Tagged : market news

Buying to rent: tips from a seasoned real estate investor

Buying to rent is a way to ride out the ups and downs of the real estate market and the economy, said Ann Kaplan, president and CEO of national consumer finance company iFinance Canada. (Kaplan also appeared on The Real Housewives of Toronto, a show run by Slice, one of the brands owned by Corus Entertainment, which also owns Global Television and Global News.) Kaplan, who gradually built a portfolio of  seven residential and commercial properties in Vancouver, Victoria and Toronto, has some advice for those buying investment properties as a means to enter the market:

Decide what price you want to pay and be prepared to walk away if you don’t get it. When you’re buying investment property,

Canadians facing ever increasing house prices — and debt — are turning to short-term rentals to make ends meet, according to a new survey.

AltusGroup, which provides real estate research, said its FIRM survey from the summer of 2016 found four per cent of all households had used a short-term rental accommodation service in the past year. The number rises to seven per cent for those with a mortgage.

“There has been a lot of speculation lately about potential investor involvement in short-term accommodation rental services like Airbnb,” said Altus in its release. “But focusing on households rather investors, how extensive is the practice of short-term rentals of space in principal residences?”

Altus noted impact is even greater among millennials,

On May 9, British Columbians cast their votes for the next provincial government.

It took a couple of weeks to get the final results, and now the elected parties—the Liberals, the NDP and the Greens—must work together to govern this diverse province.

A topic that all three elected parties agree on is the importance of housing affordability. Housing was a key election issue throughout the campaign period, and all three parties made numerous policy promises about it in their election platforms.

The parties took differing positions on some aspects of housing affordability. The Liberals highlighted financial incentives for home buyers and homeowners that they introduced in the last legislative session, proposing a gradual approach to expand these

Vancouver, BC – June 13, 2017. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that a total of 12,402 residential unit sales were recorded by the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in May, down 7.9 per cent from the same period last year. Total sales dollar volume was $9.33 billion, down 4.0 per cent from May 2017. The average MLS® residential price in the province was $752,536, a 4.2 per cent increase from the same period last year.

"Market conditions have tightened considerably this spring as an upturn in consumer demand has not been accompanied by a rise in homes listed for sale," said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. "The supply of homes for sale in the province has fallen 50 per cent over the past five years."

"The entire

Canadians just aren’t interested in buying homes the way they used to be.

That much is clear from the annual RBC Home Ownership Poll, which was released Monday. It showed that only a quarter of Canadians plan on buying a home in the next two years, down from nearly 30 per cent in 2016. It’s a trend that comes as Canada’s average home price has climbed to almost $520,000, up 3.5 per cent from a year earlier, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).

Many Canadians still believe that buying a home is a good investment, but potential buyers are delaying their purchases in the hope that prices will come down, the RBC poll showed.

“For many Canadians, buying a home is a financial and personal milestone – often the biggest investment

New mortgage insurance rules introduced by the federal government last fall to cool the housing market have led to a sharp drop in insurance volumes for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. as fewer home buyers qualify for mortgage insurance.

CMHC said total insured volumes fell 41 per cent in the first quarter of 2017, including a 23-per-cent drop in homeowner insurance volumes and an 87-per-cent decline in the volume of portfolio insurance, which is bulk insurance purchased by financial institutions for their portfolios of uninsured mortgages.

The numbers unveiled on Tuesday offer a window into the impact of the government’s new rules, suggesting they have led to a significant decline in the number of people qualifying for insured mortgages under the

The U.S. Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate from 0.75 per cent to 1 per cent today, in a move widely anticipated by economists and investors.

The hike is the second increase since December and reflects growing confidence at the central bank that the U.S. economy is now on solid footing.

Meanwhile, Canada’s key interest rate has remained at 0.5 per cent since July of 2015. What does this mean for Canadians and their finances?

1. The spread between fixed-rate and variable-rate mortgages could grow wider

The Fed’s move could lead to higher interest rates for fixed-rates mortgages in Canada, but it won’t have an effect on variable-rate mortgages.

Traditionally, a hike in the U.S. benchmark interest rate will also push up long-term

Turns out 2017 might be the year when B.C. home buyers will finally get a break. But don’t bother throwing a party, yet.

Price drop is due to a lack of supply 

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) predicts prices will drop by about 7.8% in 2017 in B.C., primarily due to a lack of supply of higher-priced single family homes in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver areas.

CREA’s Chief Economist, Gregory Klump, likens this forecasted price decline as the equivalent of removing the basketball team from a Grade 8 class. “Throw in the basketball team and the average height shoots up. The same applies to markets with higher-end homes.” He continues by saying that, “The forecasted drop in B.C. home prices largely reflects an anticipated decline in

British Columbia home prices continued to drop sharply last month but the declines are being driven by the Vancouver market where sales continue to slump, say realtors in the province.

The British Columbia Real Estate Association, which represents about 20,000 realtors, said Tuesday that there 7,272 sales through Multiple Listing Service last month, a 16.7 per cent drop from a year ago. The total volume by dollars was $4.4 billion last month, a 24.2 per cent decline from a year ago.

The average sale price in the province was $606,787 in October, a 9.1 per cent decline from a year earlier.

“Housing demand remained mixed across the province in October,” said Cameron Muir, chief economist with the association. “Home sales across the Lower Mainland

The head of Canada's federal housing agency says regulators should explore the possibility of raising the minimum down payment required on a home as a way of easing affordability and reducing risk to the financial system.

The head of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) has opened the door to the possibility of increasing the minimum down payment needed to buy a house, though a change is not currently on the table. Evan Siddall, president and CEO of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., says that although politicians are tempted to help first-time buyers, low down payments fuel demand and lead to higher housing costs. Siddall says that ends up hurting the first-time buyers that the government wanted to help.

Last year, Ottawa raised the minimum down