EDMONTON REAL ESTATE @EdmontonRealty

Garry Marr, Financial Post · Canadians are prepared for a hike in interest rates and are budgeting accordingly, says a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. survey published Wednesday. The Crown corporation says 80% of Canadians follow a household budget and, when calculating that budget, 71% considered the impact higher mortgage rates would have on their finances. "We didn't ask the 20% what they did," Pierre Serré, vice-president insurance product and business development, said of Canadians who don't have a budget and perhaps are unprepared for a coming interest-rate hike. But of the group budgeting, another 69% have prepared for the impact of a loss of income and 79% have set themselves up for rising expenses. The survey also found 81% of respondents have set aside some money in their budget for additional savings. Canadians are also trying to pay down their mortgages as fast they can; 75% of respondents said it was important to pay off the debt as soon as po...

2103 40st, Edmonton AB Fully renovated. Features include newer oak kitchen, carpet, hardwood floors, ceramic tiles, paint in & out, windows & doors, furnace, railings,window coverings, upgraded bathrooms. Living room has corner windows and wood burning fire place. Kitchen has raised oak cabinets, newer sink and taps, under counter lighting, bay window and top of the line appliances. Master features a bay window. The basement has a family room, large rec room ideal for games room/pool table or esily a 4th bedroom. The 4pc bathroom features two shower heads. Laundry area has lots of built in shelving. The house is situated in a quiet cul-de-sac and good nieghborhood. Extra large lot fully fenced with chain link fence and privacy slats. RV parking for a lg unit with easy access. Good size patio and nicely landscaped. For the handy man there is a 22' x 26' insulated garage. This one is definately the whole package. Quick possession available more pics click here

Private home buying, selling under one roof Friday, July 22, 2011 By Bill Mah, Edmonton Journal With Files From Postmedia News  The Canadian real estate market got more competitive with the merger of two discount home-buying and selling companies, says the head of PropertyGuys.com. Ken LeBlanc, president and CEO of the Moncton, N.B.-based privatesale franchise network, says a partnership announced this month with Toronto-based discount brokerage Realtysellers Real Estate Inc. levels the playing field with traditional real estate agents. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. "It allows us to basically marry both worlds," said LeBlanc, who is visiting Edmonton on Friday and Saturday for the company's western regional conference. PropertyGuys has five franchise owners in Edmonton and 20 in Western Canada among 111 franchises nationally. "PropertyGuys.com has been for the last 13 years in the private-sale space. We've been head-to-head with all the othe...

Edmonton, July 5, 2011: Economic and other external indicators point to a strengthening of the local real estate market according to the REALTORS® Association of Edmonton. ◦Statistics Canada reported that Alberta boasted the highest spike in population in the first quarter with a 0.4% increase. ◦The Conference Board of Canada predicts that housing prices in Edmonton will increase from five to seven percent in the short term although local prices are currently down when compared to last year. ◦Although the Bank of Canada seems reluctant to raise interest rates because of the negative impact on exports, CMHC reports that Canadians are budgeting for an interest rate hike. ◦While housing prices nationally are up by 8.6% (May figures) Edmonton prices are tracking predictably in a stable market. ◦CIBC is of the opinion that Alberta home prices are over-valued by 17% yet RBC names Edmonton amongst the most affordable major metro markets in Canada. ◦A report by Peters and Co. ...

House prices may have hit the top STEVE LADURANTAYE — REAL ESTATE REPORTER Globe and Mail Update Published Thursday, Jul. , 2011 Last updated Thursday, Jul. , 2011 9:04AM EDT House prices have likely peaked after a strong six months, Royal LePage Real Estate Services said Thursday in a market update. While prices saw big year-over-year price increases in the second quarter, “high house prices are concealing early signs of a moderating market.” “The market has seen its near-term peak in house price appreciation, and a slower second hStill, the national average price is expected to end the year 7.7 per cent higher than they started. At the end of the second quarter the average price for a standard two-storey home rose 6.1 per cent to $390,163, a bungalow rose 7.5 per cent to $356,625 and a condo rose 3.5 per cent to $238,064. “In many of Canada’s regional markets, we saw house prices appreciate at a significantly faster rate than wages and salaries, and this trend cann...

Consumer sentiment in the Prairie region rose in April 2011, reaching the highest level in over a year. A decrease in the balance of sentiment about household budgets was more than offset by improvements in sentiment regarding job growth prospects and making major purchases.  The outlook for job growth improved for the second consecutive month in April. Sentiment was on par with levels reported back in March 2010, which was the highest in recent history. The balance of sentiment about making a major purchase, such as a home or a car, bounced back after falling into negative territory in the previous month. A positive balance of sentiment means more survey respondents said it was a good time to buy a big-ticket item, such as a home or car, than said it was a bad time to do so. This indicator is an important factor underlying the housing market.  The balance of sentiment about the outlook for household budgets was less positive in April than it had been in March 2...

