Week In Review: Foreign Buyer Tax Not Enough for TO? + Housing Boom Refills Empty Nests

Realosophy Team in Media RoundupToronto Real Estate News

Ctv12Photo Credit: CTV

All you need to know regarding the housing market in Toronto, Canada and abroad.

This week in Toronto: The housing boom refills empty nests, Mayor Tory meets with experts to discuss overheated market and one report says a foreign home buyers tax will not be enough. 

Elsewhere: Canadian house prices see a record breaking month, Trump's budget hits the department of housing and urban development hard and Germany's housing costs are set to become an election issue. 

Toronto 

Foreign home buyers' tax won't be enough: Ryerson report (CBC)

Author Josh Gordon, an assistant professor at the Simon Fraser University School of Public Policy, says a levy on foreign buyers needs to be done soon to calm the market, but even that might not be enough.

Mayor Tory to meet with experts to find ways to cool overheated housing market (Toronto Star)

Tory said Monday he is “deeply concerned” about housing affordability in Canada’s largest city, where the average price of a detached home has pushed past the $1.5 million mark. 

Biggest factor in red-hot Toronto housing market is demand: minister (CTV) 

As an influx of people move to the province, in particular the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, the growing demand for housing -- also fuelled in part by low interest rates -- is outstripping the current supply, Charles Sousa said. 

 

Toronto’s Housing Boom Refills Empty Nests, Driving Prices Even Higher (New York Times) 

The more house prices rise, the longer it will take Sarah to save up enough to move out. But the longer she and thousands like her stay with their parents, the fewer houses are put up for sale — and that scarcity is a big reason prices are soaring.

I Was Blinded To Toronto's Dark Real Estate Future (Huffington Post) 

Little did I realize that despite the glow of the market, ours could very well be the last generation to bask in the light of the Toronto real estate dream. The last generation to believe in the starter home, and the last generation for whom home ownership would be within reach.

Canada

Canadian House Prices See Record-Breaking Month (The Globe) 

USA 

In Pricey Silicon Valley, Teachers Scramble for Housing (City Lab)

Finding and keeping an affordable place to live can be an all-consuming chore in Silicon Valley. Some of the area’s teachers, administrators, and teachers have to live two hours from school to find housing that fits their budget. Some combine two families into one apartment. Others move in with relatives.

Kushners, Trump In-Laws, Weigh $400 Million Deal With Chinese Firm (NY Times)

The Chinese company, Anbang Insurance Group, would pay to get a high-profile piece of Manhattan real estate and would commit to spending billions more to completely transform the 60-year-old tower into a chic condominium and retail citadel.

Trump's Budget: Expect Reagan-Era Levels of Homelessness (City Lab)

The administration’s budget includes $6.2 billion in cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Relative to funding levels necessary for HUD in fiscal year 2017, the cuts amount to a 15 percent reduction—the largest cuts in housing aid since the Reagan administration.

 

International
 
 
New Zealand is one of several countries where the impact of foreign money on housing is under scrutiny. Prices have also risen rapidly in Australia and Canada. Central bankers fret about the dangers fickle capital flows pose to financial stability. London’s mayor has ordered a study on foreign ownership in the capital after property prices rose by 54% in four years.
 
Germany’s housing costs set to become election issue (Financial Times) 

Germany’s property market avoided the cycle of boom and bust that floored other European countries during the financial crisis. But rents have ticked inexorably upwards in the decade since. With a general election looming later this year, how to protect tenants from rising rental costs is set to become an increasingly hot topic.

 
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