Realosophy Team in Media Roundup, Toronto Real Estate News
All you need to know regarding the housing market in Toronto, Canada and abroad.
This week in Toronto: You will live in your current home for 10 years, first time buyers drive the housing market and Toronto real estate listings are in a deep freeze.
Elsewhere: Mortgage rates in Canada are expected to remain steady, the U.S. housing market remains on track and the UK enjoys a strong December.
Toronto
You Will Live in Your Current Home for 10 Years and Other Surprising Facts (Move Smartly)
"On average, GTA homeowners have been living in their current dwelling for 10 years. If homeowners who purchased over the last year are factored out, the average number of years that owners have lived in their current dwelling increases to 14."
First-time buyers driving Toronto’s hot housing market (Financial Post)
“In the GTA, there is not an affordability issue,” said Sean Simpson of Ipsos, referring to his company’s findings that 53 per cent of buyers in the Greater Toronto Area in 2015 were first-time buyers. More of the same is expected in 2016 with a majority of first-time buyers between the ages of 18 and 34.
Toronto real estate listings start 2016 in a deep freeze (The Globe and Mail)
In 2015, industry pundits were predicting that the scarcity of real estate listings in Toronto would continue into 2016. So far, they appear to be right. Agents from central Toronto to the suburbs say listings are in the deep freeze – even for a January, when the market is normally cool.
Toronto seeks to 'pause' influx of refugees amid housing shortage (Metro)
"Toronto has added its name to the list of Canadian cities asking for a reprieve from the influx of Syrian refugees, as “under-staffed” settlement organizations scramble to find housing for over 1,000 new arrivals to the city."
Canada
Mortgage rates expected to remain steady despite recent spree of hikes (CBC)
"Despite a topsy-turvy mortgage landscape that has seen rates go up unexpectedly, don't expect your monthly payments to skyrocket any time soon, economists say."
Canadian dollar helping keep hot market for vacation homes for foreign buyers (CBC)
"Realtors who sell Canadian resort properties say the low loonie is spurring interest from American buyers who are looking to pick up cheap vacation homes north of the border."
Higher debt loads making Canadians more vulnerable than ever, PBO warns (CBC)
"The federal budget watchdog says in the coming years increasingly indebted households are poised to become the most financially vulnerable Canadians in decades."
Six factors in the Bank of Canada’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged (The Globe and Mail)
“Growth likely stalled in the fourth quarter,” the Bank of Canada acknowledged. It expects better things ahead, but not everyone is so confident. David Madani of Capital Economics called the bank’s latest growth forecasts “woefully optimistic.”
International
UK housing market had strong December (The Guardian)
On a rainy winter’s afternoon, I went with a friend to the train station in Shanghai to head to a wedding in Nanjing. On the train, stations flicked by us in the mist. The undulating, highly developed landscape of Jiangsu province didn’t seem to change much: fast-food restaurants, apartment towers, shopping malls, factories and warehouses, university towns—a new normal that is miles away from what we might think of as “Chinese.”
The Uncertain Future of Berlin's Squat Houses (City Lab)
To someone unfamiliar with Berlin, it might come as a shock to know that such things as squats still exist within its inner city. Springing up across East Berlin in the post-reunification period, and in rundown parts of West Berlin since the 1960s, these communes typically took over large, dilapidated pre-World War I tenements whose former tenants had fled to better conditions. In the early 1990s there were plenty of such buildings to go around, as Berliners with options understandably tended to prefer modern buildings with central heating to leaky, drafty old piles heated by coal stoves.
Realosophy Realty Inc. Brokerage is an innovative residential real estate brokerage in Toronto. A leader in real estate analytics and pro-consumer advice, Realosophy helps clients buy or sell a home the right way. Email Realosophy
January 22, 2016
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