The eat-in kitchen has granite countertops, stainless-steel appliances and sliding patio doors.Re/Max Realtron Realty Inc.
In early spring, many single-family homes in this northeast corner of Ajax, a bedroom community 50 kilometres east of Toronto, were being deliberately priced below market value and attracting multiple offers. This four-bedroom house was originally listed at $1.25-million and collected 11 offers , but all were rejected by the sellers. Instead, they relisted the home and bumped up the asking price by $149,000 to $1,399,000. A new offer of slightly less, $1,390,000, was accepted.
“At the time, [underpricing] was very common because the market was quite good, so after one week you could get it sold and not drag it out,” agent Bill Thom said. “But in our case, it didn’t work out like that.”
“We ended up pricing it the regular way … from $1,399,000, and from there, we got this offer and after a couple rounds of negotiations, we arrived at only $9,000 less than the asking price.”
There are pot lights in the dining room and two entertaining areas on the main floor.Re/Max Realtron Realty Inc.
This two-storey house with an attached double garage was built in 2009 on a 41- by 87-foot lot directly across from a ravine and trail system.
Over the past six years, improvements were made throughout, from the addition of a new stone façade and front steps to new hardwood flooring upstairs and pot lights in the dining room and two entertaining areas on the main floor.
The eat-in kitchen has granite countertops, stainless-steel appliances and sliding patio doors.
A gas fireplace is in a recreation area in the basement.
The 41- by 87-foot lot is directly across from a ravine and trail system.Re/Max Realtron Realty Inc.
“The house has beautiful ravine views from the front,” Mr. Thom said.
“It was upgraded, so it had patterned concrete on the driveway, sidewalk and patio at the back, and inside, when [the sellers] bought it from the builder, they upgraded quite a few things, like the kitchen and laundry area.”
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.
:format(jpeg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tgam/JRD7RKIINVGVJGXVI2XXMVJHKY.JPG)
:format(jpeg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tgam/OMHOMZIFTRAOPO5PALL6RD4TMI.JPG)
:format(jpeg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tgam/3DZQAK3YXVB4JHZ6GPTKHCMF6U.JPG)
:format(jpeg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tgam/TX6EPHWQERD3ND6CY53KVB7ICU.JPG)
