New rules crimp home buying power

The Globe and Mail- The GTA’s new homes market has reached a significant milestone. Anyone with a family income of less than $100,000 a year and a down payment of 10 per cent or less doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in July of qualifying for a mortgage on any condo with a price tag greater than $410,000 or a detached home costing more than $450,00.

To put this into perspective, at the end of March, the last month for which up-to-date figures are available, the average new GTA condo sold for $420,097 and the average new home cost $490, 395. Nor can would-be home buyers find much relief in the resale market. The average price for homes sold in April through the multiple listing service was $437,087.

Nor do the months ahead hold any hope of relief. With increases in interest rates forecast and with house prices certain to continue to rise as long as demand outstrips supply, and other factors such as the harmonized sales tax, ever larger municipal development charges plus rising land and construction costs are factored in, the cut-off point for family incomes needed to qualify for mortgages is certain to rise…

New rules crimp home buying power – The Globe and Mail

Builders tinker with prices to fit the HST

The Globe and Mail- After a burst of outrage when it was first announced, home builders and high-rise developers across the province have reluctantly accepted that the new harmonized sales tax is here to stay come July 1.

Most affected are those operating within the Greater Toronto Area. With a $400,000 starting point for application of the HST, new homes in smaller centres will – in the main – be exempt…

Builders tinker with prices to fit the HST – The Globe and Mail

Expect to hear more talk of Canadian real estate bubble

The Globe and Mail- The market for new homes is beginning to show the same bounce that led to the remarkable recovery in resales after the slump. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said this morning that housing starts in January jumped 5.8 per cent to a seasonally adjust annual rate of 186,300, with gains in both single homes and condominiums. The jump was led by a surge of almost 20 per cent, month over month, in British Columbia, which analysts said may have been related to construction for the Winter Olympics. Overall, it marked the fourth increase in a row…

Expect to hear more talk of Canadian real estate bubble – The Globe and Mail

Greater Victoria bucks trend of increasing new home prices

Times Colonist- Contractors’ selling prices for new homes rose across the country during September, but Greater Victoria and a handful of other major centres continued bucking the national trend with the costs inching downward…

Greater Victoria bucks trend of increasing new home prices

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