategist at TD Securities. “The housing market recovery remains on track but . . . we do think that probably by the middle to the end of this year the momentum may lose some steam.”
Too many houses and not enough people with jobs may hinder a more-rapid recovery in the market.
“The inventory of unsold homes remains huge and that has continued to put some downward pressure on prices … that has been offset by the fiscal support” from Washington, Mr. Mulraine says. “When that support is removed, the soft underbelly of the U.S. housing market will be exposed. Particularly given that we don’t expect the recovery to pick up any significant level of momentum, nor do we expect any massive job gains. These are the things which would likely provide some offset from the adverse impact of the removal of that stimulus.”
Comparing the numbers from a year earlier, prices dropped 3.1%; this follows from the 5.3% drop recorded in November. Some areas showed gains but perhaps not for the healthiest reasons.
“A number of depressed places are beginning to show year-over-year gain, such as San Francisco, San Diego,” Mr. Mulraine says. “That’s because they’re now a year displaced from when prices declined at a cataclysmic rate.”
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960
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