There is hardwood flooring from the kitchen to the open living and dining areas.Sotheby’s International Realty Canada
This updated, 134-year-old row house was patched up, painted, and professionally staged for buyers looking for a move-in ready space in Parkdale just north of Queen Street West. The open house was well attended and resulted in two visitors putting forward offers. The bid with an extra $52,111 added over the asking price was accepted.
“If it’s a house that needs a full renovation, it’ll probably sell; if it’s a house that’s perfectly ready to go, it’ll sell,” said agent Dwayne Evens. “But if it’s in an in-between stage, those ones are sitting.”
“Down the street, there are lots of row houses and they typically sell for less than what we were able to achieve,” said Mr. Evens. “[Ours has] a nice addition at the back and it was presented so perfectly.”
The living room has a classic bay window and a wood-burning fireplace surrounded by brick.Sotheby’s International Realty Canada
Previous owners of this two-storey structure modernized the interiors and built the rear addition, which expanded the house with a third bedroom upstairs and a fourth bathroom, laundry facilities and a mudroom directly below.
There is hardwood flooring from the kitchen to the open living and dining areas. The living room has a classic bay window and a wood-burning fireplace surrounded by brick.
Downstairs, an office and a recreation area are connected by a hallway with a wet bar.
At the back of the 14-by 133-foot lot, there is a wide deck and a cobblestone path to parking off a laneway.
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.
