October sales: still sliding

Article online since November 13th 2008 )

Westmount sale prices continued their slide in October, down some 17 per cent since they peaked in November last year.

Volume rose slightly from September, but is still well below average, with nine sales in October averaging $1,073,944 ? some 18 per cent above valuation. Prices ranged from $490,000 to $1,795,000, two sales were for less than their municipal value and the highest markup was only 53.5 per...
by Andy Dodge / View all articles from Andy Dodge

Saturday 15 November 2008 TORONTO: HOUSING MARKET SLUMPS
The Canadian Real Estate Association reports that home sales fell to their lowest level in more than six years in October. The Association says monthly sales dropped by 14 per cent to 32,048 homes, the Toronto market accounting for one-third of the decline. Sales also fell in in Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. The Association's explanation is that home buyers were discouraged by news of plunging stock markets and the global economic downturn.

Thursday 13 November 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Prevention Lite
The financial system will not stabilize until house prices stabilize, and house prices will not stabilize until the government finds a way to stanch foreclosures on a large scale.

Home sales for the first 10 months of this year in metropolitan Montreal declined four per cent from the 2007 period to 36,955 transactions, the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board said yesterday. Michel Beauséjour, the board's CEO, said the performance "proves that (real estate here is) still a good investment," particularly when compared with that in Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto. Home sales in those markets have slumped by 27 per cent, 22 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively.

Saturday 01 November 2008 No rise in Westmount property taxes expected

Saturday 01 November 2008 US HOMEOWNERS SUFFERING
Nearly one in five U.S. mortgage borrowers owe more to lenders than their homes are worth, and the rate may soon approach one in four as housing prices fall and the economy weakens, a report on Friday shows. About 7.63 million properties, or 18 percent, had negative equity in September, and another 2.1 million will follow if home prices fall another 5 percent, according to a report by First American CoreLogic. The data, covering 43 states and Washington, D.C., includes borrowers nationwide, even those who took out mortgages before housing prices began to soar early this decade. U.S. home prices fell a record 16.6 percent in August from a year earlier. Foreclosure filings rose 71 percent in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said gross domestic product fell at a 0.3 percent rate in the third quarter. Some experts expect the worst U.S. recession since the early 1980s. And despite a series of expensive government programs to spur lending, mortgage rates are rising, making it tougher to borrow or refinance. The rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped this week to 6.46 percent from 6.04 percent a week earlier, Freddie Mac said. Meanwhile, borrowing costs on hundreds of thousands of adjustable-rate mortgages are expected to reset higher in the coming months.

Saturday 11 October 2008 TORONTO, BRANTFORD: OTTAWA BUYS MORTGAGES
Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has announced a plan by which the government will buy up $25 billion worth of residential mortgages from banks and transfer their ownership to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. The mortgages of which the government is relieving the banks are already government-insured. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, for his part, denied that the government is bailing out the banks by acquiring bad assets, but rather is making cash available to banks so that they have the cash to make available for loans for the general public. The prime minister explained that the problem is "...an international credit crunch, which has banks leery of lending money even among themselves."

$2,000,000.00 view of Westmount

Tue 16 September 2008

Judge plans to make house call
Dispute over view. Will examine mockup of new roof before ruling
By the end of the day, they'd erected a shell of the exact dimensions and placement of the fourth storey Goldberg wants to erect on his home, so the judge can see its effects for himself.
Mireille Raymond, a neighbour, took Goldberg to court last spring in an attempt to stop his $462,500-project.

Sunday 31 August 2008 Hotel Developer Lands in Red Ink, Despite Boldface Names
NICKY HILTON no longer speaks to him. Neither does Rande Gerber, the lounge and bar owner, nor Don Peebles, the real estate mogul and Obama fund-raiser. His wife, Jennifer, divorced him. Even his mother is suing him.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 Real estate in U.S. sees spark of hope
There was a glimmer of good news yesterday for North America's biggest economic problem, the U.S. housing meltdown. Unfortunately...

Bill's house

Saturday 23 August 2008 High expectations for condo craze
In Toronto, $25 million will get you the priciest condominium in the city. In New York, that's a down payment. In London, forget about it.
.....

Friday 22 August 2008 Will America follow Japan into a decade of stagnation?
AS FALLING house prices and tightening credit squeeze America’s economy, some worry that the country may suffer a decade of stagnation, as Japan did after its bubble burst in the early 1990s. Japan’s property bubble was also fuelled by cheap money and financial liberalisation and—just as in America—most people assumed that property prices could not fall nationally. When they did, borrowers defaulted and banks cut their lending. The result was a decade with average growth of less than 1%.

