| Spring Market in full bloom in Ottawa
Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,594 residential properties in April through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system compared with 1,560 in April 2008, an increase of 2.2 per cent. There were 1,162 sales in March 2009. Of those sales, 323 were in the condominium property class, while 1,271 were in the residential property class... Read More... Courtesy of The Ottawa Real Estate Board
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Mortgage Insurance Offers Peace of Mind
For first-time homebuyers, shopping for a house or condo can be an education. In the process, you learn about different kinds of insulation, cabinets, furnaces and how to calculate the amount of money a bank will lend you. While not as much fun as visiting an open house, experts say it's also useful to learn about the types of insurance related to mortgages... Read More... Courtesy of The Star
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Green Mortgages Reward Eco-Friendly Thinkers
Several Canadian banks, including CIBC and TD Canada Trust, offer mortgages for homebuyers concerned about the environment. Introduced about two years ago, CIBC's Enviro-Saver mortgage provides a homebuyer with a gift certificate of up to $300 for an energy audit, which will find energy leaks and identify changes that could make the house more energy efficient... Read More... Courtesy of The Star
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HSBC Bank Canada Launches New Mortgage to Reward Savers
HSBC Bank Canada has launched a unique mortgage option for homeowners looking to pay down their mortgage faster without having to forego the security and liquidity of maintaining a cash reserve in their savings account. The new HSBC Smart Savers Mortgage enables homeowners to link their savings accounts to their mortgage and use the balances to offset or lower the interest rate on the mortgage... Read More... Courtesy of Canada News Wire
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Ottawa-Gatineau Tops in List of Favourite Cities to Live
Popular urban studies theorist Richard Florida has named Ottawa-Gatineau as the best city in Canada for mid-career people, families and retirees to live in, as well as one of the top three cities for singles and empty-nesters, in his latest book. According to Florida, Ottawa-Gatineau is the most attractive place to live in the country for young professionals and families with children, while Calgary gets top billing for singles and recent university graduates... Read More... Courtesy of The Ottawa Business Journal
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Top-10 Products for Affordable Green Retrofits
Many cost-effective green retrofit strategies involve expert audits or operational changes. Many opportunities are also available in key product areas. To highlight some of the best, we’ve combed through our GreenSpec Directory of green building products for this list of the Top-10 Products for Affordable Green Retrofits... Read More... Courtesy of BuildingGreen.Com
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Canadians Taking Less Equity Out of Their Homes
Canadians continue to have more than two-thirds more equity in their home than Americans, according to a new survey. The study for the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals shows Canadian homeowners have, on average, 72% equity in their house, compared with 43% for Americans. The study also found that Canadians have dramatically reduced the amount of equity they are taking out of their home... Read More... Courtesy of The National Post
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For Your Next Reno, Go Green
In the rush to spur spending and create jobs through renovations, the various levels of governments have not mandated any green conditions to be eligible for their new rebates. It will be up to homeowners to green their renovations. After all, going green saves you money in the long run says Renee Gratton, a director on the Canadian Green Building Council... Read More... Courtesy of The National Post
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Mortgage Rates Unlikely to Fall Further: Brookfield
Mortgage rates in Canada, which have plunged by almost 50% in the last year, aren't likely to fall further, said Phil Soper, chief executive of Brookfield Real Estate Services Fund. Rates for home loans have been dropping during the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, with some lenders offering mortgages approaching 4%, Mr. Soper said... Read More... Courtesy of The National Post
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Still No Provincial Pledge for Strandherd Bridge Funding
Provincial cabinet minister Jim Watson returned to Ottawa council chambers Tuesday armed with a long list of previous provincial contributions to city coffers, but refused to commit funding for a new stadium or the Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge. Mr. Watson focused on the fact that neither project was on the city's infrastructure "wish list" of projects it hopes will qualify for senior-level government stimulus money... Read More... Courtesy of The Ottawa Business Journal
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Harmonization of Taxes Could Mean Rent Hikes
Harmonization of provincial and federal taxes may have an impact on what renters pay each month for their housing once the HST comes into effect next summer. The province recently announced that the PST and GST would be harmonized in Ontario as of July 1, 2010. The Federation of Rental Housing Providers of Ontario estimates that will increase residential rents in Ontario by 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent... Read More... Courtesy of The Star
