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Blog by Linda M Linfoot

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Why this housing tax break is so important

April 5th, 2017
Why this housing tax break is so important  - Canadians (NC) For the 70 per cent of Canadians who own a home, it is a place to live, raise our family, and it connects us to our community. Due to Canada's tax system's Principal Residence Exemption, when we sell our homes, any increased value or “capital gains” are not taxed. This generous tax break matters to Canadian homeowners. Collect ...

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Tax Notice Information

January 12th, 2017
Tax Notice Your property tax notice is a bill for some services that are available. The amount you pay depends on the: - property location  - property classification  - property assessed  - value cost of services Your taxes are calculated using tax rates that are set for each available service. Tax rates are adjusted every year to make sure the funds needed to provide services are raised. Y ...

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Residential Market Commentary - week of November 14, 2016

November 15th, 2016
Vancouver is turning its attention away from home buyers and toward home owners in an effort to pry open some affordable living space in the city’s staggeringly expensive housing market. The latest move is another punishing tax designed, we are told, to get people in to Vancouver’s ever growing stock of empty houses. The current rental vacancy rate in Vancouver is less than 1.0%. Some reports ...
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Residential Market Commentary Sept 19, 2016

September 22nd, 2016
Record low interest rates are the most commonly cited reason for the record debt-load being carried by Canadian households. Over the past couple of weeks it has become clear there will not be any big increases anytime soon. The Bank of Canada, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank have all stood fast with their latest settings. There are unlikely to be big increases in wages ...
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Residential Mortgage Quarterly Review

May 13th, 2016
Residential Mortgage Quarterly Review With the first quarter of 2016 finished two key monitors of real estate and housing in Canada are updating their projections for Q2 and beyond. The Canadian Real Estate Association had forecast some rebalancing, expecting slower national price growth due to slowdowns in British Columbia and Ontario during 2016. However, continued low interest rates – an ...

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Market Commentary April 29

April 29th, 2016
Market Commentary It was just a matter of time and it has finally happened. The average price of a new, detached home in the Greater Toronto Area has surpassed the $1 million mark. The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) -- the people who develop property and build new houses in the GTA -- reported last week that the average came in at a little less than $1,046,000 in Ma ...
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The Condo Invester Menality

April 7th, 2016
The Condo Investor Mentality CondominiumsIf you want to know how condo investors operate, CMHC has a new report for that. It just released its 2015 Condominium Owners Survey (COS), and it’s stuffed with facts and insights on income property activity. One key stat, for example, is the number of condo flippers (buyers who “anticipate holding their unit for less than 2 years”). CMHC estimates th ...
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Market Commentary April 5, 2016

April 5th, 2016
Market Commentary It looks like just about everyone has decided interest rates are going to remain low, longer. Ottawa appears to be betting on it and the latest comments from the U.S. Fed seem to support that expectation. Recent comments by Finance Minister Bill Morneau, regarding government bonds, suggest the federal government is counting on interest rates remaining low for at least the ne ...
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Market Commentary - March 30, 2016

March 30th, 2016
Market Commentary Student debt, lackluster job prospects and skyrocketing prices do not appear to have diminished the dream of home ownership for that group of potential first-time buyers known as millennials. A new survey conducted by Angus Reid for one of the big banks suggests 86% of 18 to 34 year-olds believe home ownership is important. Fifty-nine percent say it offers a sense of persona ...
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Market Commentary - March 21, 2016

March 21st, 2016
Market Commentary The February home resale numbers from the Canadian Real Estate Association were good enough for the organization to up its forecast for the year. CREA has gone from projecting a slight, 1.1% decrease in sales to a slight, 1.0% increase. But the figures are still a tale of two markets: the red hot big cities of Toronto and Vancouver and the rapidly cooling, oil dependent zone ...
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