Canada’s real estate buying spree may be over, but paying off the debt has barely begun. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the Crown corporation in charge of housing research, teamed up with Equifax to crunch the numbers on the average payment due. Larger debt loans and higher interest rates pushed the average monthly payment for housing much higher in Q1 2018. The large increases are just the beginning as interest rates continue to push towards normalization. Average... [read more]

Vancouver has North America's least affordable housing market ... and its lowest property tax rates.   Many Vancouverites may be frustrated that homes in their region — already the least affordable in North America — are being slapped with new taxes, but data shows homeowners in the city have actually been getting a very good deal. An excellent deal, really. In a new study from home listings site Zoocasa, the city has the lowest property tax rate among Canadian... [read more]

July 2018 numbers from the Toronto Real Estate Board showed that both sales activity and the average selling price of homes in the city have seen strong growth, thus keeping up Toronto’s status as the most vibrant housing market nationwide. “We have certainly experienced an increase in demand for ownership housing so far this summer. It appears that some people who initially moved to the sidelines due to the psychological impact of the Fair Housing Plan and changes to mortgage... [read more]

While the rest of the Canadian housing market slowly adjusts to the effects of rising interest rates and stricter mortgage rules, Toronto’s new condo market continues to perform well. But a lack of supply is pushing sales downwards.   Condo starts reached a record 7,981 units last quarter, while sales plunged 56 per cent year-over-year, according to a new report from Urbanation.   “The drop in sales can be attributed to a slowing of project openings, and... [read more]

While foreign investment has often been overestimated as a factor in high Canadian real estate prices, Chinese buyers continue to be attracted to the Canadian housing market, according to a new report from Chinese real estate website Juwai.com. A primary reason is the country’s relative affordability, in comparison to the United States, according to Juwai.com CEO Carrie Law.   “The Canadian dollar is up more than 6 per cent against the Yuan since its recent low point in... [read more]

Oakville, Ont. is home to tony boarding school Appleby College, the famous Glen Abbey Golf Club and lakefront mega-mansions, including one listed for $65 million in 2016. Its average household income of $162,000 is the 10th highest in the country and the value of the average primary residence is $1.2 million, the 13th most expensive in Canada. Many would look at those facts and conclude Oakville sounds like a great place to live—for rich people. But mayor Rob Burton says those numbers... [read more]

Toronto’s tech scene is so hot the city created more jobs than the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle and Washington, D.C., combined last year, while leapfrogging New York in a ranking of “talent markets.” Toronto was the fastest-growing tech-jobs market in 2017, according to CBRE Group Inc.’s latest annual survey, released Tuesday. The city saw 28,900 tech jobs created, 14 percent more than in 2016, for a total of more than 241,000 workers, up 52 percent over the past... [read more]

Rents continue their rapid rise in Toronto-area condominium leases in the second quarter of 2018, according to new data from analysts at Urbanation Inc. Urbanation calculates that for an average-sized condo apartment (732 square feet), the monthly rent for new leases signed this spring hit $2,302, an increase of 11.2 per cent over similar leases signed in the same period in 2017. And there’s no signs of the trend slowing down: “The $231 average increase over the past year was the... [read more]

While the Toronto residential market has seen the median cost of its housing shrink in Q2 2018, price growth accelerated in other major Ontario locales such as Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, according to the latest Royal LePage House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast. The average price of a standard 2-storey home increased by 8.9% annually across the region (up to $515,733) in the second quarter of the year. Meanwhile, the median price of a bungalow grew by 6.2% year-over-year (up to... [read more]

Toronto is currently the most constrained industrial market in North America Canada is not just running out of residential real estate in its key markets — the country’s commercial and industrial real estate is also filling up fast. Availability of industrial property across the country fell to a historically low level of 3.9 per cent in 2018, while supply tightened in eight of the 10 major commercial real estate markets, according to CBRE Group, Inc., the real estate services... [read more]

Rents for condominiums in the Toronto area skyrocketed in the second quarter amid a slump in leasing activity and a severe lack of supply. Average rents rose 11.2 per cent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year, hitting $2,302 for an average unit of 732 square feet, according to Urbanation Inc., a firm that collects and analyzes data on the Toronto condo market. New condominium project registrations or units recently completed – a strong source of new rental... [read more]

The slowdown in the Toronto region’s housing market that began last year continued through the first half of 2018, but two big industry players suggest that buyers and sellers are ready to shake off the malaise with a return to normal later this year. Although 2018 “was a spring market that never blossomed,” Royal LePage CEO Phil Soper says he sees change on the near horizon after 14 months of government intervention, higher interest rates and new mortgage... [read more]

Toronto real estate may not be what it was one year ago, but it’s still a battle for home buyers. In fact, it’s often a war. A bidding war. This is not just in Toronto, it’s happening in Vancouver too. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the Crown corporation in charge of mortgage liquidity, recently conducted a massive survey of 30,000 recent buyers in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. It found that 55 per cent of Toronto and Vancouver real estate buyers... [read more]

The Toronto real estate market is in flux. Depending on the article you read, predictions vary between unbridled optimism claiming the market is about to take off (again) and worrisome naysayers expecting an implosion. Is the Toronto real estate market truly heading for a correction or are the headlines of the Toronto rental market being unaffordable cries for attention? From a global perspective, 2017 was an incredible year for the financial world, including real estate. Global... [read more]

