New home buyers will now receive a 75 percent rebate on the PST on the first $400,000 even if the purchase is a million-dollar home.

Originally the rebate announced in March was to apply only to new homes costing $400,000 or less in order to offset the new 13 per cent harmonized sales tax that will take effect July 1. 2010.

The policy was wrong from the start and it appears the Liberal Government has realized the impact their policy would have on not only Toronto homes but homes in Ottawa and Kitchener-Waterloo as well.

Middle-class home buyers in several larger Ontario cities will now benefit from the rebates that mitigate the  costly 13 per cent harmonization tax that will contribute to future slumping sales of new homes.

We will all have to wait to see if even more rebates or exemptions will appear before this new home tax implementation.

For now the rebate will be a maximum $24,000 calculated as a 75 per cent reduction on the 8 per cent PST for  new  home valued on the first $400,000

This should help buyers interested in new Toronto Condos that are priced around the $400,000 listing price or less, however,it looks like the other 25 per cent of this  unpopular tax will stay.

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Resale housing across Canada and in major cities like Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver are all reporting increased sales from just a few months prior. This change is right across Canada even in smaller cities however the average price is being driven up by some of the more pricier real estate markets.

OTTAWA – June 15th, 2009 – National resale housing market activity returned to pre-recession levels in May 2009. The rebound in activity is being led by an increase in transactions in some of the most expensive markets in the country, which is skewing the national average price upward.

According to statistics released by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), actual (not seasonally adjusted) home sales via the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) of Canadian real estate boards totaled 49,521 units in May 2009. This is less than one per cent below activity in the same month one year ago. Year-over-year declines have been shrinking since the beginning of the year.

The seasonal increase in activity continues to be stronger than normal. As a result, seasonally adjusted home sales rose eight per cent to 37,649 units in May compared to April. This marks the fourth consecutive monthly increase in seasonally adjusted activity. Seasonally adjusted activity in May was 43 per cent above where it stood in January 2009.

Seasonally adjusted sales were up on a monthly basis in about 70 per cent of local markets. Monthly activity gains in Toronto (nine per cent), Calgary (25 per cent), Montreal (10 per cent), Vancouver (eight per cent), and Edmonton (12 per cent) contributed most to the overall increase in monthly activity.

The national MLS® residential average sale price in May 2009 reached the highest monthly level on record. At $319,757, it was up fourth tenths of a percentage point from the previous record set in May 2008. Over the past four months, the national MLS® residential average price has recovered 16.4 per cent from the low in January. The average price for MLS® home sales climbed to new heights nationally, and in Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. New records were posted in only 15 per cent of local markets in May, none of which are among the most active or expensive. The strong rebound in sales activity, not price, in Canada’s most expensive markets is driving up average prices nationally and in some provinces, just as a sharp decline in activity in these markets pushed average prices lower in late 2008.

The supply of homes coming onto the MLS® market continued to decelerate in May. Seasonally adjusted MLS® residential new listings edged lower by eight tenths of a percentage point to 65,070 units, the lowest level since December 2005. Seasonally adjusted new residential listings in May were 19 per cent below the peak reached one year ago.

With the number of sales rising strongly and new listings trending downward, the balance between supply and demand is firming up in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec. This resulted in national sales activity as a percentage of new listings reaching the highest point since December 2007. Residential dollar volume for MLS® sales climbed 10 per cent from the previous month to reach $11.4 billion in May. This is more than 50 per cent above the low of $7.5 billion reported last January.

“Sales activity is now closer to the pre-recession peak than it is to the recent low point reached last January,” says Regina Broker Dale Ripplinger, President of The Canadian Real Estate Association. “Strengthening consumer confidence, low interest rates, and improved affordability are drawing buyers to the housing market across Canada,” he added.

“Fueled by a string of monthly increases in activity, the number of transactions in May reached the highest point since July 2008,” said CREA Chief Economist Gregory Klump. “Inventory levels are still high in many markets, but fewer new listings and rising sales activity suggests that the selection of homes available for sale may shrink as the year progresses. The supply of homes up for sale needs to be drawn down further before average price increases become more widespread among local markets.”

PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this news release combines both major market and national MLS® sales information from the previous month. The Canadian Real Estate Association has previously released these separately.

CREA cautions that average price information can be useful in establishing trends over time, but does not indicate actual prices in centres comprised of widely divergent neighborhoods or account for price differential between geographic areas. Statistical information contained in this report includes all housing types.

