Toronto Real Estate and Neighbourhoods Blog | Move Smartly

Bill 150 targets long-suffering homeowner

Bob Aaron in Legal

Imposing mandatory energy reports will further depress prices and sales volumes

If it was the intention of the Ontario government to do as much damage as possible to the Toronto real estate market, then it has succeeded admirably in its goals. In fact, it has also succeeded even if that was not its intention.

First came the new City of Toronto Act, which allowed the city to impose the dreaded municipal land transfer tax.

Effectively doubling the provincial land transfer tax, the "Miller Bite" acted as a tsunami of ice water on Toronto's previously healthy real estate market.

Home sales have gone down every month since the tax came into force last year.

Next came Premier Dalton McGuinty's announcement in January of this year that the government is taking a "long hard look" at implementation of a harmonized sales tax, which would see provincial tax imposed on many items which are currently exempt.

If it is approved, buyers and sellers would have to pay provincial sales tax on newly built homes, legal fees, real estate commission, renovation services, land survey reports, home inspections, repairs and improvements.

Now comes the third blow to the real estate market – Energy Minister George Smitherman's proposed legislation to require an energy audit for residential units.

Media Roundup - March 6th 2009

Media Roundup

Real Estate News

For those who bought, the wait may be long (Globe and Mail)

Optimism returning to housing market, RBC survey finds (Globe and Mail)

Canada home buying intent up as prices fall-surve (Reuters)

Home-Buying Intentions Remain Strong (MarketWire)

Attack of the condo craters (Macleans)

Toronto housing market slide slows in February (Globe and Mail)

Home sales plunge 33% in February (Toronto Star)

Toronto house prices down just 5%, suggesting a more stable market (National Post)

New home of North Toronto Collegiate Institute includes condo towers (Daily Commercial News)

Arrested development (National Post)

More affordable housing needed in Ontario, says housing association (The Candian Press)

Canadian Building Permits Mark Fourth Straight Month of Decline (CEP News)

Building permits fall in January (Globe and Mail)

US Real Estate News

Obama's homeowner strategy unlikely to reduce U.S. housing inventories (National Post)

U.S. mortgage woes break records (Globe and Mail)

U.S. construction activity falls more than expected (Globe and Mail)

Economic News

Bank of Canada Cuts by 50 Bps, Considers Quantitative Easing (CEP News)

Next to nothing: What does a central bank do when interest rates approach zero? (CBC)

Missed it by that much: Toronto nearly cracks top 10 on global financial centres list (National Post)

Urban Planning and Neighbourhoods

Bring on the bulldozers (Globe and Mail)

Are poor, 'ethnic' areas cages - or launching pads? (Globe and Mail)

A boost for Leslieville, and all of us (Toronto Star)

Spacing Radio is now on the air (Spacing)

Regional Canadian Real Estate News

Vancouver Home Sales Down 45% from a Year Ago (CEP News)

Number of Albertans Planning to Buy a Home Surges (CEP News)

Calgary Housing Market Showing Signs of Stabilization (CEP News)

Montreal Home Sales Down, But Prices Continue to Rise (CEP News)

Toronto Real Estate Sales Down 32% in February 2009

John Pasalis in Toronto Real Estate News

Fellow real estate blogger Richard Silver has the inside scoop on TREB's February sales statistics.

The Toronto Real Estate Board recorded 4,120 sales in February 2009 compared to 6,015 during the same month last year.  The average price for the month dropped to $361,305 a 5% decline over the previous year.

 

Download the complete Market Watch report.

Here is the Toronto Real Estate Board's press release:

OMB Decides - No Big Box in Leslieville

John Pasalis in Leslieville, Urban Issues

The Ontario Municipal Board has decided that big box stores anchored by a Wal-mart have no place in Leslieville.  The board said that Smart Centre’s proposals "do not constitute good planning" and "will very likely destabilize" the area.  From the Toronto Star:

The SmartCentres proposal called for multi-level retail, service, commercial, office and entertainment uses, covering nearly 700,000 square feet.

It included a variety of sizes of retail stores including the possibility of two large-scale units, with the largest being up to 180,000 square feet. Parking was set aside for more than 1,700 vehicles, but it would have been tucked in behind the buildings, not visible from the street or nearby residences.

No specific tenants were ever announced, but Wal-Mart was being courted to be an anchor tenant.

Residents in the neighbourhood were divided on the project, though a vocal opposition group emerged in the East Toronto Community Coalition, which appeared before the board hearing.

The city had argued the low-wage retail jobs were not what Toronto wanted, but rather higher-paying "creative industry" jobs in film or media.

The City of Toronto issued the following press release earlier today:

Canadian House Prices Unchanged in December

John Pasalis in Toronto Real Estate News

Canadian house prices in December 2008 were down just .6% from a year earlier, according to the Teranet-National Bank House Price Index.  Half the cities in the index showed a decline in prices over the previous year while the other half showed an increase in prices. Vancouver (-1.5%), Toronto (-.7%) and Calgary (-7.6%) all showed a decline in house values.  Prices were up in Montreal (5.4%), Halifax (4.6%) and Ottawa (4.2%). 

The following chart shows the House Price Index for the six cities tracked along with the national composite since January 2005.

 

Don't take law into own hands over fence dispute

Bob Aaron in Legal

The Ontario Court of Appeal has written what may well be the final chapter in what I call The Case of the $100,000 Fence.

The case involved a dispute over a strip of land between two houses on Johnston Ave. near Sheppard and Yonge in North Toronto.

Laura Cantera bought her house on that street back in 1997. Seven years later, in 2004, Wendy Eller and Paul Wright bought the property next door, intending to demolish it and build a new home on the lot. An old post and wire fence marked the boundary between the two houses, but unfortunately it was not on the deeded property line.

In fact, the fence was shown to be in the wrong position on a land survey done in 1952. Another survey report done in 1994 confirmed that the fence was still sitting well into the Eller and Wright property.

The south point of the disputed fence near the street line was 2.5 feet west of the real lot line, and the north point was 0.8 feet west of the line in the back yard.