The home has an open dining area and an updated kitchen.Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd.
About two dozen visitors toured this two-bedroom bungalow that sits on busy Lawrence Avenue West near Avenue Road, but some lost interest when told the seller wanted a closing date five months away. In the end, one buyer agreed to that condition in return for an $87,000 cut on the asking price.
“We were one of eight on Lawrence Avenue for sale – some listed higher and some around the same amount – and many of the listings had started to sit past the 40-day mark,” said agent Belinda Lelli.
“Some of the same properties are still on the market, and none of them have done an open house,” she said. “A couple are in a better school catchment than ours, so they should have sold.”
The home has entertaining areas on both levels.Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd.
This brick bungalow was built in the 1930s, but the interiors have been modernized. It has an open dining area and an updated kitchen as well as entertaining areas on both levels.
One bedroom has an exit to the rear deck and garden, while a side door gives access to the driveway and garage.
A side door gives access to the driveway and garage.Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd.
“Some seniors don’t want to go into a condo, so this gives you the feel of a house without all the stairs,” Ms. Lelli said. “And you don’t have monthly maintenance fees.
“There’s a lot of pride of ownership there. Like, [my client] redid the kitchen. When you have a small space, everything you do in it sticks out.”
There’s also potential for improvements to the basement or elsewhere on the 41- by 95-foot lot. “The fully finished basement is ideal for rental income provided the purchaser installs a bathroom and kitchen,” Ms. Lelli said.
“And you could put in a garden suite … with two bedrooms, which is quite substantial.”
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.
