A common thing I’ve been hearing is that Toronto families don’t make enough to support home prices at these levels. Bank executives, economists, fund managers, and even real estate agents have repeated this in the media – but they never offer any numbers. Running some quick numbers shows that there’s actually a good chance that this market can be supported by local incomes.
It's been 50 years since the emergence of condos began to redefine Toronto development as we know it. This article explores how the city adapted to changing eras in the housing market, and was in turn transformed
The Canadian city has watched housing prices skyrocket over the last four years, thanks to tightening inventory, low interest rates and population growth (including steady immigration). In December, the average sales price was 20% higher than a year earlier, and Toronto saw the strongest sales gains of any Canadian metropolitan area in 2016, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB).
Economic analysis isn’t always the easiest to understand. There’s even a word for economists’ jargon: Economese.
Thankfully, there are charts. Economists with the country’s biggest financial institutions feed the real estate obsessed with innumerable charts presenting complex data in a straightforward way.
Despite a predicted decline in sales activity for 2017, most of Ontario's housing markets won't experience price declines this year. That's because the inventory on single family homes continues to be dramatically low, making it a seller's market in most of the Greater Toronto and Golden Horseshoe areas.
Urbancorp, the Toronto developer that left hundreds of new home buyers in the lurch when it filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors this spring, could pocket as much as $31.6 million on the proceeds of six properties sold in central Toronto through a bankruptcy court.
It seems so long ago that $200,000 above the asking price was a shocking amount to pay for a comfortable house in Toronto. In reality, it was early 2016.
The latest mortgage rule changes have failed to slow the blistering pace of home sales, according to numbers released Friday and they may have actually pushed prices higher in parts of the GTA that are still considered affordable, realtors say.
On November 14, 2016, as part of its fall fiscal update, the Government of Ontario announced a number of changes to the Land Transfer Tax ("LTT"). These changes are intended to modernize the LTT and to make housing more affordable for new home buyers. As discussed in greater detail below, the changes involve increases in the LTT rates on transfers of certain categories of property, and an enhanced first-time homebuyer's refund for eligible first-time homebuyers.
End of year usually means gathering up all of your receipts and making sure you take all of your permitted tax deductions. If you or your clients have purchased a new home or condominium in the past two years, you may have an HST rebate coming to you.
Earlier this month the Toronto Real Estate Board announced that the average price of a detached home in the 905 region was up 29.4% year over year. But as any good math student knows, if the average in the GTA is up 29.4% that means there must be quite a few neighbourhoods that are appreciating at a much faster rate than this.
Here's a snapshot of typical mortgage documents and a few tips on what to watch out for, keep in mind every lender have their own versions of this document.
According to statistics released today by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales edged slightly higher in September 2016 compared to August.
Trying to become a first-time homebuyer in the Greater Toronto Area's red-hot real estate market has been one of the most challenging experiences of my life. It's become clear to us that getting a house in this market requires a lot of patience and a bit of luck.
Imagine you've just purchased a new house with your dream backyard. It has a gazebo to escape sweltering summer days and a hot tub to ease your aches and pains.