BERTRAND MAROTTE- The Globe and Mail Last updated Monday, Jun. 20, 2011 6:18AM EDT  The Bank of Canada is less likely to pull the trigger on an interest-rate hike this year because of a risk-filled economic environment, TD Economics chief economist Craig Alexander says. The world economy has simply not made as much progress as had been anticipated in getting past the legacies of the financial crisis and recession, Mr. Alexander writes in a recent report. Among the reasons cited for a stand-pat stance are low inflationary expectations, the negative impact on Canada and the U.S. of deepening financial instability in Europe, the high loonie's impact on exports and uncertainty over the strength of the recovery in the United States. "The reality is that we are not really out of the financial crisis," he writes. There is a strong case to be made that an accommodative monetary policy will continue for some time throughout the world, according to Mr. Alexander. The central b...

The perks of using a real estate agent With the Competition Bureau pushing for a more publicly-accessible Multiple Listings Service (MLS), and for-sale-by-owners sites, such as Property Guys, picking up steam, you may be tempted to forgo the services of a real estate agent and tackle your home sale yourself. If you have a tight budget there are options that still leave you with a agent www.CheapComm.com   Before you invest the inevitable time and money to this endeavour, however, you may want to reconsider the pros of using a real estate agent.   If you're a seller...   - With an estimated 85% of homebuyers opting for the services of a real estate agent, a selling agent (and his/her fellow colleagues) have more access to potential buyers. This means more Open House traffic, more ad visibility, and more of your ideal buyers coming through your door.   - While your home may look perfect to you, it may not meet the style and trend preferences of todays buyer. Becau...

KERRY GOLD Vancouver— From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published Friday, Jun. 10, 2011 12:07PM EDT Last updated Friday, Jun. 10, 2011 4:01PM EDT Late last month, a 153-unit condo development in New Westminster sold out in two and a half hours. More than 400 potential buyers lined up for the sales day. For every unit sold, there was at least one back-up offer made. There was nothing overtly special about the project, which will be completed by fall 2012. The two-phase development, called Eight West, is located at 21 8th Avenue in the heart of New Westminster, a traditional-design and mix of town homes and condos starting at $168,800 - standard mid-market housing for the Lower Mainland. But for reasons only understood by the increasing number of local realtors who have learned to target the Mainland Chinese market, it held an irresistible allure to the new Chinese buyers looking to invest their money in the Canadian housing market. Bill Morrison, the marketer in charge of s...

The housing market in Edmonton is trending upwards, according to new figures released by Edmonton's Association of Realtors. Across the board, things are up- in terms of average residential sales price, prices for single family dethatched and condos, as well as sales volume and inventory. "Local market housing sales this year are tracking as we forecast in January," explained REALTORS® Association of Edmonton President Chris Mooney. "Historically for the month of May, the days-on-market (50 days) is at the second lowest point in four years while the sales-to-listing ratio at 53% is at the second highest point in the same period. Both metrics are a good indication of market optimism." Looking at average prices, the average price of a single family detached home in May was $380,545, up marginally from the month before.  Condo prices registered in at $241,079, up a more impressive 3.65% from April. Bucking the trend slightly, duplex and row house prices dr...

How Much Home Insurance Is Enough? Home Owner's insurance policies are often an after-thought--that is, until disaster strikes. Home owners in Joplin, Mo., Tuscaloosa, Ala., and other cities recently flattened by tornados are now finding that out too late as they discover that their insurance policies likely will not entirely cover the costs to rebuild. While most home owner's insurance policies will cover tornado damage, many home insurance policies are undervalued. In fact, one study from 2008 by Marshall & Swift finds that 64 percent of homes are undervalued for insurance purposes. Home Owner's insurance coverage typically comes in three categories: Replacement cost: It covers the cost of replacing or repairing a home, based on a certain dollar limit. However, some home owners with this type of insurance find that their insurance does not reflect increases in the cost of construction since they originally took out the policy. Extended replacement cost: T...

Book Excerpt When is it worth it to break your mortgage? Julie Cazzin Special to Globe and Mail Update In this excerpt from the MoneySense Guide to Buying and Selling Your Home, a book in the "Best of MoneySense" series, writer Julie Cazzin looks at when it makes sense to break your mortgage. Joakim Tjernell was pretty proud of himself—he’d done a damn good job of shopping for a mortgage. It was back in June of 2009 and Tjernell, a 32-year old translator, had been eyeing units in a slick modern condo building on Toronto’s Bathurst Street for a while. There was a lot of paperwork—Tjernell’s wife is a freelance graphic designer, so they had to prove that she had regular income. “This was the first time we had a mortgage, so we were nervous about getting approved,” he recalls. But not only were they approved, their mortgage broker came through with a great offer on a variable-rate mortgage from Scotiabank. The $280,000 loan had a 25-year amortization and a floating ...

