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: Housing hasn't been affected by interest hikes yet, why this city is the ideal place to build a neighbourhood of the future and Google's sister company makes a bold bet in Toronto.
Elsewhere: How the new mortgage stress test will hit Canadian home buyers, U.S. housing starts hit one-year low and where in the world the housing bubble might pop.
Toronto
4 Stats Show Toronto Housing Hasn't Been Affected By Interest Hikes... Yet (Huffington Post)
"To understand the true impact of the interest rate hike, we compiled the latest sold records from the GTA and extracted insights from different aspects of real estate," HouseSigma co-founder Joe Zeng states in the report.
Why Toronto is the ideal place to build a neighbourhood of the future (The Globe and Mail)
In Toronto, we found a city with unequalled diversity and a remarkable spirit of openness – a beacon of social tolerance that welcomes strivers from all over with new opportunities. That openness has made Toronto one of the fastest-growing large cities in North America. Its recent economic success hasn't come at the expense of these values, but rather because of them.
Google sister company makes 'bold bet' with new tech-focused neighbourhood 'Sidewalk Toronto' (CBC)
Waterfront Toronto has announced that Sidewalk Labs, Google's city-building sister company, will be its partner in creating a new tech-focused neighbourhood on the eastern Toronto waterfront.
Real estate agents are creating short films to help sell homes in Toronto (NOW)
In Toronto, real estate videos – from fanciful creations like Lewis’s to straightforward virtual tours – are becoming more popular among realtors looking for a competitive edge in a saturated market.
'We're being squeezed out': Locals try to save Parkdale restaurant amid gentrification worry (CBC)
Small business owners throughout the city have faced similar struggles amid a constant march toward higher and higher rental rents that some landlords say is the new reality in Toronto.
Canada
New mortgage stress test to hit ‘move-up’ home buyers (The Star)
Under the new rules, even home buyers who don’t require mortgage insurance because they have a 20 per cent downpayment, will have to prove they can make meet their commitment if interest rates rise above the five-year benchmark rate published by the Bank of Canada or 2 per cent higher than their contracted mortgage rate, whichever is higher.
What housing industry experts are saying about OSFI’s new rules (BNN)
“The impact of these measures will be mixed but with an overall dampening impact on the housing market, with a bigger bite in higher-priced detached markets in Toronto and Vancouver. ... At the margin, this significant move by the regulator acts as a de-facto tightening and reduces the amount of additional Bank of Canada rate hikes required in 2018.”
Economic guru Robert Shiller on Canadian housing, distracted investors and a new ETF bearing his name (Financial Post)
Existing real estate in established cities like Toronto and Vancouver looks bubbly to me, and I would be concerned. I wouldn’t advise someone to buy two or three houses in Toronto.
October 20, 2017
This Week In Real Estate |