NEW AND NOTABLE IN REAL ESTATE

CANADA’S REAL ESTATE MARKET TO COOL SLIGHTLY AFTER STRONG FIRST HALF

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Second Quarter Report - CMHC Kingston

New Homes, Resale and Employment... Click here to read more...

Resale housing forecast extended to 2011

OTTAWA February 8, 2010 – The Canadian Real Estate Association has revised its forecast for home sales via the MLS® Systems of Canadian real estate boards in 2010, and extended the forecast to 2011. With Canadian economic growth rebounding from the recession, the unusually severe decline in sales activity in early 2009 is not expected to recur in 2010. Annual activity in 2010 is forecast to be well above the previous year’s level as a result. Click here to read more...

Can there ever be too much staging?

The main point of home staging is to maximize your profit when you sell. Doing more than necessary defeats the purpose. No amount of staging will a make a home sell for more than it's worth -- 'worth' being simply defined as the amount the highest bidder is actually willing to pay. Efficient staging depends on knowing when to stop. Click here to read more...

Rates Actually Came Down...

Last week we were concerned that bond yields had gone up about as far as they could possibly go without triggering an increase in interest rates. Many forecasters had expected Friday’s release of U.S. payroll data to show that the world's largest economy was no longer destroying jobs and that the Canadian economy would add 20,000 jobs. Had that happened it would have undoubtedly triggered mortgage rate increases across the board. Instead, it was reported that the US economy lost 85,000 jobs and Canada shed 2,600.

The Canadian economy lost a total of 240,000 jobs in 2009 -- the bulk of which occurred in the first half of the year. The Canadian recession ended in the third quarter with a very small annualized growth of 0.4%, as domestic strength was offset by a weak export sector that was hampered by a strong Canadian dollar and weak U.S. demand. Economists estimate growth in the final three months of 2009 to register between 3% and 4%.

Instead of mortgage rates increasing as anticipated, they actually came down slightly this week as a result of the disappointing job numbers and subsequent pull-back in bond rates. At least one lender is back down to 3.79% on their 5 year fixed. This is the 3rd time in the past 7 months that 5 year rates have bottomed at 3.79%. On the other two occasions they climbed to 4.49 and 4.39% respectively before slipping back to the 3.79% level. Will this be the last bounce off the bottom? No one knows for sure, but forecasters agree that one of these times they won’t be coming back down. When that happens we may not see sub 4% 5 year rates again for a very long time – if ever. For now, the unique opportunity still exists to buy a home in Kingston at affordable prices and at the lowest interest rates on record.

How about a Green tip:

Conventional wrapping paper CANNOT be recycled and it ends up in landfill. This is a chance to get creative by wrapping presents with old maps, the comics section of a newspaper, children's artwork, fabric or paper gift bags, brown paper wrapping or gift boxes. Use a scarf, attractive dish towel or bandana. If every family wrapped just 3 gifts this way, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields. For more good wrapping ideas go to: www.cityofkingston.ca/goodwrap

Fourth Quarter Update from CMHC

The CMHC housing market outlook for the fourth quarter of 2009...

To see intersting info from 2009, please click here; 2009 Archived Info

To see intersting info from 2008, please click here; 2008 Archived Info