Toronto
Housing crunch could drain Toronto talent pool (The Toronto Star)
If the Toronto region is going to attract and retain top talent, the province needs to fix the area’s housing shortage, in part by revising its recently expanded rent controls, says the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
A survey by the business group last year shows 42 per cent of young professionals would consider leaving the region because of the high cost of housing.
Don't fall for the staging: Real estate expert on how to avoid rookie buyer mistakes (CTV News)
Being a first-time home buyer without guidance from qualified professionals is like using the internet to diagnose a serious illness -- it’s not going to end well. That’s the advice Toronto real estate agent and industry expert Karyn Filiatrault gives to millennials looking to enter the housing market.
She joined CTV’s Your Morning on Tuesday to warn against some of the biggest mistakes she sees real estate rookies make, even when they are getting help from the pros.
Toronto’s Millennials are calling for this kind of housing, fast (BuzzBuzz News)
Demand outpacing supply is often cited as one of the main reasons for Toronto’s sky-high real estate prices. Now, according to a new survey, Millennials are calling for greater density in the GTA.
A new survey by the Toronto Region Board of Trade has found that 83 per cent of GTA Millennials say that the cost of housing is making it difficult to save for retirement, while 65 per cent report that it made it hard to pay off debt.
Toronto remains a strong real estate investment magnet (Canadian Real Estate Magazine)
The Toronto region posted its seventh year of record commercial-property sales and there’s still room to rally as a buoyant economy leads to surging demand for everything from hotels to offices, according to Altus Group Ltd.
“You’re going to see large global companies wanting to position themselves in Toronto,” with its proximity to the U.S., Altus CEO Robert Courteau told Bloomberg. “All the demographics say with immigration and available rental, that we have a hot economy here for the next several years.”
Canada
B.C.'s new measures aim to temper rising real estate prices (The Globe and Mail)
The B.C. budget aims to temper the province's hot housing market but neither the government nor other observers know what the impact on real estate prices will be.
The main measure is a new tax to be levied annually on property owners who do not pay income tax in British Columbia. Homes used as a primary residence and properties with long-term renters will be exempted. The tax rate will be 0.5 per cent in 2018 and then 2 per cent in 2019 and thereafter, charged on a property's assessed value. The tax is among several changes focused on the housing market.
Canadian families choosing small living over suburban sprawl amid rising housing prices (Global News)
Skyrocketing real estate and rental markets across much of the country have some families choosing small spaces over suburban sprawl and finding unexpected benefits.
Adrian Crook lives with his five kids in a one-thousand square-foot condo in downtown Vancouver.
Canadian Regulator Confirms It’s Harder To Get A Mortgage With Foreign Income Now (Better Dwelling)
Last week, a major Canadian bank overhauled mortgage verification for those with foreign income. The surprisingly strict rules, left many wondering if other banks would follow with similar changes. No need to wonder, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) confirmed with us that more strict guidelines are being adopted at all banks they oversee. Guidelines are still just guidelines, so there’s flexibility in how they’re enforced. Despite the variance between banks however, all borrowers using foreign earned income to qualify for a mortgage, should expect more strict verification procedures going forward.
USA
Post-New Tax Law Changes, Some Pessimistic about the U.S. Housing Market's Future (World Property Journal)
According to Zillow's newly released 2018 Q1 Home Price Expectations Survey, new changes to U.S. tax laws led 41 percent of survey respondents to lower their long-term expectations for the U.S. housing market.
When asked how the new tax law impacted their five-year forecast for home values in the U.S., 41 percent of respondents said their overall housing outlook is now more pessimistic, while 31 percent of the panelists had a more optimistic view as a result of the tax reform. The remaining 28 percent of respondents said that tax reform did not change their outlook.
Homeownership is increasingly for the wealthy, according to the latest sales data (CNBC)
The sharp drop in January home sales was not due to a shortage of homes for sale. It was due to a shortage of affordable homes for sale.
While real estate economists continue to blame the pitiful 3.4-month supply of total listings (a six-month supply is considered a balanced market), a better indicator is a chart on the second-to-last page of the National Association of Realtors' monthly sales report. It breaks down sales by price point.
