Thanks to all who attended the session tonight; it was great to be in a room full of real estate investors, getting questions answered and learning some ways to protect themselves from unscrupulous tenants.

Personally, I found the entire evening fascinating, and was able to learn some things from some of the attendees as well as the guest speakers. The head of the Investigations & Enforcement division was particularly informative, and taught me something about potential liability that I could easily take on in my day-to-day life as a Realtor.

The basic premise of the evening was that any successful landlord should get to know the Residential Tenacies Act very well, and make sure to work within the rules of the Act. As things were explained, it would seem that the Board is neither pro-tenant nor pro-landlord, but rather, takes the stance that smart actions prevent problems, and to be a good landlord means to act smart.

I’m sure that the tenants of the landlords who attended tonight’s session will be better served by having a more informed landlord.

Look for a follow-up session in the Fall.

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.

Read the full story here

Here’s the latest update from the Milton real estate market. As you can see in the first chart, the Total Market Annual Summary, the inventory of available homes is slowly tracking downwards. We now have a similar amount of inventory to what was available before the new construction started back in 2001, yet we have 4 times the number of houses. Sales activity is remaining fairly constant, and as the days on market reveals, things are selling quite quickly. 

Here’s the annual update, showing overall activity:

And here’s the Weekly Price Range Summary

As the Weekly Summary by Price Range (above) reveals, activity is spread across the lower ranges. An interesting note is that, with today’s mortgage rates, money has a much stronger buying power, and I think that is partly why the sales over $375,000 are fairly good.

For example, at 3.6%, the monthly payment on a $100,000 mortgage is approximately $505; if rates were 5.5%, that same payment would only get you $81,000 of mortgage. Double those numbers and your $1010 will now get you into a $200,000 mortgage vs a $162,000 mortgage. More realistically, multiply those numbers by 3.5 and your $1,768 will get you a $368,000 mortgage at 3.6% vs a $284,000 mortgage at 5.5%. THIS IS HUGE!!! This difference alone moves you from the mid-range semi-detached homes and the upper-end row houses (townhouses) into the lower-mid-range detached homes. For the same monthly payment. Sure, your taxes will be a touch higher, and the downpayment required a little bit more, but not by a significant amount. 

And here’s the graphical listings and sales information (listings in green; sales in red):

Another fascinating week of activity in town, with the number of sales being down 33% over the previous week, and the number of available properties staying relatively consistent. I’ve included a graph to give a clearer visual presentation of the trend over the past 8 months, and it is quite interesting.

I have to repeat what I’ve been saying every week – multiple offers abound. I was involved in 2 more this week. Also, as agents are catching up to the changing market, some of the benefits to buyers

are already disappearing. For a couple of months, it was easy to get an offer accepted conditional upon the sale of the buyer’s property; now it is virtually impossible. Why, you might ask? Because if the house is priced properly and shows well, it seems increasingly likely that there will be multiple offers, so there won’t be a need to accept a conditional-on-sale offer.

What this means for sellers is that NOW is a good time to sell! What this means for buyers is that the window is rapidly slamming shut! The perfect storm I’ve been talking about is rapidly dissipating. Sure, it may come back, but it may not come back for 5, 10, 15 years. I have to speak straight from the heart, and ask when people are going to get off the fence and take action? We’ve seen prices inching up; the supply is down, and still people are trying to time the market. Guess what folks – you missed the bottom of the market. Don’t keep trying to do the impossible; just get into the market now!

Call me today at 905-208-7002, and we’ll get you moving along the path to owning a home, or an investment property, while the options are still out there.

Here’s the updated Annual Summary:

Milton Real Estate Activity Summary 05-22-09

And here’s the weekly overview:

Milton Real Estate Weekly Summary

And here’s the weekly summary graph of listings (green) and sales (red):

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – May 20, 2009) – Greater Toronto REALTORS^® reported 4,561 transactions in the first half of May – an increase of three per cent compared to May 2008.

“Members reported a rise in buying activity this month,” said TREB President Maureen O’Neill. “Many home buyers who were undecided about purchasing a home during the winter months are now proceeding with confidence as a result of the GTA housing market’s affordability.”

The average price for MLS^® sales was in line with last year, down by less than one-half of one per cent at $399,811.

“More sales and fewer listings resulted in tighter market conditions which pushed the average selling price back up to last year’s level,” according to Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis. “Look for new listings to increase as home owners react to the positive news surrounding home sales and prices.”

May 2009 Mid-Month Statistics

Year-Over-Year Regional Breakdown
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  2009                      2008
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                         Sales    Average Price      Sales    Average Price
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
City of Toronto ("416")  1,864         $439,459      1,734         $437,205
Rest of GTA ("905")      2,697         $372,408      2,688         $377,344
GTA                      4,561         $399,811      4,422         $400,817
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Toronto Real Estate Board