This side-split house is designed across three different levels.Coldwell Banker R.M.R. Real Estate
The action
City dwellers bought this three-bedroom house on a 2.6-acre property just north of Trenton, Ont., in July, 2023. But they soon changed their minds, finding it too far from family. In September, they put it back on the market, priced at $10,000 less than what they had paid two months prior. When buyer interest petered out and competition from other nearby homes increased, the sellers shaved another $20,000 off the asking price.
“They didn’t automatically expect they would sell it for the same as what they got it for,” said agent Paul Lang. “They knew they were going to have to sell it for less.
“Two homes came up on the same street within a week, so it was dicey. But my sellers were on top of things, and we stayed under the other guys’ price.”
The sellers landed a $820,000 deal, on condition that the buyers sold their property within 45 days, which they pulled off. “It was a long condition because they literally just listed their house the day before,” Mr. Lang said.
“We’re starting to see a lot more of this. Like the last four [properties] I’ve put offers on in the last week and a half, three of them had a condition of sale of property.”
The main floor has an updated eat-in kitchen, a living room and a dining room.Coldwell Banker R.M.R. Real Estate
What they got
This side-split house was built about 20 years ago. It is designed across three levels, with three bedrooms on the upper floor and a guest bedroom and recreation room directly below.
The main floor has an updated eat-in kitchen, a living room and a dining room addition with cathedral ceilings and access to a deck and gazebo.
The three bathrooms are on a septic system. The laundry room has access to the garage.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
