This week’s top real estate news in Ontario and how your real estate business could be affected.
The GTA-wide average price for a detached home has surpassed $1 million
Looking at September resale transactions across both the GTA’s outlying 905 region and its central 416 area, which includes downtown, the average price of a standalone home reached $1,013,788, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board’s latest Market Watch report. That works out to an increase of 23.6 per cent from the same month a year ago, the latest TREB Market Watch report says.
What Canada’s Huge Mortgage Rule Changes Mean For You
Two Mondays from now, the MQR “stress test” will be applied to all insured loans, including fixed-rate terms of five years or longer. This will have a much greater impact than you might at first think because, these days, “insured” doesn’t just refer to the usual high-ratios borrowers who have down payments of less than 20%. A significant percentage of low-ratio mortgages (where down payments are 20% or more) are also now insured, but because the lender typically bears this cost, most affected borrowers never even know it. Also read “A third of insured mortgages would have ‘difficulty’ under new federal rules, Genworth says“.
Land supply not to blame for rising home prices: Study
In its study released Wednesday, the non-profit Neptis Foundation, a non-partisan research group, found that only 20 per cent of the land that was designated for building when the Growth Plan was implemented 10 years ago has actually been used.
Vancouver home sales plunge nearly 33% last month, real estate board says
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says home sales in Metro Vancouver in September plunged by 32.6 per cent compared to the same month last year. Board chairman Dan Morrison says there’s uncertainty in the city’s real estate market and homebuyers and sellers are having trouble establishing prices as a result. Morrison says there is more demand for condominiums and townhomes than detached homes, supporting some analyst predictions that there’s still interest among first-time buyers to get into the Vancouver market.
Canadians are actually to blame for housing crisis – developer official
“Have you voiced your displeasure with the greenbelt, restrictive municipal planning policies, NIMBYs? All of these factors result in high land costs and a lack of affordability,” Ben Myers wrote scathingly. “My industry can’t build you your dream house in the suburbs for a reasonable price if the price of land is skyrocketing due to building restriction and urban containment policies.”
Time for the Liberals to take initiative on Toronto’s housing market: Cohn
“It’s a matter of supply and demand,” Finance Minister Charles Sousa told reporters last week. “If we provide for greater supply, will that then initiate a reduction in pricing?” Also read “Housing providers, developers join forces to fight for affordable housing“.
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Upcoming Realty Point Seminars
- Verbal Aikido Seminar
Saturday November 5, 2016, 11:00am to 1:00pm at the Realty Point Head Office. Free for Realty Point Agents Only. 30 tickets available.
Register here: http://www.realtypoint.ca/seminars - New Agent training courses have been added on a weekly basis. Regular topics include using the Agent CRM and learning how to create a website in your Agent Dashboard. These webinars are available online only, for more information and to register please login to your Agent Dashboard and visit the Office Events Section.
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