EDMONTON REAL ESTATE @EdmontonRealty

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...