Tuesday Nov 12, 2003 Le Journal de Montréal
Vancover $311,078 Toronto $276,666 Montréal $150,000 Moncton $94,358 Charlottetown $86,363
La Jolla $1,245,309 San Francisco $88,250 Boston $643,945 $557,927 New York $532,904 Dallas $209,071

2009

Mortgage rates have surged in the last day, meaning Canadians looking to break their existing mortgage may have missed the sweetest spot in recent history. But that doesn't mean you can't still cut your costs

Sunday 31 May 2009 This four-bedroom semi-detached home near Danforth Ave. was listed for $549,000 but went for $715,000 — 30 per cent above the asking price.

This four-bedroom semi-detached home near Danforth Ave. was listed for $549,000 but went for $715,000 — 30 per cent above the asking price.

Real estate bidding wars make a comeback
Annoyingly for buyers, rejoicingly for sellers, bidding wars for Toronto real estate have surged back from extinction.

Friday 15 May 2009 OTTAWA: HOUSING MARKET REBOUNDS SOMEWHAT
The Canadian Real Estate Association had both good and bad news on Thursday. Its monthly report for April says the sales were up 11.2 per cent compared with March, the biggest jump in five years. As well, 34,838 housing units traded hands, the highest figure in seven months. Nonetheless, the Association also advises that the real estate market hasn't returned to pre-recession prosperity, current resale prices being down by 3.2 per cent from a year ago and down almost 10 per cent from the peak of $324,000 on average in December 2007.

Friday 15 May 2009 Housing market springs back
After a bleak winter of slow sales, realtor Duncan Fremlin decided to take a vacation, expecting a moribund spring market.
The better-than-expected sales prompted the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) yesterday to upgrade their forecasts for the year after seasonally adjusted sales activity climbed 11.2 per cent in April compared with the previous month, the largest such gain in five years. The organization says existing home sales are forecast to be down by 14.7 per cent in 2009 verses 2008. The original estimate was 16.9 per cent.

To Selling vacant homes HOMETENDING is goog idea
Find a responsible occupant to care for a home while it is on the market. The home tender pays a modest rent and is contractually obligated to furnish and keep the home attractive to foster a quicker sale. During their stay pay all utilities and maintain the property inside and out, including lawn and pool care as needed. WHAT IS DESIGNER HOMETENDING?

Tuesday 05 May 2009 Housing market coming out of 'hibernation': Scotia
The Canadian housing market seems to be â€œemerging ...
The Bank of Nova Scotia’s economic-research division said existing-home sales strengthened in February and March, and preliminary reports indicate this trend continued in April.
The report said a rise in demand and drop in new listings has resulted in the housing market moving closer to being “balanced.” The listings-to-sales ratio averaged 2.2 in March, Scotia said, down from its peak of 2.7 in November. A ratio of 2 is considered balanced.

Thursday 16 April 2009 OTTAWA: HOME SALES DOWN
The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of existing homes sold in March was down from March 2008. Sales totalling 35,225 units, down 13.5 per cent. On the brighter side, the Association says the decline is the lowest year-over-year decline in six months. The average house price fell to just under $289,000, down almost eight per cent from a year earlier.

Friday 20 February 2009 TORONTO: HOME CONSTRUCTION PLUMMETS
There were several pieces of more bad economic news on Thursday. The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. predicts that home construction will drop by 24 per cent in 2009. CMHC foresees 160,250 starts for this year. Last year's number was already down 7.6 per cent compared with 2006. Housing starts determine demand for a wide variety of products. And the Conference Board of Canada reports that workers will be receiving lower raises this year. The Board says employers expect to pay an average of 2.9 per cent raises to their employees, down from a projection of 3.9 per cent several months ago. The projection for unionized workers fell from 3.2 per cent to 2.7 per cent.

Monday 09 February 2009 Where is the Bottom? When might the sector rebound? BNN asks Gregory Klump, chief economist, Canadian Real Estate Association. Watch Clip »
BNN takes a look at what the year ahead in Canadian real estate could end up looking like with Gregory Klump, chief economist, Canadian Real Estate Association.

