Listing agent: Bill Thom, Re/Max Realtron Realty Inc.
The home is more than 50 years old, but has newer components, including the roof, windows, and finishes in all three bathrooms.Re/Max Realtron Realty Inc.
The action
This four-bedroom house across the street from Bellbury Park and just one kilometre westof the Peanut Plaza in North York sat on the market for six weeks this fall without a nibble. Once a neighbour with a comparable home slashed their price and secured a buyer, these sellers reduced their asking price by $50,000. Over the following two weeks, two feeble offers came in, but a third was more agreeable and a deal was struck for $37,000 under the lowered asking price.
“There was a similar house that dropped their price and sold … and that proved to us we had to lower our price,” agent Bill Thom said.
“But it sold for a lower price than what we ultimately sold ours for.”
The traditional layout includes an eat-in kitchen, with granite countertops.Re/Max Realtron Realty Inc.
What they got
This two-storey house is more than 50 years old,but has newer components, such as the roof, windows and finishes in all three bathrooms.
The main floor has a traditional footprint with a combined living and dining area and a separate eat-in kitchen.
Behind the attached double garage, there is a family room with double entry doors, a stone fireplace and access to the 55-by-110-foot grounds.
There are two recreation areas in the basement.
The closing date is Jan. 24.
The main-floor family room has a stone fire place and exits out to the back yard, and the basement boasts two more recreation rooms.Re/Max Realtron Realty Inc.
The agent’s take
“One of the attractive features was definitely its 55-foot frontage,” Mr. Thom said.
“What the house had to offer in terms of upgrades would be the granite countertops and updated bathrooms.”
The quality and quantity of amenities nearby were also a hit. “It’s within walking distance to a community centre, park and tennis court,” Mr. Thom said.
“It’s two [bus] stops to the subway, and has convenient access to the Don Valley, 401 and 404 [highways].”
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.
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