Like many Torontonians in search of a home, Katy Schuyler would do almost anything to secure a coveted one-bedroom apartment downtown. Nevertheless, she doesn’t think handing over a record of her last 30 bank transactions should be part of the deal. “I don’t even bother scheduling appointments with places like that because that’s beyond intrusive,” Schuyler said. “You don’t need to see what I spend my money on.” Schuyler joins a growing... [read more]

New data from the Toronto Real Estate Board, as mapped by Zoocasa, gives us an insight into the most desirable places in the city to live in right now. We can infer this because the data shows how many days condos and detached houses are on the market before they sell. This is done using an indicator called "days on market" (DOM) where the average DOM for condos in Toronto is 16. Coming in at only 8 DOM is a collection of neighbourhoods that includes Davenport Village, the... [read more]

RYCOM and Blackpoint Team Up To Make Smart Tech Safer for Commercial Real Estate TORONTO and BALTIMORE, June 7, 2018 /CNW/ - RYCOM Corporation and Blackpoint Cyber (Blackpoint) announced today that they have signed an exclusive partnership agreement to ensure commercial real estate is both Smart and cyber-secure. At the center of the partnership is a cyber defence platform which will assist in protecting the networks and technologies needed to make commercial buildings Smart, convenient and... [read more]

If you're on the hunt for the perfect summer hideaway, be prepared to spend more on your cottage, camp or cabin this season. The average price of a recreational home in Canada is expected to rise 5.8 per cent to $467,764 by the end of September, according to a new survey by Royal LePage. That's up from $442,239 in the same period last year. Retiring baby boomers and gen-Xers are driving recreational home sales as they look toward retirement or for a secondary home to raise children,... [read more]

Analysts are predicting a cooler housing market in 2018, with falling prices in the first few months of the year. But what is it that will pull prices downwards? It’s impending mortgage rule changes that are to blame, according to a recent Reuters poll of Canadian analysts. Beginning January 1, a new mortgage stress test will require all uninsured mortgage borrowers to qualify against the Bank of Canada’s five-year benchmark rate, or at their contract rate plus an additional 2... [read more]

Jennifer Johnson felt she didn't have time to wait. The single mom of two children, she watched as house prices in her Ajax, Ont., neighbourhood soared year after year. "When houses were starting to go up 20 per cent each year, I was worried about my kids' futures," says Ms. Johnson, a global bid manager and proposal writer. So, in 2014, with her own house paid off, she decided to take the real estate plunge again, buying her son, Braden, then 10, a home in Ajax for... [read more]

For the seventh consecutive year, Toronto’s Bay Street has been named Canada’s most expensive in JLL Canada’s annual Most Expensive Streets for Office Space in Canada Report. With a four-per-cent increase in average rent from $67.31 per square foot in 2016 to $70.14 in 2017, Bay Street once again outranks other major city streets. Vancouver’s Burrard Street remains the second most expensive street at $61.52 per square foot, while Montreal’s Des... [read more]

RE/MAX VOTED CANADA’S MOST TRUSTED REAL ESTATE BRAND Market research firm BrandSpark surveyed 5,000 Canadians for their “Most Trusted Awards,” which looks at Canada’s major services and retail categories, and the votes are in! RE/MAX is named the “Most Trusted Brand for Real Estate.” We did it! It may not come across as a surprise to all of you, but it sure feels good to be recognized. RE/MAX won by the largest margin of any of the brands in the... [read more]

With tighter mortgage regulations coming in January, some uncertainty surrounds the real estate market in 2018. Real estate expert Karyn Filiatrault spoke with CTV’s Your Morning on Monday, to share the five real estate trends she expects in 2018: Condo popularity will surge: “We have baby boomers that are downsizing and are liking the low-maintenance lifestyle,” she said. “We have families that have been priced-out (of the household) market--they’re moving... [read more]

OTTAWA -- Foreign buyers make up a minuscule portion of the overall housing market in this country, new research shows, but what they own is more expensive and newer than the average Canadian homeowner. And there are indications foreign buyers are moving out of the traditional bases of Toronto and Vancouver and into new cities. Non-residents owned 3.4 per cent of all residential properties in Toronto and 4.8 per cent of residential properties in Vancouver, according to new housing statistics by... [read more]

With home prices on the rise in Toronto and Vancouver, buyers are looking to other Canadian cities where they can get more bang for their buck. According to the RE/MAX 2018 housing market outlook report, smaller cities in Ontario and BC have seen a surge of demand in the past year. “Buyers leaving the GTA and Greater Vancouver have contributed to increased demand and considerable year-over-year average price increases in Kelowna (9 per cent), London-St. Thomas (18 per cent),... [read more]

  1. Less Competition You’re not the only homeowner who’s considered taking your home off the market during the holidays—most don’t want the hassle. And most new sellers will decide to wait until the first of the year or even springtime to put their homes up for sale. That’s great news for you because you won’t have to compete with dozens of other homes just like yours to get buyers’ attention. Reduced inventory means more buyers checking... [read more]

In the unfortunate circumstance that a homeowner is past-due on their monthly mortgage payments, they pave the way for a “foreclosure” on their property. In today’s market, banks and other lenders do not turn to foreclosure to take away the homes of homeowners who are in arrears. Instead, they perform a "Power of Sale" which is wholly different from a Foreclosure. What is a Foreclosure? Foreclosures are laborious, grueling, and costly to both the... [read more]