MLS® is a co-operative marketing system used only by Canada’s real estate Boards to ensure maximum exposure of properties listed for sale.

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is one of Canada’s largest single-industry trade associations, representing more than 96,000 REALTORS® working through more than 100 real estate Boards and Associations. Further information can be found at www.crea.ca

Click here to find further information on Toronto Real Estate that includes real estate listings and Toronto real estate homes and condos for sale.

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Strongest Month On Record REMAX

New Toronto Condos are slowing down in sales as Condo projects in Toronto are not keeping up with the number of developments we have seen in the past. Very few new Condo projects were launched in 2009.

The building of condos and Homes in Toronto and the GTA bring a lot of money into the local economy however taxation on different levels are starting to affect the Toronto Market.

Read further:

Source Reed Construction Data:

However it is measured, the economic pulse of the Toronto census metro area (CMA) has slowed significantly over the past twelve months. Probably the best gauge of this deterioration in economic health is the growth rate of total employment. Since May 2008, year-over-year job growth has slowed from +2.5% to -2.9% in May of this year. This dramatic drop in the rate of job creation has caused Toronto’s unemployment rate to jump from 6.6% to 9.1%, the highest level in over 12 years and the seventh highest unemployment rate among the country’s 27 CMAs.

Across Toronto’s major industrial sectors, almost nine out of every 10 jobs lost over the past year have been in the construction industry. This has been in large part due to the 55% year-to-date decline in residential building. In addition, significant declines in employment have occurred in manufacturing (-11.9%), public administration (-11.5%) and business, building and other support services (-8.3%). In the other direction, year-over-year employment has been up in finance, insurance and real estate (+6.7%), followed by accommodation and food services (+6.4%), information and culture (+6.0%) and health services (+3.3%).

Despite its depressed labour market, the combined effect of record-low interest rates and a moderate decline in prices is contributing to a strengthening of existing home sales in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). According to the Toronto Real Estate Board, from January to May of this year, actual unit sales (i.e., not seasonally adjusted) rocketed by 259%. This was three times faster than the rate of increase between January and May of last year. Also in May of this year, existing home sales rose by 1.9% versus May 2008, their first year-over-year increase since December 2007.

While the near-term outlook for existing home sales looks positive, the outlook for new construction, particularly in Metro Toronto, does not. This is due to the impact of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), to be introduced in July 2010. A recent study by Stikeman Elliott estimated the HST will increase the cost of new houses priced at $400,000-plus by close to 6%. This significant price increase will doubtless depress new construction and job-site employment in the metro area well into 2012. It will also force more potential purchasers to look further afield for a new home.

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Toronto Waterfront

Improved consumer confidence and a pent up demand from dismal fall and winter Real Estate results have buyers back into the the new and resale Toronto Markets.

The May Toronto Real Estate Market, continues to move forward in sales and prices in month over month results since January 2009.

Fewer sellers on the Toronto home and condo  Market are resulting in multiple offers and bidding wars for single family homes and many downtown Toronto Condos.

Challenges in the economy and political constraints like the  new HST tax and the Toronto Land Transfer Tax could start a slowdown in a fundamentally sound Real Estate Market.

Buyers who waited to buy in our fall and winter Real Estate Markets, are now active but good properties go fast so buyers that can now afford to buy now, are bidding up the selling price of Toronto Homes and Condos.

Toronto Realtors reported 9,589 sales, up 2 per cent from the same period a year ago. This was the first annual increase in sales since December 2007. The Toronto Real Estate Board attributes this resilient resale housing Market to home buyers taking advantage of much lower mortgage rates.

Condos in the Central Toronto Districts (  C09, C11 ) increased 7 per cent from May 2008 to May 2009. Other Central Condos we follow, were down year over year from 2 -12 per cent.

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 The median price of a Toronto Condo now stands at $500,000 and someone buying a new Condo after July, 2010, will pay an additional $40,000 in taxes.

 These additional taxes should see the Toronto housing industry suffer huge job losses as Ontario will suffer long-term economic hardships and undermine the housing industry.

 Toronto builders will curtail certain projects and go after new construction below $400,000 using cheaper materials or go after the higher end luxury market where buyers will reluctantly pay these increased  taxes.

 Resale Toronto Homes and Condos will now become more attractive as they will avoid the tax. For someone downsizing from a larger home and considering a new resale Condo, the additional tax would be an additional $94,950.

