Good morning everyone.
This week saw all the kiddies go back to school. I received many Facebook photo posts/updates of adorable children with their uniforms and backpacks set to tackle another year of academia. I love it! My own sons courageously walked into the school yard holding hands as big brother guided his younger sibling to the Senior Kindergarten play yard.
Greater Toronto REALTORS® Report Monthly Resale Housing Figures (Full Report)
TORONTO, September 4, 2014 – Toronto Real Estate Board President Paul Etherington reported 7,600 sales through the TorontoMLS system in August 2014. This result was up by 2.8 per cent compared to 7,391 transactions reported in August 2013. Year-to-date sales through the end of August amounted to 65,454, which represented an increase of 6.5 per cent compared to the same period in 2013. “The last full month of summer ended on a high note. As we look toward the fall market, I expect that demand for ownership housing will remain strong. Home buyers will continue to benefit from a diversity of affordable home ownership opportunities throughout the GTA. The fact that sales were up for all major home types in August suggests that first-time buyers and existing home owners remain very active in today’s marketplace,” said Mr. Etherington. The average selling price in August 2014 was $546,303 – up 8.9 per cent in comparison to the average of
$501,677 reported in August 2013. The year-to-date average price through August was $562,504, which represented an increase of 8.5 per cent in comparison to the same period in 2013.
“The number of listings in August was down in comparison to last year, while the number of sales increased. This means that sellers’ market conditions remained in place with a lot of competition between buyers. This is why we continued to see strong price growth last month. Looking forward, if sales growth continues to outstrip listings growth, the average selling price should continue to increase on a year-over year basis,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis.
Average sale of detached home in 416 Area code tops 900k
Canadian economy loses unexpectedly loses 11,000 jobs in August
OTTAWA (Reuters) – The Canadian economy unexpectedly lost a net 11,000 jobs in August from July as well as a whopping 111,800 positions from the private sector, Statistics Canada data indicated on Friday.
The jobless rate stayed at 7.0 percent. Analysts forecast that 10,000 positions would be added after the gain of 41,700 in July.
Full-time jobs dropped by 2,300 from July while part-time jobs decreased by 8,700. The labor participation rate – of particular interest to the Bank of Canada – slipped to 66.0 percent, the lowest since November 2001.
The 12-month gain was a measly 81,300 jobs, or 0.5 percent, while the six-month moving average for employment growth dropped to 10,200 from 10,900 in July.
The gloomy figures provided more evidence there was still plenty of slack in the Canadian economy. The Bank of Canada has said it will not raise interest rates from near-record lows until it sees signs of a firm economy.
The fall of 111,800 private-sector employees amounted to 1.0 percent, equaling the record month-on-month drop seen in April 1982. Overall, 97,800 employees lost their jobs while the number of self-employed rose by 86,900.
July’s jobs data was marred by a high-profile error caused by a botched update to a computer processing program, which meant Statscan initially said just 200 jobs had been created.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Randall Palmer; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe
Condo Development and Deposits
Recently you may have heard of a Toronto Condo development that went belly up and purchasers were out their initial deposits. All the residential purchasers are going to receive their money back but the commercial purchasers are still out about $12 million. By law the development company has to have deposit insurance. It covers up to $20,000. When purchasing a new condo you should, no you MUST have your lawyer review the agreement and make any necessary changes. This is commonly known as the 10 day “cooling off period”. Language can be inserted into agreements that can add further protection. If you are purchasing with a larger than $20,000 deposit ensure that there is additional insurance coverage.
Pre Home Inspection on even New Homes!
2 weeks ago my clients were conducting a Pre Delivery Inspection (PDI) on a brand new town home that they purchased. We arranged to have a home inspector walk through the home rather than just the home owners. The results were quite telling. New home owners can go around and pick out cosmetic and obvious deficiencies but a home inspector climbs into the “guts” of the home to ensure it was built properly and that everything is in order.
In this case one main deficiency was the lack of insulation in the attic. I don’t mean that there was not enough insulation; I mean there was not ANY insulation! A clear oversight the builder and the city inspector missed.
The laundry list of deficiencies that were captured (almost all minor in nature with a few larger ones) will all be taken care of; the builder is more than happy to remedy them. TARION New home warranty further protects clients. The point is that some missed deficiencies may have never been corrected. It is never a bad idea to get a home inspection even on a Brand New Home!
You fell in love. Bought a house together. Broke up. Now what? By: Mark Weisleder
Falling in love and buying a home together sounds great, but if problems arise, it becomes expensive to sort it all out. Here’s why:
Pascale Vaudrin and her boyfriend, Glenn Caron decided to buy a home together in the City of Clarence-Rockland, just east of Ottawa, Ontario. They took title as joint tenants, meaning that if one passed away, the property would automatically go to the other.
In January of 2014, the parties separated and Pascale moved out of the home and wanted to sell it. Glenn continued to live there and would not agree to the sale of the home. Pascale then brought a court application for Partition, meaning that she was asking the judge to order that Glenn leave the home, that the home be sold and that she be paid back everything that she contributed to the purchase, including carrying costs. She had a lawyer represent her.
Glenn did not have a lawyer and represented himself in court. This is never a good idea. He wanted an adjournment as he wanted time to prove all of the money that he had contributed to the home, but in general he said he was not against the idea of selling the home. He would also need time to move out. Glenn also wanted to use the services of a local For Sale by Owner Company, called Grapevine, while Pascale wanted to use a traditional real estate agent, Richard Chartier of Coldwell Banker in Ottawa.
In a decision dated August 19, 2014, Master Calem Macleod of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordered that Glenn leave the home by November 30, 2014 and that the property be listed for sale for the price of $415,000 with Richard Chartier, instead of Grapevine.
In choosing the agent, the judge stated that the agent as well qualified and noted that if they used the Grapevine company, this would be more of a “do it yourself service” which would require a lot more involvement and co-operation of both Glenn and Pascale. He stated that the listing should not be for longer than 60 days. Once the property was sold, he ordered that an accounting be done so both Pascale and Glenn received what they each contributed to the property.
Many times clients ask if there is anything they can do if they have taken title as joint tenants with their spouse and now are not getting along. The good news is that you can break a joint tenancy, without much expense, by just transferring your share in the property to yourself. This is what Pascale did before going to court with Glenn. Ask your lawyer for assistance to make this happen.
I often have clients call me complaining that they want to sell their home but their partner or spouse is refusing. If it is a matrimonial home, it doesn’t even matter if your spouse is not on title; they can still prevent the spouse on title from selling if they do not agree. This is true even if they paid no money for the house in the first place. In most cases, if there is no agreement signed beforehand, it will take an expensive court proceeding to either remove someone from the home, or get an order forcing the sale to occur.
It is best to consider having a contract with your partner signed at the time you buy a home that sets out clearly what will happen if the relationship breaks down. It will save you expensive court proceedings later.
Mark Weisleder is a lawyer, author and speaker to the real estate industry.
Have an amazing weekend and a fantastic week, Anthony