Tuesday Aug 12, 2008 Housing's slowing, not collapsing
Ever since last year, forecasters have been predicting that Canada's hot housing market was about to slow to a much more...

Sunday 10 August 2008 Is housing wealth really wealth?
A housing slump helped cause the credit crisis. But its effect on spending may have been exaggerated

Friday Aug 8, 2008 Housing market seen following commodities
An outright decline in commodity prices could spell disaster for Canada's housing market, which already appears to have ...

Thursday 07 August 2008 WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- In a sign that the U.S. housing market may strengthen in coming months, an index of sales contracts on previously owned U.S. homes rose 5.3% in June from the prior month, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday. The index, which is considered a leading indicator of existing home sales, was down 12.3% from the June 2007 level. Pending home sales in June rose in all regions, with a gain of 9.3% in the South, 4.6% in the West, 3.4% in the Northeast and 1.3% in the Midwest. The May pending home sales index was revised to a decline of 4.9% from the prior estimate of a 4.7% drop

Monday Aug 4, 2008 Dumping 40-year mortgages a good idea
Don't pay until 2048 has become a very attractive payment plan for Canadian homebuyers. But if that's not enough incentive...
On a $100,000 mortgage at six per cent, with what used to be a normal amortization of 25 years, monthly payments would be $640. Extending the amortization to 40 years would lower the payment to $545. That means you can spend $95 on something other than your mortgage.
...With the 25-year amortization and at the same six-per-cent interest, you will make a total of $191,943 in payments. That means your $100,000 mortgage cost you $91,943 of interest over 25 years. On a 40-year amortization, your total interest jumps more than 75 per cent to $161,643.

Wednesday Jul 30, 2008 Home prices fall but confidence up
U.S. consumer confidence halted a six-month slide in July, but barely climbed from its lowest level in more than a decade...

Tuesday Jul 29, 2008 Housing slowdown is spreading
First it was Canada's top 25 markets that were feeling that pain from a slowdown in housing, but now it's clear the malaise...

Sunday 27 July 2008 US Senate approves housing bill

More than a million people have lost their homes in the US housing crisis

The US Senate has approved a rescue bill designed to prop up America's battered housing market.

The new law creates a $300bn (£150bn) rescue fund to help thousands of homeowners get cheaper loans.

It may also be used to bail out the struggling mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which own or guarantee around half the nation's mortgage debt.

Saturday Jul 26, 2008 Home sales beat estimates
Sales of newly constructed U.S. single-family homes were stronger than expected in June, and inventories shrank to 31/2-...
U.S. new home sales fell 0.6 per cent to a 530,000 annual pace last month from a revised 533,000 rate, the Commerce Department said. Economists polled by Reuters were expecting sales to slow to a 500,000 seasonally adjusted annual sales rate from a previously reported 512,000 pace in May.
"We are approaching a bottom, but we are not there yet," said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Lehman Brothers in New York.

Thursday 24 July 2008 Housing rescue bill passed in US

The bill is supposed to help struggling homeowners

The US House of Representatives has passed a massive housing rescue bill that could help struggling homeowners get cheaper loans.

The vote came after the White House announced that President George W Bush had dropped his threat to veto it.

The bill will now be passed to the Senate for approval before being signed into law.

Wednesday Jul 16, 2008 Home sweet home gets cheaper
Canadian home prices have started to fall for the first time this decade.
...The average selling price of a home in June was down 0.4 per cent from a year earlier to $341,096, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported yesterday. That's the first year-over-year monthly decline in prices since January 1999.

Friday Jul 11, 2008 Tighter mortgage rules are a good first step
The federal government moved this week to tighten the rules for government-backed mortgages, and the reason for the move is not hard to find. In the U.S., too-easy mortgage credit was the principal cause of the current housing meltdown, in which bank repossessions are continuing at a brisk pace. Year over year, U.S. foreclosures have jumped by more than 50 per cent.

Thursday 10 July 2008 OTTAWA: RULES CHANGED FOR GOVT.-GUARANTEED MORTGAGES
The federal government has announced changes to its rules for guaranteeing mortgages to prevent a collapse that that which occurred in the U.S. subprime mortgage market last summer. Under the new rules, the finance department won't back 40-year mortgages, the longest period now to be 35 years. As well, the department will require a minimum down payment of five per cent on the value of a home. In April, Bank of Canada Gov. Mark Carney told the House of Commons that he was worried by loosening of mortgage practices, particularly the growing popularity of 40-year mortgages. He also said he was watching the mortgage sector closely to prevent the sort of abuses that occurred in the U.S. The turmoil caused by the U.S. subpriime catastrophe led to broader economic troubles, even reducing demand for Canadian exports like cars and lumber.

