Canada Real Estate News

100 lost $5 million in Toronto real estate scam

2009-12-12T19:40:00.000+02:00

TORONTO – 100 people who could least afford to lose money can kiss their cash goodbye.

Police said they have reported being ripped off in a $5 million scam – and it is likely the 100 unfortunate people who bought into a real estate scheme will not ever see any of their money.

Toronto Police fraud squad on Thursday charged four people in connection with a scheme that would allegedly allow them to acquire real-estate by pooling their resources.

“It is alleged that the accused, Mohammed Saheed, purported to be a real estate specialist,” police said. “He targeted a specific demographic of victims, most of whom had limited financial resources – he convinced them that, by pooling their money, they could acquire real estate that would be managed and developed by the accused.”

Earl Jones' condo hits the real estate market

2009-12-08T08:51:00.001+02:00

As Earl Jones' lawyer dealt with the courts, the disgraced West Island financial advisor's luxury condo in Dorval went on the market today.

Boasting breath-taking views Lac-St-Louis, spectacular sunsets year round, not to mention the spacious bedrooms, apartment 3X at 840 Lakeshore in Dorval is selling for $925,000.

The condo was Jones' last refuge before being hauled away on fraud charges and now, it teems with real estate agents and potential buyers.

As for Jones, he not holding up well aaccording to his lawyer Jeff Boro but if Boro is hoping to generate sympathy for the disgraced financial planner, Kevin Curren, son of one of Jones' alleged victims, has none.

"I can't imagine (Jones) is doing as poorly as a woman who was waiting for a liver transplant, who's money was stolen on her deathbed"

Toronto Real Estate Prices up 9.4% in 4 Months

2009-11-04T15:48:00.000+02:00

The House Prince Index does not use average price to measure changes in house values. It uses something called the repeat sales methodology to calculate changes in house values. This approach requires a property to have been sold at least twice in order for it to be used in their calculations. They take the current sale price of a particular house and compare it to the previous sale price to measure the increase or decrease in value over that period. This approach offers a more realistic look into changes in real estate values. You can read more about the index here.

Here is the most recent House Price Index chart for Toronto.

Resales of Canadian homes show continued strength in August

2009-09-17T00:46:00.000+03:00

Resales of Canadian homes held steady and the national average price soared in August as the supply of existing homes for resale dwindled to a five-year low, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Tuesday.

A total of 42,483 homes traded hands across the country last month through the Multiple Listing Service, an increase of 18.5 per cent from August 2008, the industry association said.

The national MLS residential average price rose 11.3 per cent from year-ago levels to $324,779, a record high for the seasonally slow month of August.

Sales activity varied in various parts of the country, with about three-quarters of all local market showing increases from August 2008.

Toronto home sales rise yet again

2009-09-06T08:14:00.001+03:00

Existing home sales in the Toronto area continue to surprise on the upside of analysts' expectations.

The Toronto Real Estate Board reported 8,035 sales in August, up 27 per cent from last year.

Average prices were also up by 6 per cent to $382,921.

"The increase in demand for existing homes has been widespread across different housing types and price ranges," said TREB president Tom Lebour.

By the end of August, year to date sales were up 2 per cent over the first eight months of last year.

Canadian Pacific Railway sells its historic Windsor Station in Montreal

2009-08-06T01:46:00.000+03:00

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. announced the sale of its historic Windsor Station in Montreal as the country's second-largest railway continues to look at ways to improve its cash position in face of declining volumes.

CP said it had sold the station, pictured, and significant other related real estate, to Cadillac Fairview Corp. Ltd. for $86-million.

As part of the deal, the railroad entered into a long-term lease to remain the principal tenant at the station. The Windsor Station is the latest real estate deal CP has entered into in order to improve its cash position.

Canada June Home Sales Rise 8.7%

2009-07-26T17:11:00.000+03:00

July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian sales of existing homes rose for a fifth month in June, adding to evidence that record low borrowing costs are fueling housing demand.

Sales rose 8.7 percent to 41,304 homes from the previous month on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Canadian Real Estate Association said today in a statement from Ottawa. Average home prices rose 3.6 percent from a year earlier and the inventory of unsold homes fell to its lowest since August 2007.

Recent data on Canada’s housing market suggest the Bank of Canada’s efforts to stimulate spending with interest rate cuts are helping fuel demand for homes and may be reversing a slump in home construction. The Bank of Canada, which forecast that housing will shed 1.1 percentage points from growth in 2009, has cut its benchmark lending rate to a record 0.25 percent.

Montreal housing market rebounding

2009-07-15T10:41:00.000+03:00

The housing market in Montreal is the most balanced between buyers and sellers it has been in decades, according to the Quebec director of Royal LePage Real Estate Services.

As a result, Dominic St-Pierre predicts the average house price will rise a moderate 2.1 per cent this year to $263,500.

“Between 2001 and 2007, it was a seller’s market and buyers had to act very quickly or they would lose the property they were interested in and at the end of 2008 and early 2009, we experienced a shift to a buyer’s market,” St-Pierre said. “Today, we have reached a more balanced state where supply and demand are more in line.”

