Richard Silver

Real Estate Category

Greater Toronto REALTORS® Housing Market Charts

Here are the November 2010 Housing Market Charts from the Toronto Real Estate Board. I love these because they tell the real story of what is happening in the Toronto Real Estate Market. It looks at this year in comparison with the last three and does not get caught up in month to month fluctuations that can be used to distort what is really happening. Serious consumers concerned about market movement should be following these charts rather than the monthly figures.  Have...Continue Reading...

Greater Toronto REALTORS® Report Mid-Month Sales Figures

TORONTO, December 16, 2010 -- Greater Toronto REALTORS® reported 2,509 sales through the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) during the first two weeks of December2010. This represented a 19 per cent decrease compared to the 3,079 sales recorded during the same period in December 2009. Year-to-date sales amounted to 84,316 – down one per cent from the 2009 total of 84,888. “While off the 2009 record, the level of December transactions remains strong from a historic perspective. The number of transactions in 2010...Continue Reading...

Toronto Neighbourhood in focus: Rosedale

Rosedale… what’s in a name? A few years ago we bought a house on a great Toronto street south of Bloor that I refer to as Cabbagetown  North. But some call it Rosedale . There, I said it! It took me a long time to say Rosedale because it comes with a lot of preconceived baggage, when in reality it is just a place where some people have bigger mortgages and a lot of house to maintain. I do miss my Carlton/Church condo...Continue Reading...

Toronto Real Estate: The Difference Between Retrofit and Legal Status

Toronto apartments and especially Toronto basement apartments are always a big discussion when working with Buyers or Sellers. About 90% of the apartments that I have shown in either single-family homes with basement apartments or multiple family homes, the question is asked: "Is this a legal basement apartment? Does legal mean that it is retrofit?" In both cases the answer, for the most part is "no". The number of Toronto apartments that are both Legal and have Retrofit Status  would at a...Continue Reading...

Toronto Real Estate Board’s Jason Mercer on the November 2010 Market Watch.

Jason Mercer, the Senior Market Analyst at the Toronto Real Estate Board gives us the scoop from the Market Watch in November 2010. Have a look and let me know your thoughts. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIf-vSnUG-A[/youtube]Continue Reading...

Our Bathroom Renovations and the HST….

Over the past three months we have gutted and renovated two bathrooms, replaced doors and windows, dealt with a leaking basement and spent a lot more time, energy and money on our home. Like a lot of people who live in their houses while they are being renovated, we are happy to see the back end of our contractor and happy to have our house back. We are also kicking ourselves for not having all of this done years ago...mostly...Continue Reading...

The Ontario Real Estate Association hosts Political Action Days at Ontario’s Queen’s Park.

Yesterday was a great first day of Political Action with members of  the Ontario Real Estate Association . Annually the association holds a two-day session close to the Queen's Park  Parliament buildings and then meetings are held where Provincial and local issues are brought forward by OREA  to MPP's. This year the topics were Brownfield's  development (reuse of previously used property that has been contaminated in the past), the Harmonized Sales Tax  and it's effect on the Ontario Consumer, and the upcoming Provincial Election(11 months from now)....Continue Reading...

Real Estate: On Buying Condominiums in Florida

Seldom a day goes by that I do not get an email or a phone call from a Realtor in Florida. The market is brutal there, they are overbuilt with second holiday homes, sales are very slow and properties are either under-water (not worth what they are presently financed for) or are in foreclosure. The Realtors are looking north to the Canadian Consumers who are in much better shape, have less debt and who may or may not be lining up to buy...Continue Reading...

Waiting for the Repeal of the Miller Land Transfer Tax….

In the past few weeks the question Toronto Buyers have been asking is "should we be waiting for Rob Ford's  new City Council to repeal the Toronto Land Transfer Tax ?" Whether it was just another political promise that will never be realized, good intentions to the contrary, will the savings realized by the repeal of the tax actually provide a substantial benefit to wait? The Tax launched in February, 2008 which on a $400,000 property has the Buyer paying $4475 to the Province and $3725...Continue Reading...

Real Estate Council of Ontario’s Web Site

In Ontario, those of us who are registrants are regulated by a body called the Real Estate Council of Ontario. It is this body that deals with complaints from the Public, Code of Ethics violations, etc. On their web site at www.reco.on.ca they state that "The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) regulates the activity of trading in real estate in the public interest". They do so munder the auspices of the provincial government and they administer the Real Estate...Continue Reading...