Sunday 18 January 2009

December sales: Volume still the problem
Only four sales reported so far Volume continued to be the nemesis in terms of Westmount real estate in December. While the all-time low of two sales in November jumped to six as tardy agents reported their sales for that month, so far only four more sales have been reported for December. Those four sales are representative...
by Andy Dodge / View all articles from Andy Dodge

Wednesday 07 January 2009 MONTREAL: ROYAL LEPAGE PREDICTS HOUSING PRICE DECLINE
The real estate firm Royal Lepage predicts the average price of a house in Canada will decline by 3.5 percent this year. The company describes it as a "correction" not a crash. It says such a decline would see the average price of a home to drop to $295,000 from $304,000. The steepest decline is forecast for Vancouver. But Royal Lepage says mid-size western cities--like Regina and Winnipeg--can expect modest increases. Last year, Royal Lepage predicted a 3.5 percent increase across the country.

VANCOUVER: REAL ESTATE BUBBLE BURSTS IN BC
A seven-year real estate bubble has burst in the greater Vancouver housing market. Sales of homes in 2008 dropped by over 35 per cent, compared to 2007 sales of more than 38,000 homes. The president of the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board, Dave Watt, says the last half of 2008 showed a consistent drop in prices. At one point the market was so overheated that buyers would enter into bidding wars for properties and forgo inspections just to undercut other potential purchasers. Prices have dropped almost 11 per cent between December 2007 and the end of 2008 and Mr. Watt says the perception is that prices are still falling so it is difficult to identify the bottom of the market. The cost of a single-family detached home in December 2001 was almost $360,000 and grew to about $650,000 by last December.

2008

Saturday 20 December 2008 nyt Tax Break May Have Helped Cause Housing Bubble
A 1997 change that ended the capital gains tax on home sales was a new incentive to plow money into real estate.

Tuesday 16 December 2008 VANCOUVER: HOUSE PRICES, SALES DOWN
The Canadian Real Estate Association says house prices across the country fell nearly 10 per cent and sales slipped by 42 per cent in November compared with 12 months earlier. The Association reports that 27,743 houses were sold last month, down more than 12 per cent from October. The Association explains that part of the explanation is the inability of many would-be buyers to obtain mortgages

Real Estate Andy Dodge column

Almost no sales in November

Westmount real estate agents should prepare themselves for a cold winter, if November sales volume is any indication.

Only two single-family dwellings sold in Westmount last month, compared to a November average of 16 in the past dozen years, when previously the lowest volume was 10 sales. Buyers are waiting until after the elections, or waiting for interest rates to drop further, or for prices to drop further, or simply for one more shoe to drop as news media buzz about the faltering economy.

Tuesday 09 December 2008 REAL ESTATE COLLAPSE CALLED UNLIKELY
The Royal Bank of Canada says a collapse of the real estate market comparable to that of the U.S. is improbable, even though Canada isn't immune to a general market downturn. In its latest housing report, RBC says several of the factors which caused the slump in the U.S. don't exist in Canada or are less important. The report says that although the weakness of the economy threatens incomes and undermines consumer confidence, several other factors will influence the real estate market favourably. RBC says that high-risk mortgages are a marginal phenomenon in Canada, that banks are stable, credit is accessible and most households aren't excessively indebted. The report says that these factors should suffice to prevent a downward spiral of the housing market, even if the economy goes into recession

Saturday 06 December 2008 Maybe It’s Time to Buy That First House
Five or 10 years from now, when the financial crisis has ended and housing prices are up smartly once more, we will look in the rearview mirror and realize that we missed a golden age for first-time home buyers.

Tuesday 02 December 2008 VANCOUVER: MORTGAGE INDUSTRY TIGHTENS RULES
Canada's mortgage industry has announced measures to stiffen its professional standards to prevent a situation comparable to the subprime catastrophe in the U.S. The Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals says it has increased by 20 per cent the amount of education which its members must undergo. New mortgage brokers must also be active for two years before becoming an Accredited Mortgage Professional. Association CEO Jim Murphy says the new rules are intended to "raise the bar" for the industry. Mr. Murphy says Canada's mortgage industry differs from that of the U.S. in that only five per cent of mortgages are in the risky subprime category, compared with one-third in the U.S. Nonetheless, Mr. Murphy says the housing crisis has affected Canada and that the value of new mortgages, transfers and refinancings will have fallen by 12 per cent by year's end.

Rooms for two people see imgs
In Westmount
call (514) 934-0023

LES IMMEUBLES EUGENE ZINAY INC.
Courtier IMMEUBLES AGREE Eugene A. Zinay
E-Mail: (514) 944c4114 | (514) 989-1980

Saturday 15 November 2008

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

Two July sales hit $4 million

Article online since November 13th 2008 )
Two Westmount homes topped the $4 million mark in sales registered in July this year, including a former bungalow at 18 Summit Circle which has been entirely reconstructed and modernized with a view over the entire city, which sold for $4,375,000. The other sale, the mansion at 3803 The Boulevard,...
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...

