If you bought a house before the coronavirus crisis hit, don’t expect force majeure to save you FINANCIAL POST MARCH 28, 2020 Real estate transactions, even at the best of times, are complicated and stressful for buyers and sellers. For the thousands of people who made or received firm offers before the coronavirus outbreak changed everything […]
Globe & Mail March 11 2020 Every financial market you can think of is in an uproar right now, but not Toronto real estate. Sales of houses and condos for the first week of March were up 47 per cent over the same period last year and average prices rose 18 per cent, said John Pasalis, […]
Just as predicted, the Spring Market is taking off like 2017 all over again. A shortage of listings, high demand, and low-interest rates combine to create a hot market. Toronto’s single-family dwellings are up 16.7% in sale price over this time last year. Condos in the Six – up 18% in price Y/Y Condos […]
2017 – Here we go again. ASP is up 16.7% over February 2019. The market is hot – we have a dire shortage of listings, Bank of Canada just lowered the interest rate, and we have lots of buyers out there. If ever you’ve thought of selling, the right time is NOW! Call me if […]
Unstoppable condo sales put Toronto market at risk of overheating: CMHC TORONTO STAR – JOSH RUBIN FEBRUARY 20, 2020 The real estate market in the Toronto area is in danger of overheating, with condos driving much of the momentum, according to a new report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The CMHC’s quarterly market assessment, […]
The market is hot, hot, hot! February so far in the GTA: 77 offers, 43 offers, 28 offers, 14 offers, 17 offers, etc. etc. Buyers are lined up. Here are the stats for the end of January. Single-family homes continue to be strong. Condos are holding and climbing, and condos in the downtown core are […]
Forbes 2020/1/22 Purplebricks Canada has offered its employees paid days off in exchange for made up positive reviews on Facebook and Google. In an email sent by Purplebricks Canada marketing department to the company’s whole 200-people staff, exclusively obtained by this reporter, the online estate agent told employees to ask their family and friends to […]
Ontario’s home warranty agency ‘favoured the interests of builders at the expense of homebuyers’ Tarion, Ontario’s home warranty agency, has failed thousands of new homebuyers by placing the interests of builders ahead of theirs, according to a scathing report tabled by Bonnie Lysyk, the province’s auditor general. Tarion is supposed to ensure builders honour their warranties […]
Buyers of Liberty Developments’ cancelled Cosmos condos have lost their application to have their purchase agreements on the pre-construction units declared unlawful by an Ontario Superior Court of Justice. In his ruling, Justice Michael Penny sided with the developers but found that voiding the contract would not be in the purchasers’ or the developers’ best […]
March is Fraud Prevention Month and the Better Business Bureau has released the Top 10 Scams of 2018. 1. Romance Scams More than $22.5 million lost Canadians were victimized financially, emotionally, psychologically and socially by this scam. Catphishing through online dating continues to be a very lucrative and seductive business for scammers. Never wire or […]
How does paying 6.59 per cent interest on a mortgage grab you? If that sounds high, it should, because Canada’s average five-year fixed mortgage is only 3.47 per cent. Yet thousands of seniors will pay that higher 6.59 per cent in a reverse mortgage, a loan secured against home equity where you make no payments […]
Under the old residential tenancy rules, a landlord could reject a prospective tenant if they had a pet. I would suggest to clients that if they wanted the landlord to accept their pet, they could legally offer up a pet damage deposit to move the landlord from a “no” to a “yes”. It was legal […]
Toronto City Council has passed new rules to crack down on short-term rental services such as Airbnb that will restrict listings to principal residences and ban homeowners from listing secondary suites such as basement apartments. The basement-apartment issue dominated what snowballed into a daylong debate at city hall. Banning them from short-term rentals was meant […]
The good news is that the combined effects of higher interest rates and new mortgage rules will see Toronto’s housing market balance out over the course of 2018. The bad news? A serious lack of land supply coupled with a rapidly increasing population means it won’t last. At least, that’s what CIBC Senior Economist Benjamin […]
