Mortgage rates are expected to remain within 25 to 75 basis points of their current level for the remainder of 2009, according to CMHC’s second quarter Housing Market Outlook, keeping them “very low in a historical context.”

“Movements in mortgage rates are difficult to predict due to volatile economic conditions,” the report stated.

“Nevertheless, rates are expected to remain steady this year and edge higher in 2010.”

Along with mortgage rates, CMHC listed employment, net migration and low birth rate as having key effects on residential construction, and forecast housing starts to decline to 141,900 in 2009 (most notably in Alberta and Saskatchewan) before rebounding to 150,300 in 2010.

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In one of my volunteer positions on a board of directors, we have to vote annually on the salaries of the executive team of the organization. I cannot imagine these people voting on their own salary. It would not be right. I trust that they would do the right thing; I’m just not sold on people voting on their own pay. I do agree with Peter Near’s comments but I cannot agree with the policy of establishing one’s own pay. There are better ways to accomplish a fair pay structure for politicians at any level of government.

I also find myself wondering if there is any end to the game of pay parity with other municipalities. This smells of being a self-serving fantasy that does nothing to control salaries, and provides endless justifications for raising them.

Yes, everyone deserves a fair pay. No, if wages are slightly better somewhere else, these folks aren’t going to jump ship and go work for another municipality that isn’t hiring anyway.

It’s time for a better system. 

For more discussion, visit Mike Cluett’s blog . . .

Intensification, rent control changes and shortage of stock give rise to new projects

It’s hard to imagine a more challenging time for business and markets than the past half year.

With consumers running for cover and the international banking system imploding, what were developers and builders to do?

If you were Brian McCauley, executive vice-president of Vancouver-based Concert Properties, you were negotiating a deal with Diamante Development Corp. worth close to $20 million to acquire a condo site with approvals in place at Bay and Dundas Sts. His company will build the 26-storey, 448-unit project as a high-end rental.

“From a global perspective, Toronto is still a very strong marketplace in spite of the current softening that we’ve all experienced across Canada,” McCauley comments.

It also must be encouraging that Toronto’s apartment vacancy rate is at a seven-year low of 2 per cent, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. data, while vacancy rates for the subcategory of rented condos, representing newer apartment stock with substantially higher rents, is a microscopic 0.4 per cent, with rents almost 50 per cent higher than those in aging rental buildings.

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A clean start and proper gap are essential for good caulked joints.

If caulking isn’t the most poorly handled home detail ever, it’s got to be near the top.

Ill-advised caulking choices, improper surface preparation and sloppy application techniques all make many caulked joints fail sooner than they should – and look ugly while they do.

It’s rare to find a good caulking job, and the routine reapplication of new caulking over old only makes matters worse. But it doesn’t have to be this way for you.

Stinginess is the most common cause of caulking failure. A tube of cheap caulking looks pretty much the same as more expensive versions, even though it’s destined to fail earlier. Pinching pennies is also why new homes are routinely built with the lowest-quality caulking available (who’s going to notice?).

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When I am with buyers, sellers, or homeowners, I always make it a point to advise them to buy the good quality caulking, NOT the Dollar Store stuff; it only makes sense. Unless you like caulking every year!

A veteran bankruptcy trustee says homes are starting to become part of the problem for consumers with runaway debt.

The situation is not as bad as in the early 1990s recession, when the fall in home prices was more extreme than we have yet seen.

But James R.Yanch says many consumers have found their homes are not the panacea for unmanageable debt they might have been a couple of years ago.

“It was unusual for the family home or real estate to be the cause of bankruptcy in the last 10 to 15 years,” Yanch said yesterday. “If anything, it was a solution.”

People could sell their homes at a profit, or convert equity to cash to repay mounting credit-card debt, personal lines of credit and other consumer loans. Some could seek a form of bankruptcy protection known as a consumer proposal, pay part of their debts and keep their homes.

Now a sudden wave of job losses, reduced work hours, pay cuts and vanishing bonuses are combining with falling home prices and sales to make it more common for recent home buyers to lose money when selling a home.

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