November
This Week in Real Estate
Week of November 14, 2011
To those of you reading this, I would like to welcome you to our first ever installment of This Week in Real Estate! As a part of our continuing efforts to keep you informed and connected to your program and the Real Estate Industry, This Week in Real Estate offers an assortment of industry related news articles composed from the week that was. Whether you’re looking for some resources for a project or just want a real world look at the industry you’re studying consider this your home for great information on the Real Estate industry.
This week’s segment delivers some insights into the progression of condo development in Toronto and Vancouver, a look at why Winnipeg may be Canada’s new real estate hotspot, Canadian’s ability to afford an increase in the interest rate, and some money saving tips for mortgages.
We also dug up an article from the summer on REITs that should be of benefit to anyone in the property management course next semester or anyone invested in the stock market that’s looking for something less volatile to weather the turbulent markets.
Mr. SmartCentres, Mitch Goldhar, Gives Canadians What They Want
Housing Your Investments in REITs
Before we address the safety question, let’s brush up on the REIT basics.
What’s a REIT?
REITs are trusts that invest in a wide range of real estate assets – shopping centres, office buildings, industrial properties and apartments, for example. Some REITs focus on a particular type of real estate, while others diversify across several property classes.
The condominium sector continues to be the power behind the national housing market, which is now seeing a steady decline in single-family home construction, new figures from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. show.
October statistics reveal a tale of two markets – a condo sector where new construction of urban multiples was up 1.7% from a month earlier and a single-family home picture where starts dropped 9% from a month earlier.
‘Sizeable Minority’ of Canadians at Risk if Mortgage Risks Rise, Report Warns
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Week of November 21, 2011
What You Need to Know About Canada’s Booming Housing Market
Real Estate Boards Push Back Against CREA
MONTREAL — A year after striking a deal with the Federal Competition Bureau that gives property owners the chance to pay brokers only for the services they want when selling their homes, the Canadian Real Estate Association is now facing an internal revolt by several member boards that say they are fed up with paying for services they don’t need.
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Canadian Home Sales Top Expectation
The Canadian Real Estate Association says home sales in Ontario were stronger than anticipated during the third quarter — resulting in a slightly brighter outlook for CREA’s 2011 and 2012 national forecasts.
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US Housing Starts Down Slightly in October
U.S. builders started slightly fewer homes in October but submitted plans for a wave of apartments, a mixed sign for the struggling housing market.Builders broke ground on a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 628,000 homes last month, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That’s down 0.3 per cent from September and roughly half the 1.2 million that economists say must be built to sustain a healthy housing market.
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CREA Raises Sales Forecast Based on Strong Ontario Activity
Sales activity in Canada reached a nine-month high, led primarily by a buying surge in Ontario, according to the latest national statistics.