.Bloomberg News May 31, 2011 – 7:15 AM ET | Last Updated: May 31, 2011 9:19 AM ET Canada’s currency is poised to weaken as investors bet Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney will keep interest rates low to protect the economy instead of fighting inflation by raising interest rates. Falling unemployment, faster growth than in the U.S. and a shrinking deficit drove Canada’s dollar to the highest in more than three years against the greenback on April 29 as traders anticipated Carney would join central bankers from Europe to China in boosting rates. Instead the 46-year-old former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. managing director damped those expectations in a May 16 speech, downplaying inflation and highlighting risks to the Canadian economy from a strong currency. Since then, the so-called loonie has dropped against 14 of its 16 most-traded counterparts, falling 3.5% against the Swiss franc and 5.2% versus New Zealand’s dollar. Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecasts the currency will fa...

Housing affordability erodes, bound to get worse May 20, 2011 | 08:44 Update: May 20, 2011 | 12:24 Stefania Moretti | Money Housing affordability began slipping from the grip of many Canadians in the first quarter of 2011 following two back-to-back periods of improvement, RBC Economics Research said Friday. Flat mortgage rates weren't enough to stave off the effects of rising home prices, the bank said, whereas drops in lending costs were the main source of improvement in affordability in the second half of 2010. And brace for it: Things could get worse. "We expect that the Bank of Canada will soon resume its campaign to normalize its interest rate policy, which will adversely impact housing affordability in Canada," said Robert Hogue, senior economist for RBC. "Continued growth in household incomes, however, will likely soften the blow." Hogue said higher mortgage rates will lead to steady increases in home ownership costs, which will in tur...

Calgary house prices expected to grow 5% to 7% By Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald CALGARY — Short-term year-over-year price growth for Calgary’s housing market is expected to be in the five to seven per cent range, says the Conference Board of Canada. The board’s Metro Resale Index indicates the average price in the city for a residential property in April was $407,900, up from $393,427 in March and from $395,468 in April 2010. The board also classified Calgary’s housing market as being in balanced conditions. The seasonally-adjusted annual rate of house sales in the city in April was 21,312, which was down slightly from March’s 21,840 and from April 2010’s 23,556. “Tightening of federal mortgage-insurance rules hurt April resale activity,” said the board. “Sales fell from March levels in 23 of our 28 markets, and from a year earlier in 26 areas. The drop in sales in April added to vendors’ gloom. Although listings in April fell from March levels in only nine markets, they...

Kept In The Dark: Leaked Memos Show Real Reason Behind Bill 50 EDMONTON, AB (May 17, 2011): Freshly leaked correspondence between Alberta and the United States that discusses exporting Alberta’s electricity south of the border strongly suggest the Alberta government has mislead Albertans on the true reason for its planned $16 billion upgrade to the transmission system. WikiLeaks has posted diplomatic cables exchanged between the Alberta and United States governments that suggest the real reason the current government has proposed a massive overbuild of Alberta’s transmission grid is to accommodate electricity exports. This, despite repeated assurances from the current government that the upgrades were critical to keeping the lights on in Alberta. “These documents show this government’s sales job on the need for these transmission lines to be a complete fraud,” Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said. “If they want to have a debate about exporting electricity, let’s have that debate...

Alberta to lead MLS sales in 2012 By Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald May, 2011 Alberta will lead the country next year in the annual percentage growth for MLS sales, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association. The association on Monday said the province will see MLS sales increase by 6.7 per cent in 2012 to 56,650 units following a 6.8 per cent gain this year to 53,100 units. At the national level, CREA is forecasting MLS sales to decline by 1.3 per cent this year to 441,100 transactions and rebound with 2.6 per cent growth in 2012 to 452,500 units. The association is predicting the average MLS sale price in Alberta will rise by 0.1 per cent this year to $352,500 followed by a 1.6 per cent jump next year to $358,100. Nationally, CREA said the average price will increase by four per cent this year to $352,500 followed by an increase of 0.9 per cent in 2012 to $355,800. Year-to-date until the end of April, there have been 4,523 single-family MLS sales in Calg...

First-time buyers The five fastest ways to save for a down payment Angie Mohr Investopedia.com Published Monday, May. 09, 2011 7:10AM EDT Last updated Monday, May. 09, 2011 7:17AM EDT Saving money for a down payment on a home takes time, effort and patience. Having a large down payment can save thousands of dollars over time because the home owner will carry a smaller mortgage. A down payment over 20 per cent will also prevent a mortgage company requiring that you pay mortgage insurance premiums - an added expense that often gets amortized into the cost of the mortgage. Some methods of saving for a down payment are faster than others. Here are five tried and true ways to get into a house faster: 1. Home Buyers' Plan (HBP) If you have money already saved in a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), the Canada Revenue Agency allows you to borrow from those funds under certain conditions. You can borrow up to $25,000 from your RRSP if you are a first-time homebuyer,...