 These new taxes will also apply to many Real Estate services that currently do not have both taxes applied, creating unseen additional expenses for the unknowing purchasers.

 Toronto Real Estate choices at affordable prices will become a thing of the past in this new Ontario Harmonization Tax world.

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Toronto Real Estate prices are starting to slow in their decline from previous increases over the last five years. A recent Royal Bank report on Canadian housing trends and affordability indicated that there will be further declines but no major Real Estate market corrections.

A combination of a decline in home prices and lower interest rates on long term mortgages will help to improve the Toronto resale market. Affordability is a key factor in the home buying experience and RBC states that buying a standard Toronto Condo with an average price of $287,000 would require a household income of $70,000. Buying a standard Toronto Townhouse with an average price of $363,800 would require a household income of $87.200, both estimates on a 25 per cent down payment and a 5 year fixed rate over a 25-year amortization.

At the beginning of this year many buyers were sitting on the sidelines but now with the average Toronto home prices and interest rates lower they are taking advantage of the opportunity now available to them.

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Toronto Condos

New Toronto Condos costing more than $400,00 will have a significant amount of extra taxes applied with the introduction of the new HST, that will combine the 8-per-cent provincial sales tax with the 5-per-cent federal goods and service tax on July 1, 2010.

According to BILD, GTA home builders it is really a back-door way to raise taxes and will certainly deeply affect the GTA’s growth.

The average selling price of a new Toronto Condowas $344 a square foot at the end of February and it was more than $500 in eight of 18 submarkets according to Realnet Canada Inc.

If the new HST was introduced immediately the increase in priceof new Condos would range from $8,400 on the average Etobicoke waterfront Condo to $72,000 more in the Bloor-Yorkville area.

Even Toronto Condo rentals will be impacted by investors unwilling to buy more expensive Condos and then try and rent them out with rents to cover higher mortgage costs and maintenance fees.

The proposed HST Tax will have a negative impact on Toronto Real Estate and affect larger family sized Condos and Homes and increase the rents, City wide in the very near future.

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Concord CityPlace Condos

 

With expensive Toronto Real Estate prices for a downtown single family home, CityPlace Condos are a great alternate for their prime location, close to work, downtown and even closer to popular attractions like coffee shops, restaurants, bars and shopping.

These CityPlace Condos can offer excellent amenities such as indoor swimming pools barbecues, parks, exercise centres, even their own basketball court,bowling alleys,billiard tables and more.

City Place Condos available on Navy Wharf Ct.

City Place Condos available on Mariner Terrace.

Other resale Downtown Condos can be found on our Toronto Real Estate website.

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Typical Toronto Bungalow

A new survey says Mortgages are at historical low rates and are helping home ownership right across Canada.. The Royal bank said the cost of owning a home went down in the last three months of 2008, after rising since 2004.

The biggest factor in affordability was falling mortgage rates that reduced the cost of borrowing and of course lower home prices.

Statistics show Vancouver remains the least affordable city to own a home where it took 70.3 per cent of pre-tax family income to own a bungalow there, compared to Toronto 51.3 per cent, Calgary 42.7 per cent , Montreal 39.4 per cent and Ottawa 42.7 per cent.

The average price for a Toronto bungalow was $428,100, a two storey detached home $512,500 and Toronto Condos most affordable at $287,300.

Affordability has been a big factor in the Toronto Real Estate Spring market as well.

The Bank went on to say that in the first quarter of 2009 home prices have fallen further along with mortgage rates which is good news for homeowners and new home buyers.

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Downtown Toronto

Downtown Toronto taken from a Condo, high above the street facing south towards Lake Ontario.

Just to the immediate right will be the new Luxury Condo,The Aura Condo, part of the College Park, Condo development.

Several other Toronto Downtown Condos can be seen in the picture, 1 King Street W., Pantages Tower Condos on Simcoe St. and some more, on Elm Street,  just south of Gerrard St.

The Toronto Real Estate Boards March 2009 totals are in and its interesting to see this Real Estate Market start to move forward from all the economic and political gloom.

2009

• January- 2,670 Sales- $343,632 Average Price
• February- 4,120 Sales- $361,305 Average Price
• March- 6,171 Sales- $362,050 Average Price

Its a great start to 2009, certainly off the highs of 2007 but a good performance despite the economic hardships and financial meltdown that does affect us here in Ontario and Toronto.

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