Wednesday 02 July 2008 House prices – the market collapses
House prices fell for an eighth successive month in June and have registered their worst annual rate of decline since December 1992.

Wednesday 02 July 2008 Moving Day leaves 65 families with no place to live
On her first day of being homeless with her three young children, Judith smiled and put the best face...

The Gazette

About 60 families will be without a place to live as of moving day Tuesday, a social housing group says. Despite higher vacancy rates for Montreal apartments, the cost of rent continues to rise, FRAPRU said. Those having trouble finding somewhere to live can call the city hotline at 514-868-4002.

Saturday Jun 28, 2008 Real estate meltdown? Not likely
Is Canada about to follow the U.S. into a meltdown in the price of homes? Until this week, you couldn't find a credible ...

Friday Jun 27, 2008 Housing boom comes to an end
Canada's housing boom has come to an end and that is no more evident than in Alberta - with prices continuing to fall this...
Home prices in the formerly red-hot markets in Calgary and Edmonton performed worse than the slowing national average, falling below levels reached one year ago in April and May
...Ontario and Quebec homes, which have appreciated at a steady six to seven per cent rate over the last three years, will now only appreciate at half that pace through 2008 and 2009.

Wednesday 25 June 2008 Soft landing seen for Canada's housing market
But Bank of Canada warns of complacency on newer products like 40-year mortgages
...In the past decade, prices of existing homes in Canada have risen by about 55 per cent, while new-home prices have risen by about 27 per cent. As one of the country's largest housing booms loses steam, most economists are forecasting a small increase in prices this year that will keep pace with the central bank's 2-per-cent target for inflation.

Tuesday 24 June 2008 TORONTO: REALTORS ENLISTED TO FIGHT MONEY-LAUNDERING
As of Monday, federal law obliges realtors to help combat money-laundering by collecting their clients' personal data. The realtors are required to collect and to verify such data as names, addresses, birth dates and occupations, as well as require proof of identity, such as driver's licences. Previously, realtors were required only to report transaction which they saw as suspicious or that involved more than $10,000 in cash. The country's real estate industry has six months to inform customers and its 96,000 brokers before fines and penalties for non-compliance come into effect.

Thursday 05 June 2008 TORONTO: HOME OWNERSHIP RISING
Never before have so many Canadians owned homes. According to the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corp., 68.4 per cent of Canadians were in the housing market in 2006, compared with 60 per cent in 1971. CHMC attributes the change to lower mortgage rates, low unemployment and changes that allow home buyers to acquire them with less money down and repayment over longer periods. The increase has been recorded despite soaring home prices and the stagnation of average incomes. However, the statistics also show that the average household spent an average of 37 per cent of after-tax income on mortgage payments last year, up from 32 per cent 2006.

Friday 30 May 2008
Through the floor
America's house prices are falling even faster than during the Great Depression

Tuesday 27 May 2008 US Housing Prices Fall 14.4% in Sign of Continuing Slump
America’s home-buying season is shaping up to be even worse than expected this year, with prices falling, sales slowing and few signs of a turnaround. video

Sunday May 18, 2008 The Law of Real Property
—A little planning could mean a lot of tax savings when inheriting Florida property
...In the United States, if one passes away, the property in their estate is subject to a capital gain of 15 percent. This is calculated on the difference in price between the purchase price and its present day market value. Now this tax is only applicable to Americans and those who have as their principal residence the United States. As a Canadian, the capital gain would be 25 percent so if you are required to pay the American tax you will receive a credit on your Canadian taxes.

This Is the Sound of a U.S.A. Bubble Bursting ... Friday 09 May 2008 | chart

Saturday 17 May 2008 Home construction picks up in US
Construction of new US homes increased in April, raising hopes that the housing market may be recovering.

Friday 16 May 2008 Housing starts surge on apartment construction

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. home builders broke ground on 8.2% more homes in April, led by a 36% increase in multi-family units, the Commerce Department estimated Friday. Housing starts rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.032 million, far more than the 954,000 estimated for March or the 939,000 expected by economists. Starts of single-family homes declined for the 12th straight month, falling 1.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 692,000, the lowest since January 1991. Building permits increased 4.9% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 978,000

Friday May 9, 2008 Westmount’s real estate market hit something of a holding pattern for mid-spring, still showing the average price of local houses around the $1.2 million mark, but without the anticipation or enthusiasm it had shown last fall.

Monday 05 May 2008 Property in Russia While Russian oligarchs are heading for London, canny British investors are now setting their sights on Moscow and beyond.

Council backing Trump at inquiry 24 April 2008