What is the Eco Audit?
The Eco Audit is an initiative by the Federal and Provincial governments to motivate homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. As a homeowner, you can get up to $10,000 in ecoENERGY grants ($5,000 provincially and $5,000 federally). To qualify for the grants you need to first get a [...]

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Can you believe what’s been happening to the Canadian dollar? Not long ago it was 1.10US. Not it is .7856US. 
October could be the dollars worst monthly fall since at least 1950 on speculation the economic slump will deepen and oil will decline further. Canadian financial conditions have soured, exports are impaired by flagging U.S. domestic demand, [...]

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Prime rate is now at 4.0%, a 3/4% drop over the last 4 weeks. With a little pressure from the media and consumers, the major banks are now passing on the full benefit of the lower central bank rate to their customers who currently have variable rate mortgages.  
This is a good lesson on when [...]

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A few interesting notes from last week’s news … 
US Home Sales rose 5.5 per cent in September, the biggest gain since July 2003, and the inventory of unsold homes fell.  Many American are hoping that this is a sign that the US housing market is stabilizing. One observer suggested that the increase was simply from [...]

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Looking for good news in your mailbox. Look elsewhere!
Property tax assessments started arriving in the mail last week. The  average Toronto increase is projected at 5.4%. Many homeowners, however, are receiving valuation increases many times higher.
The assessments are the first after a 3 year freeze ended Dec 31, 2007. 
With the recent downturn in house prices, [...]

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Maybe house prices did not all as badly as first thought for the month of September. The Canadian Real Estate Association suggested that the average Canadian house price dropped by 6.2%. Now TD says it was in fact only 1.3%. 
TD suggests Canadian housing starts may fall below the 200,000 mark, home prices will continue to correct [...]

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