598x437
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

House for sale in Illinois
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 555x361
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.

By most measures, prices are still above the levels implied by the fundamentals
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.

Council backing Trump at inquiry 24 April 2008

Aberdeenshire councillors have voted to support Donald Trump's application for a £1bn golf resort when it comes before a public inquiry.

A group of councillors called on the council to stick by the original committee decision to refuse the application.

However members were told the decision to refuse had been overtaken by the Scottish Government calling it in.

Sunday Apr 20, 2008 Westmount property market defies Canadian slowdown
Westmount property market defies Canadian slowdown
At a time when houses for sale are flooding the market in other Canadian cities, there is a perceived..."A strong Westmount market is an indication that there is not too much to fear about the Montreal market," said Andy Dodge, a real estate consultant and appraiser who specializes in properties in the tony enclave.
"It's not a lack of demand but a lack of supply in Westmount.
"There has generally been more confidence in the market here in Westmount since 1995," Dodge said.
"In 2007, the average price of a house sold in Westmount was $1.2 million," Dodge said.
Of the 15 homes sold last month, 10 were for houses over $1 million, he added.

Friday 11 April 2008 New house prices edge up in February
Contractors' selling prices increased 6.2 per cent in February 2007 from a year earlier. The year-on-year growth was slower than the 6.5 per cent yearly increase seen in January.

Friday Mar 28, 2008 Bell takeover gets blessing of CRTC
Canada's broadcast and telecom regulator has given the green light to the $52-billion leveraged buyout of Bell Canada parent...

Friday Mar 28, 2008 Housing crash could happen here
Imagine listing your home for sale, but there are no buyers. You drop the price. Again. And again. The house across the street is now for sale. And the one two doors down, plus a dozen others in a two-block radius. Nothing's selling, and every time one home is reduced, all are affected. This property used to represent wealth. Now it's a wealth trap. Most of what you have is here, and with each day passed, it diminishes.

Thursday 20 March 2008 OTTAWA: HOME BUYERS ANXIOUS TO LIQUIDATE MORTGAGE DEBT
A new survey shows that more than three-quarters of Canadians who recently bought a home intend to repay their mortgage loan as quickly as possible. The poll by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. shows that more than one-half of those asked will use additional funds to pay off their mortgages when possible. One respondent in three had already done so. Eighty-eight per cent expressed confidence in being able to manage their mortgages.

Friday 07 March 2008 BUYING property used to be a no-brainer investment. But after years of meteroric rises, prices in much of Europe are beginning to follow America's slide. Ireland, a recent star performer, saw the biggest drop in 2007, with property on average worth 7% less than the year before, according to a report by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a trade body. Countries such as Poland may look like safer bets, but as foreign buyers feel the pinch at home they may be less likely to venture to southern or eastern Europe for second homes. Cyprus may be more promising as investors look to brighter prospects after joining the euro.

Wednesday Mar 5, 2008 Homebuyers are more cautious, survey finds
The number of Canadians intending to buy a home is at the lowest level since 2002, according to RBC Royal Bank's annual ...

Is there a way to stem the migration?

The flight of people to the suburbs from the central city isn't a new phenomenon, but as the article by Kristian Gravenor's indicates, there's a more recent ominous twist.

Younger people, who cannot afford the rising prices of neighbourhoods like the Plateau and Mile End, are increasingly the migrants, to the point where the character of the city is changing.

And as Gravenor points out, municipal authorities seem out of ideas on how to alter the trend.

Saturday Feb 23, 2008 Tax bill shocks residents of modest street
Imagine Nicole Panelli-Lefebvre's shock when she received a $35,889 tax bill from the city of Montreal...

Stephen S. Poloz VP EDC Economics Weekly Commentary
The Outlook According to Housing: Gloomy - February 6, 2008
Housing markets have once again proven their economic prowess. U.S. housing starts fell sharply in mid-2006, fully 18 months ahead of the softening in the broader U.S. economy – a remarkable lead on an economic slowdown that most agree is now going global. So given its foresight, is this keen sage saying anything about impending recovery? Past issues | his WN page

Commentary podcast.

Wednesday Feb 6, 2008 Affordable condos slated for the west end
Home ownership in the vibrant Côte des Neiges/Notre Dame de Grâce neighbourhood is becoming more affordable thanks to innovative...

2009

2008

October sales: still sliding

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

Two July sales hit $4 million

Is there a way to stem the migration?

The Gazette

Real estate market still hot

2007