Hamilton has scored the top spot on a new list of the best places to invest in Ontario. The annual ranking by Toronto-based Real Estate Investment Network also names Hamilton the third-best place in Canada for investment, after Edmonton and Calgary. The honour is the second time in two months the city has been given a gold star as a target for investment. REIN president Don Campbell said the ranking is a testament to Hamilton’s potential to attract jobs and business over the next five years. “We’re looking for the cities with the most future potential, not what’s happening now,” he said. “We see a real window of opportunity for Hamilton in the next five years.” Neil Everson, director of economic development for the city, said the recent cascade of glowing reports on Hamilton’s potential will help the ongoing effort to sell the city as a location for businesses and jobs. “It’s really nice to see some good things coming out about the municipality,” he said. “Things like this...

With mortgage rates low and lenders tripping over each other to entice home buyers, borrowing has rarely looked so appealing. You can get a traditional mortgage or a line of credit, you can prepay the loan, then turn around and write yourself a cheque, raise your payment or lower it, even skip a payment if you need to. Interest rates are still the main consideration for most mortgage shoppers, says Nicole Wells, director of consumer lending at ING Direct in Toronto. But the lowest rate may come with lurking restrictions that only reveal themselves later when you try to change terms or switch lenders. “When you’re looking at a mortgage, make sure you understand what you’re getting into,” Ms. Wells says. Choose financing that suits your particular needs, income and stage of life. Flexibility is key. Indeed, in a recent survey for TD Canada Trust, respondents said the flexibility to pay off their loan faster and defer or reduce payments in an emergency was top of mind. But fle...

The federal Competition Bureau may have to intervene once again in a fight between discount brokerages and the provincial associations that govern organized real estate over what has become a jurisdictional turf war. The discounters who offer access to the Multiple Listing Service for as little as $109, say they are being prevented from listing the homes of their clients in other provinces because of interference from real estate organizations. “No matter what we do, they keeping throwing these wrenches at us, and the public is being caught in the middle of this war,” said Ken LeBlanc, president and CEO of Propertyguys.com, one of the largest private real estate sales companies in Canada. Last October the company started to offer Canada wide MLS listings for their clients. They did this through a Hamilton brokerage, Harvey Real Estate. But LeBlanc said the company was slapped with “cease and desist” orders last week from realtor associations saying that they would not be permi...

The new real estate protectionism is misguided  By Cam Good, Vancouver Sun⁠ In the last two months, we've sold over 700 condos in Toronto. Sixty per cent went to Mainland Chinese buyers. In meccas like Richmond, 98 per cent of the hundreds of homes we've sold are to buyers who are Chinese. Even in White Rock, we sold 35 per cent of a new condo tower to buyers from Mainland China. For a new market like White Rock, that's a shocking number. As the North American media has just recently picked up, buyers from Mainland China are a driving force in our real estate market. The staggering truth is we've seen just the tip of the iceberg. There is a rapidly growing middle class in China which is just now beginning to realize they can afford homes abroad. Chinese buy Canadian homes because they care about nothing more than their kids, their kids' education and real estate. They also want a safe haven for their wealth. These are some of the push factors. Pull factors are t...

Fall in love while shopping for a home, but do it carefully!!! First-time homebuyers should behave like investors because that's how they'll save money and ultimately live a happier life, says Don Campbell, a Vancouver real estate expert. "If you prefer not to save money, then think like a homebuyer," says Campbell, an investor who analyzes and writes about the Canadian real estate industry. And while it's tough to approach your first home with your brain instead of your heart, Campbell recommends looking for certain criteria in the area you like that will encourage you to make a wise decision. "You fall in love with a house in a neighbourhood that has a future and not a past," he says. "Buy in an area where the property values will go up." Buying close to a train or LRT station is a good idea because those properties are predicted to rise in value 15 per cent more than similar properties that aren't near a station, he say...

During The 2007 Boom Days, Investors ASKED For Another Pre-boom Buying Window… Is It Here, Or Not? How Are You Deciding? Greetings blog subscribers, It is time for me to be a little bit blunt and I apologise in advance. This weekend changed me, it changed me because of the research I was doing, it changed me to the point that I had to write this unscheduled post. In the 1990's Albertans thought it was too late to get into the real market (the downturn had just occurred). In the 2000's, Albertans thought it was too late to get into the real estate market (the downturn had just occurred). At each point there seemed to be as many reasons NOT to invest, as there were reasons TO invest. Yet the market took off and the brave investors did incredibly well. During both those periods, people outside of Alberta were the first to see its opportunity and they snapped up the cash-flowing deals long before most Albertans themselves awoke to the fact that they were li...