Average Canadian home prices up slightly, says Royal LePage survey

The Canadian Press

TORONTO - The housing market may be recovering, but is experiencing an under supply of homes for sale in southern Ontario and elsewhere in Canada.

That's according to the latest house price survey by Royal LePage. It says with the recession retreating, home prices are stabilizing and unit sales are increasingly driven by improved affordability.

Royal LePage says the average price of a two storey home in Canada is up just 0.1 per cent from a year ago at $409,335.

Average bungalow values grew 0.06 per cent year-over-year to $341,146, while the price of an average condo increased 0.09 per cent to $243,748.

Royal LePage says a shortage in housing supply is leading to bidding wars in several cities, including Toronto, Montreal, St. John's, N.L.; St. John, N.B. Moncton, Edmonton, Calgary, North and West Vancouver, and Victoria.

While the Atlantic provinces saw a strong recovery in home prices, western provinces have been slower to recover from significant price corrections in 2008, particularly in British Columbia and Alberta.

Ontario and Quebec saw home prices stabilize or gain slightly year-over-year with much of the recovery occurring in a strong third quarter.

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Benefits of Harmonized Sales Tax

Benefits for Home Buyers

Currently, new homes in B.C. are subject to the GST, and also carry an estimated two per cent embedded tax as a result of the PST paid on most construction materials.

Under the proposed Harmonized Sales Tax, new homes will be subject to the HST but the embedded PST will be eliminated because builders will be able to recover the tax paid on materials through input tax credits. Used homes will not be subject to the HST.

An essential part of the BC HST will be a tax rebate for new homes.

- A rebate of up to $20,000 will ensure that purchasers of new homes up to $400,000 do not pay more tax due to harmonization than is currently embedded in the price of a new home.
- New homes above $400,000 will be eligible for a $20,000 rebate.
- New home sales will be subject to the HST
- Sales of used homes will not be subject to HST.

For more information on the Harmonized Sales Tax, pleases visit:
http://www.gov.bc.ca/hst

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Is your current Mortgage still your Best Option??

With interest rates still low it's time for a mortgage check up to see if your mortgage is still beneficial to you. With a quick call to your existing mortgage provider you can find out your outstanding balance, maturity date and amount of your pre-payment penalty.
With that information Lawless Brown Mortgage Team can give your mortgage a "health check" compared to today's rates and terms. In today's changing markets and your long term goals, your existing mortgage could no longer be in your best interest financially.
Call us to find out if changing your Mortgage is financially beneficial to you.
Lawless Brown Mortgage Team
250-656-0855

Victoria BC Housing Assessments

Assessments to reach homeowners next week
A majority of properties face the same or lower assessed values
Andrew A. Duffy, Times Colonist
Published: Friday, January 02, 2009

It's not exactly Sears catalogue day, but the first official working day in January no doubt has postal workers doing a few pre-work stretches as they prepare to handle the 1.85 million assessment notices being sent out across the province.
B.C. Assessment will send the notices out starting today meaning homeowners around the province will start seeing the envelopes in their mailboxes early next week. But homeowners anxious to check out the assessment of their homes may be able to do so online at www.bcassessment .bc.ca starting today.
This year's assessment notice will be slightly different than in years past.
That's because the provincial government decided earlier this year to maintain assessed property values for the 2009 assessment roll at the July 1, 2007 valuation date -- the same date used for the 2008 assessment roll.
The goal of this was to give property owners more certainty in response to the downturn in the real estate market.
New construction in 2008 will be assessed at a value as if it existed July 1, 2007.
The 2009 notices will show two assessed values -- for July 2007 and July 2008. The lower amount will be the official assessment.
About 94 per cent of property owners will receive an identical or lower assessment this year than last, according to B.C. Assessment. Of that group, 82 per cent of properties will have the same assessment, 12 per cent will be lower, and the rest applies to less common property classes.
For Greater Victoria, that means the assessed value of all homes should be close to last year's $83.7 billion which was an increase of $10 billion from the year previous.
According to Brian Hawkins, assessor for the region, last year's numbers reflected a steady increase with the majority of homes in the region having increased between eight and 12 per cent in a year.
This year's assessment will also come with a market trend graph for specific areas around the province, both big and small, that will show what the market has done in the last year and a half.
Anyone wishing to appeal their assessment has until Feb. 2 to make the request.