Canadians clean up in Lee County's real estate field

2009-06-29T22:22:00.000+03:00

Terry Dona, sales manager at Gulf Coast Associates Realtors in Bonita Springs, said Canadians comprise most of her foreign buyers at about "80 to 1."

"We have quite a few Canadians who are looking for property all the time," Dona said. "It's obviously picked up even more in the last 12 months."

Dona attributed the influx of Canadian home buyers partly to the dollar's rate of exchange and also to appealing prices.

Canada has experienced an advantageous rate of exchange the past year, with exchange rates as high as $1.30 in March.

The U.S. dollar is currently equivalent to about $1.15 in Canadian currency.

Calgary real estate pros to hold industry extravaganza

2009-06-20T17:19:00.000+03:00

With Calgary’s housing market picking up steam again, more than 80 real estate professionals, 20 bankers and several home renovation experts and mortgage insurers will gather Saturday for a one-day home buying and renovation extravaganza.

A carnival atmosphere is planned for two RONA locations — 90 Crowfoot Way N.W. and 9630 Macleod Trail S — for the Under the Tent Home Buyers and Renovation Event, which is a free information day of seminars and one-on-one home buying, financial and advisory services open to the general public from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“This is a perfect time with low interest rates and reduced house prices for current owners and first-time home buyers to learn more about the home buying and renovation options,” said Laura Parsons, area manager, mortgage specialists, Calgary District, BMO Bank of Montreal.

Luxury home sales hit record high in Toronto in May

2009-06-14T17:18:00.000+03:00

A new report on the Toronto real estate market suggests it is once again moving at full steam, with high-end homes selling at record rates.

May was the strongest month ever for sales of luxury homes in the Greater Toronto Area, according to RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada.

In that month, 273 homes were sold for more than $1 million each, compared to 258 sold in the same month one year earlier -- a difference of 6 per cent.

Toronto real-estate market stabilizes

2009-05-22T16:45:00.000+03:00

Toronto - Home sales around the GTA for the month of May are running ahead of last year's pace.

Prices are holding steady even with the concerns about the economy.

After a brutal start to the year things seem to have stabilized in the real-estate market.

The Toronto real-estate board said that in the first two weeks of may there were 4,500 sales.

That number is up by 3 per cent compared to last year.

The average selling price was just shy of $400,000, which is almost the same as a year ago.

Canada's housing market 'on the mend'

2009-05-17T14:38:00.000+03:00

Low mortgage rates and softer home prices helped sharply boost April's house sales, which rose for the third month in a row.

Sales of homes in Canada, seasonally adjusted, jumped 11.2 per cent last month from March, the largest month-to-month increase in more than five years, according to the latest numbers from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).

The gain compounds advances of 10.3 per cent in February and 7.7 per cent in March.

Rock-bottom mortgage rates and prices that are 3.2 per cent lower than a year ago, on average, are the main reasons for the rebound, said Robert Kavcic, an economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns.

Canada Mortgage Rates Not Likely to Fall

2009-05-11T01:12:00.000+03:00

Mortgage rates in Canada, which have plunged by almost 50 percent in the last year, aren’t likely to fall further, said Phil Soper, chief executive officer of Brookfield Real Estate Services Fund.

“Certainly with the Bank of Canada’s target rate set at virtually zero, there’s very little room,” Soper said today at a conference in Toronto on Canada’s real estate market. The rate is “the lowest it’s been in anyone in this room’s lifetime.”

Rates for home loans have been dropping during the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, with some lenders offering mortgages approaching 4 percent, Soper said. That compares with an average posted five-year rate of 7.5 percent a year ago, according to the Bank of Canada. He added that home prices in Canada aren’t likely to rise “sharply” over the next two years.

SQ investigating city of Montreal real estate deals

2009-05-05T16:40:00.000+03:00

The mayor of Montreal says they will cooperate fully with the SQ now that it's investigating some questionable real estate deals made by the city's housing and development corporation.

"It is effectively troubling and worriesome, " says Quebec Municipal Affairs Minister Nathalie Normandeau, after reading the report by Montreal's auditor general. Those are words the auditor general himself used in describing the real estate transactions: property sold far below market value or without proper authorization, out of 300-million dollars worth of land and buildings.

But Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay insists officials with the corporation and its board of director made decisions without their knowledge.

Calgary home prices drop steepest in Canada

2009-04-30T11:08:00.000+03:00

Calgary led the country in February with the steepest decline in house prices, according to a national report released Wednesday.

The Teranet-National Bank National Composite House Price Index said Calgary house prices fell by 8.1 per cent year-over-year followed by Vancouver at 6.4 per cent and Toronto at five per cent.

The national composite price drop was 4.1 per cent.

Calgary also recorded the biggest drop from peak prices. In the city, house prices have fallen by 12 per cent from the August 2007 peak, followed by a 10.2 per cent decline in Vancouver from its June 2008 peak and a nine per cent drop in Toronto from its peak of August 2008.

