It’s a good idea to have a sense of what you can afford before you start looking. It will reduce your disappointment when you start looking at $700,000 homes and then find out you can afford $300,000 homes. A rough estimate is to multiply your annual gross income by two and one-half. Several factors may [...]

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Supported by a study on the impact of the Toronto Land Transfer Tax, recently authored by the C.D. Howe Institute and two University of Toronto Economics Professors, Greater Toronto REALTORS(R) are renewing calls for this tax to be rolled back.
“The housing sector is one of the most significant parts of Toronto’s economy,” said Maureen O’Neill, [...]

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Many homeowners are waiting to convert their mortgages from variable rate to fixed rate at the lowest mortgage rate. The risk is not being alerted of when rates change. So, we have created a rate alert. Simply, choose a target rate for a five year term and we will alert you when mortgage rates hit [...]

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It’s important to keep track of mortgage rates especially when you have a variable rate mortgage. The reason: you may want to convert to a fixed rate mortgage when rates get really low as we all know that rates will not stay low forever. The best way is to follow a site that keeps on [...]

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If you can’t afford to buy a home by yourself, consider buying with someone else. 
Co-buyers are people who are looking to combine resources with others with the objective of purchasing a property in which they will co-habit together and share costs until the eventual resale of the property. This type of property shared ownership is [...]

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The Bank of Canada has cut its key interest rate by 3/4% and it seems that the Chartered Banks are lowering their Prime lending rate by 1/2%. What this means to you: if you have a variable rate mortgage you will pay less interest. If you are looking to buy a home, your payments will [...]

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A friend of mine believes that he does not need a  real estate agent. Instead, he believes in searching for properties himself and then contacting the seller’s agent. The benefit being that the seller’s agent will reduce the real estate commission. If you choose this approach ensure that you do not tell the seller’s agent the [...]

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Although the government now requires a minimum down payment of 5% to qualify for a mortgage, there are a few options available for people who want to buy a home but do not have the required 5% saved up. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation offers a flex-down product which allows you to borrow the 5% down [...]

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Housing sales in the GTA fell by 50% in November this year compared with November last year. Some experts are predicting that this is good news for buyers and we agree. William Strange, a professor of real estate at the U of T suggests, “This might be a decent time to get in the market [...]

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Liquidity in the market may be improving somewhat as a few lenders loosened their purse strings this week and lowered their variable rate from prime + 1% to prime + .60%. Still a long way from the prime minus .60% variable rates that were available before credit crisis hit bad in August/September. Though with prime [...]

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