From Krista and Sherri,

We have received our housing assessments in the mail and all are the same as last year. If you have any questions about them or how to use the equity you have in the house to make money for you, call us and let us show you how. You can also find free information and sign up for our newsletter on our website.

www.lawlessbrown.com

Should I shop around between Mortgage Brokers?

A reader of Ozzie Jurock's asked that question and his answer was this:

"Interesting question. Until two months ago, I would have said that all mortgage brokers really have the same access to every financial institution as any other and that the only difference is the experience, acumen and 'hungriness' of each broker. Today this has changed. A number of lenders have cut off large numbers of brokers. Some do not use brokers at all and others have cut off low-producing brokers. Many brokers cannot say that they actually have access to every lender any more, only the big companies and high volume brokers still have access to every lender and yes, it could mean access to the best rates at all times."

http://www2.jurock.com/askexpert/expert.asp?aid=116&cid=64

Put Krista and Sherri in that list of brokers if you are inclined to shop around and you will be pleasantly surpised. They will work for YOU not the lender

Publish Post

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Happy New Year's

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Real Estate Investing in Victoria

The funny thing about investing in Victoria is that it hasn't really been hurt by this market. The prices have gone down however the rental market is still hot. Only 5 in every 1000 rental suites are vacant and rents are high.

So we both invest in Victoria and between us we have eight rental suites and two vacation rentals. We have yet to have one of the suites vacant for more than a month and have been extremely lucky with tenants.

Some of the rentals have interest only mortgages with variable rates which make sense when they are truly income properties. Some of them have variable rates and pay off principle and well we keep researching to see what the best mortgage is for our needs. We love having rental properties and know that these will be our nest egg in the future.

We also love to show people how to be real estate investors. Once you have everything set up..they basically take care of themselves. We can show you how and tell you about the pros and cons.

The best thing we did was join the Rental Owner's Management Society. The other cool thing we did is follow our passion and become mortgage brokers. The real estate market is fascinating so why not work in an industry you love?

So over dinner one night, the Lawless Brown Mortgage Brokers came to life. Thank you so much to Arlene Modderman for helping us become part of Mortgage Depot. What a wonderful company full of knowledgeable people to assist us in being the best that we can be. The other wonderful thing we did was hire a dear friend of ours to help us design our website and between her and our dear friend Janis, the following was designed

www.lawlessbrown.com

We loaded it with free info and a free newsletter. We hope the info on it will motivate people to invest in the Victoria Real Estate market and set themselves up for a financially independent future.

Who we are!

Back in 1993 after too many years of snow and sub-zero temperatures in Northern Ontario, Krista made the move to beautiful BC and began working in the restaurant industry while attending Camosun College.

Again in 1993 after many trips to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Mexico and so on Sherri decided that she should settle back down to work, plan and pay for her next adventure.

In 1994 we found ourselves working together at a local restaurant becoming fast friends. Much history and many stories were made throughout those four years and even after we parted ways work wise, the friendship remained strong.

During the years at the restaurant we both found our prospective partners and after approving each other’s choices in husbands we helped plan and stood up for each other on our wedding days. After many years of friendship, 2 weddings and 5 baby boys later we have chosen to work together again, this time as mortgage brokers.

Our two families are very close and enjoy spending time together, skiing at Mount Washington, motorbike riding, travelling and camping together.

It only seemed natural that our friendship should blossom into a business relationship and it is the best decision we have ever made.

www.lawlessbrown.com

www.lawlessbrown.ca