Lessons from Toronto’s Real Estate Crash

2009-04-23T20:30:00.001+03:00

The overall mood about the current state of Toronto’s real estate market typically depends on the two most commonly reported statistics in the press, average price and sales volume. Average price is a popular measure but can be easily skewed by changes in the housing stock being sold.

I often have clients ask me for a list of the best and worst performing neighbourhoods in the city, based solely on changes in average price. The problem with this approach is that average prices can be very easily skewed. For example, if a new condo with average priced units is completed in a neighbourhood well known for expensive detached homes, the average price for that neighbourhood will fall not because house values have dropped but because the condominium units are having a negative effect on average prices.

The other commonly reported figure in the press is the change in sales volume calculated by comparing the current month’s sales to sales in the same month in the previous year.

Canada questions real estate competition

2009-04-22T13:46:00.000+03:00

In March 2007 the Canadian Competition Bureau, the country's equivalent of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Justice Department's Antitrust Division, met with limited-service real estate brokers in the U.S.

The meetings were part of a bureau examination (see Inman News) that eyed passed and proposed multiple listing service-related restrictions on limited-service and flat-fee brokers and whether those restrictions limited competition within the real estate industry.

Toronto housing market shows signs of recovery

2009-04-18T21:59:00.000+03:00

There are signs that life is returning to Toronto's depressed real estate market.

Numbers released Friday show only slightly fewer homes were sold in Toronto during the first two weeks of April 2009 compared with April 2008.

There were just under 1,500 homes sold in the first half of the month — or about one per cent fewer than the same two weeks last year.

"In lock-step with the favourable March results, resale housing market conditions in the first half of April were markedly improved compared to the winter time," said Toronto Real Estate Board president Maureen O’Neill in a prepared statement.

Canadian real estate market showing positive signs

2009-04-17T21:36:00.000+03:00

There may be some light at the end of tunnel, as far as real estate is concerned.

The Canadian Real Estate Association says the recent free fall in house sales and house prices is slowing down.

The CREA's chief economic Gregory Klump tells 660News the number of new listings across Canada was lower in March than in the previous month. He says sales are picking up as well, as homes continue to become more affordable.

Klump says there is still lots of downward pressure on prices in Calgary. He adds it could be another year before the Calgary housing market is back to what is considered a balanced market.

Canadian Real Estate Expert Don Campbell

2009-04-15T18:05:00.002+03:00

Montreal Home Sales in March Down Annualized 12%

2009-04-13T19:59:00.000+03:00

(CEP News) - The pace of home sales declines in Montreal eased in March, while real estate prices continued to remain above year-ago levels, the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board reported.

Sales in the month were down 12% from a year earlier, much less than the 30% year-over-year drop seen in February.

The median price of a single-family home rose to $227,000, up 1% from a year earlier and up from $225,000 in February. The median price of condominiums rose 2%, while plexes were up 3%, the real estate board said.

"Spring is the busiest time of the year for the resale market, and 2009 should be no exception," said Michel Beauséjour, FCA, Chief Executive Officer of the GMREB.

Toronto real estate market appears to be stabilizing

2009-04-11T23:32:00.001+03:00

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Toronto real estate market appears to be stabilizing
Posted: April 06, 2009, 6:58 PM by Rob Roberts

By Danna Zabrovsky, National Post

The average price of a GTA home dropped about 5% in March, compared to the same month last year, to $362,052. But the Toronto Real Estate Board says that’s the lowest decline year-over-year in five months.

“What we saw in February and again in March was a bit of a pick-up after sales had dropped off quite strongly in the December-January period,’’ said Jason Mercer, TREB’s senior manager of market analysis. ‘‘We have seen more interest in residential real estate in the Toronto area over the last couple of months.”

Canada’s Housing Starts Spring Up in March

2009-04-10T00:08:00.000+03:00

March Starts Increase to 155,000 Units Annualized

How much of a fuss should be made over the fact that housing starts in the country jumped up from 136,000 units (annualized) in February to 155,000 units in March, according to the latest report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)? Some, but not much.

The current level is about the same as it was in January and lies well below the 200,000-units per month levels that were achieved during most of the preceding seven years. Furthermore, about 150,000 units is what many analysts have been expecting for the year as a whole anyway.

Financing secured for Calgary's Bow tower

2009-04-03T12:16:00.000+03:00

CALGARY -- The final piece of financing for Calgary's landmark new Bow tower provides a much-needed vote of confidence to a city struggling with thousands of layoffs and a frozen real estate market.

H&R Real Estate Investment Trust HR.UN-T, the firm building the $1.5-billion Bow tower, said late Wednesday night that it has secured $425-million in financing from a consortium of six Canadian banks.

With that in hand, H&R said it now has sufficient money to complete the 58-storey, two million-square-foot "trophy" that will be the tallest Canadian tower west of Toronto.

"It comes at a very good time simply because we have been barraged with continuous bad news about many aspects of the economy," said Stephen Carruthers, the Calgary managing partner for Zeidler, the architecture firm that teamed with Foster + Partners to design the tower. "People consider it a talisman of continued confidence in the western economy."