Toronto resale home prices scale new heights

In the east Toronto neighbourhood of Riverdale, a former working-class enclave spotted with Victorian homes, a standard two-storey house could be purchased for about $340,000 in the third quarter of last year. This year, it's $500,000, a dramatic 47 per cent increase, according to a survey by Royal Lepage Real Estate Services released yesterday. The quarterly study reveals some of the steepest price jumps in recent memory, particularly in older neighbourhoods that are not necessarily the most prestigious, but are established and welcoming to buyers looking to settle with young families.

Pioneers in condo-land

Montreal developers take a tried-and-true formula from housing market and apply it to commercial real estate. Ben Lipowitz used to look out from his seventh floor office in tony Westmount Square at a building across Ste. Catherine Street West and wonder why, given its prime location on the eastern edge of the City of Westmount and downtown Montreal, it was never fully rented. A few enquiries turned up the answer. Part of the building was occupied by a restaurant and there were concerns about cooking smells and noise. In 2005, the restaurant moved across the street, the building came up for sale and Mr. Lipowitz pounced.

House Prices Rising in Canada

Canada House prices have shown signs of a continued strength despite worries across the border in the United States. The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) has predicted record numbers of sales for 2007 and increasing prices for existing houses. With the rising prices, many people are looking to invest in property, either to build now or for future use. The Canadian financial newspaper The Financial Post indicated in a recent article that home prices in the 25 largest markets reached an average price of just over $332,000 CND. With prices rising so much across the country, new construction is at all time highs and many are looking to invest in undeveloped property. The city of Saskatoon, in the western province of Saskatchewan, for example, is offering a five-year tax break on new condominium construction to help speed new units.

Toronto real estate website helps home buyers fit into a booming market

Realosophy.com helps Toronto consumers understand their home buying options in a hot real estate market. The expanded website now offers over 175 Toronto and GTA neighbourhood profiles featuring at-a-glance school performance reports and an insider's guide to the home buying process. Realosophy.com is a free information service that does not require users to submit email addresses or other personal information. "Toronto home buyers are feeling anxious about fitting into a booming
real estate market," explains Realosophy's founder, John Pasalis. "Buyers are
increasingly diverse. They want their homes to fit their particular lifestyles. But media reports about sky-rocketing prices and fake multiple offers leave them wondering how to make this happen."

Why real estate is hot in Sudbury

As hot as Canada's real estate market has been, it's been heating up even faster in communities that are participating in the commodities boom. And with oil cracking $80 (U.S.) a barrel, wheat hitting a nine-year high and gold soaring above $720 an ounce to its highest level in decades, the boom is gathering speed. The resource-driven real estate boom isn't just a Western phenomenon, with the mining centre of Sudbury, Ont., cracking the country's top five metropolitan centres in July in terms of housing price gain. The price of a resale home there is up almost 23 per cent to nearly $180,000, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).

Tighter mortgage market may hit housing

Tighter lending conditions around Canada's small but expanding subprime mortgage market could splash some cold water on Canada's housing sector in the months ahead.
Some lenders in Canada's alternative mortgage market, such as Xceed Mortgage Corp. and Money Connect Home Lending, have already jacked up mortgage rates or withdrawn products in the face of rising costs. Many of the mortgages they had offered were to segments of the population, such as the self-employed and immigrants, that have been key drivers lately in the real estate market.

Canadian house prices at risk of dropping

A hot Canadian housing market has lifted prices above their long-term trend, raising risks of an eventual drop in prices, says Scotiabank. The evaluation is made in the latest Real Estate Trends report, released Thursday by Scotia Economics. "There is little doubt that current trends are unsustainable," said Adrienne Warren, senior economist for Scotia Economics. "Affordability is becoming increasingly stretched for many would be buyers after almost a decade of rising home prices.

History shows few real estate crashes

"Many people think that somehow Canada is immune to all of this ... but the likelihood is they're wrong," writes the Tory turned Liberal MP, who appears hellbent on bringing down Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He warns that Canadians have never had as much of their net worth in real estate "more than 80%, on average," which makes them undiversified and prone to the kind of misery that has hit American homeowners.

40 YEARS OF DEBT

Do not pay until 2047. It has a nice ring to it for Canadians seduced into home ownership but unable to afford the price tag that comes with buying property. No money for a down payment? Little cash to make monthly payments? No worries. The Canadian real estate industry has come up with the perfect product- the 40-year amortization Benjamin Tal, a senior economist with CIBC World Markets, says the change in the way Canadians pay off their mortgage is the most significant innovation to hit the industry in almost three decades.

Re-Max reports upswing in luxury home sales in major Canadian cities

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. (CP) — Sales of luxury homes have registered an "unprecedented upswing" in the first half of this year, real estate company Re-Max said Wednesday.
In a report on 16 major markets across the country, Re-Max said high-end home sales were up in all regions between January and July. The highest percentage increase was seen in Edmonton, where sales of more than $900,000 in value rose 521 per cent, Re-Max said. In the Greater Toronto Area, sales of homes costing more than $1.5 million increased 28 per cent, while in Ottawa, homes with an upper-end price point of$750,000 saw sales rise 115 per cent.

Canadian Condo Market

Toronto high-rise sales, meanwhile, are in their second year of 24% increases year-to-date. The luxury hotel-condo -- usually commanding the top floors of some architectural jewel and bearing a marquee name like Ritz or Four Seasons -- is the latest boom's must-have. "It is now common to see 2,000-to 2,500-square-foot condos selling for $2-million or more with property taxes and condo fees to match," Sherry Cooper, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, said in a recent note. "Per square foot, condo prices are now higher than single-family home prices of similar quality and location. "At the Four Seasons hotel-condo in Yorkville for example, a 2,500-square foot condo sells for more than $4-million; a 3,900-square-foot penthouse has a $7.4-million price tag.

Electra Real Estate buys Winnipeg office building

Electra Real Estate Ltd. has bought 60% of a 32-storey office building in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada at a value of C$102.5 million, plus C$1.5 million in related costs (NIS 412.9 million altogether). The office building has 55,500 sq.m. net rental space, and 62,000 sq.m. in additional building rights. The main tenants are Canadian government agencies, accounting firms Deloitte Touche and Ernst & Young, and Rail Canada. The building is 94% occupied, generating C$17.25 million (NIS 68.5 million) in annual rent. Net rent is C$8.35 million (NIS 33.1 million) a year, for a return on investment of 8%.

Government must pay fair share of property taxes: judge

OTTAWA - In landmark decisions that could have repercussions for cities and towns across the country, a Federal Court judge has ruled that the federal government and its Crown corporations have a duty to pay their fair share to municipalities for the properties they own. In three cases that pitted the City of Montreal against the federal government and two of its Crown corporations, Justice Luc Martineau ruled that federal officials cannot arbitrarily decide how much they will pay the city, and overturned decisions by bureaucrats to pay the city considerably less than the city would have received from a private property owner.