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'Rates are Stupidly Low'
For first-time buyers with secure employment, the housing market may look rather more appealing now than it has in recent years, when they struggled with affordability. While a continued buyers' market is good news for them, house hunters shouldn't expect to see a dramatic drop in prices... Read More... Courtesy of The National Post
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Homeowners Get More Incentives to Go Green
This week, the Ministry of Natural Resources announced a limited-time offer: Homeowners across Canada will be eligible to receive up to 25% more in grant money to make upgrades to the energy efficiency of their homes. Under the ecoENERGY Retrofit-Homes program, an upgraded furnace, for instance, could get a grant of $625 rather than the previous $500... Read More... Courtesy of The National Post
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Ottawa Home Sales up 7.2% in March
With bargain-hunters piling in, the Ottawa real estate market snapped back in March after months of double-digit declines. Sales of existing housing rose 7.2 per cent from a year earlier to 1,162 units and up more than 47 per cent from February when just 788 units were sold. It was the strongest single-month sales number since September... Read More... Courtesy of The Ottawa Citizen
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House Prices Holding Up Better than Expected: Royal LePage
Canada's housing markets were "relatively resilient" in the first quarter, Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd. reported Wednesday. The average price of a two-storey home fell 6.5 per cent to $379,636, compared to the first quarter in 2008. Percentage drops for detached bungalows and condominiums, which are both cheaper than two-storey homes, fell even less. The drop took the real estate sales company by surprise... Read More... Courtesy of CBC News
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Ottawa's Property Tax Increase to Be Less Than Anticipated
There was a bit of good news for Ottawa property taxpayers: the 2009 tax increases are going to be a little less than anticipated. Last year, city council approved a 4.9 per cent tax increase for this year. But because of a regular check to make sure each municipality in Ontario is paying its due share of the province’s public education bill, the actual increase on urban Ottawans’ tax bills will be 4.1 per cent... Read More... Courtesy of The Ottawa Citizen
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Lansdowne Will Cost Extra $20 Million Over 10 Years
Larry O’Brien says just maintaining the existing buildings at Lansdowne Park would cost at least an additional $20 million over the next 10 years. He said the city spends about $1.8 million a year maintaining buildings at Lansdowne and subsidize operations. It would have to spend an additional $2 million to $2.6 million a year to keep them going, according to the city’s latest analysis... Read More... Courtesy of The Ottawa Citizen
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Lowest Mortgage Rates in Years - Time to Refinance?
Interest rates are at a historic low. Is this the time to re-negotiate your mortgage? The answer is a resounding, "maybe". The basic rule of thumb is if you are paying more than 5% interest then you should definitely check in to it. With a five-year fixed rate currently hovering around 3.99% the savings can be substantial, both in terms of monthly payments and the total interest paid out over the life of the mortgage... Read More... Courtesy of The Financial Post
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Choosing the Right Mortgage
Traditionally, the most important consideration in choosing a fixed or variable mortgage has been which strategy would save the most money. But that might no longer be the case: Choosing a type of mortgage and term today may come down to what makes sense for the individual homeowner rather than what saves cents... Read More... Courtesy of The Financial Post
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Harmonized Tax is Another Burden for Homeowners
Lots of people have been stopping me in the hallways of the Globe to talk about the Ontario government budget and the impact that the new harmonized sales tax will have on buying and selling houses. The new blended sales tax will add a tax burden to many household goods that are currently not subject to provincial sales tax, including the purchase of new homes above $400,000 and the closing costs on the sale of existing houses... Read More... Courtesy of The Globe and Mail
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Feds Consider Move to Make Mortgages More Available
The federal government has been wrestling with the dilemma of making home mortgages readily available to stimulate the economy while at the same time preventing a glut of housing foreclosures because payments cannot be maintained. The result has been a rash of changes in mortgage restrictions and some new incentives... Read More... Courtesy of The Financial Post
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Ottawa's Proposed Land-Use Plan Pleases No One
Ottawa's proposed new land-use plan, which calls for more density and less sprawl in the coming decades, took a beating from all sides Tuesday. Still, the plan calls for 800 hectares of vacant land connected to existing suburbs to be designated for new single-family homes, along with higher population and employment densities everywhere, especially inside the Greenbelt, to limit sprawl... Read More... Courtesy of The Ottawa Citizen
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