Calgary housing market demand strong for 2012: RE/MAX
Great news for the upcoming year.
By Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald December 6, 2011
CALGARY — Fuelled by low interest rates and job security, demand for residential real estate in Calgary is on the upswing, says the RE/MAX Housing Market Outlook 2012 report released Tuesday.
ING now has the evil & dirty collateral mortgage – like TD and RBC
Also see the article from earlier this year about TD and RBC offering the collateral mortgage – which is an “IOU” for every single $ you have. (http://blog.markherman.ca/2011/05/09/why-you-do-not-want-a-collateral-mortgage-from-td-or-rbc/ ) Essentially YOU give them the right to sue YOU into bankruptcy if they need to repo your house. All other standard mortgages in Alberta only allow the bank to take the house back. Another reason to use a broker that knows what they are doing. Do you really want to put it all on the line for no reason?
Canada’s economy surges ahead
There is good news out there for the Canadian economy and home buying. Here is some below.
Christine Dobby Nov 30, 2011 – 7:06 PM ET
The Canadian economy was not as bad as first feared in the third quarter. In fact, it was much better than almost anyone had hoped.
Rates, spreads and all the rest
This is an article that was sent to me. It is totally technical and I love it. This is the real reason behind what are the lowest rates we have ever seen.
It also explains why the days of Prime -.95% are GONE for what looks like a long time.
Housing affordability improves: RBC
“After two consecutive quarters of deterioration, Canada’s housing affordability has improved modestly in the third quarter, according to the latest Housing Trends and Affordability Report released today by RBC Economics.
Western marke…
Western market
Move over, Toronto – there’s a new hotspot in town
shelley white
Special to Globe and Mail Update
Published Monday, Oct. 31, 2011 4:54PM EDT
Last updated Monday, Oct. 31, 2011 7:43PM EDT
Sky-high rents. Heavy demand for downtown office space. A magnet for company headquarters. It may sound like Toronto, but this commercial real estate hotspot is decidedly farther west.
Despite erratic markets and a lingering world recession, Calgary’s office and commercial real estate market rivals Toronto as the most robust in the country, driven predominantly by the continued growth plans of energy companies.
Alberta leads North America in economic freedom: Fraser Institute report
This is great news for those of us in Alberta – we already knew we are booming. The rest of Canada is finding out as there were 26,000 new people added to Calgary this year. Almost the same as the boom in 2006. That means more people looking for homes or to rent and that demand will take up the housing slack.
Calgary housing market poised to show strong price growth
More good news on the market outlook.
November 6, 2011. 8:33 pm
Pay attention. Something’s happening here,” says Don Campbell, president of the Real Estate Investment Network in Canada.
Campbell is paying attention to the all the reports coming out these days showing some positive economic news for Alberta and Calgary. Good economic growth. In-migration levels rising. And employment growth leading the way in Canada.
Couple retires in Rimbey home built from 30 steel shipping containers
This is cool.
Containers are built to ISO 9000 standards so they are all the same and made to the same standard. Neat.
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The Glennon family’s retirement home might just look like a stack of shipping containers of all different colours from the outside.
How do we (mortgage brokers) know rates are going up?
Hi All – many people ask how we know that rates are going to change ahead of time. Below is a sample of the data that we read on a daily basis. If you were motivated enough to read things like this every day – or figure them out for yourself – then you would know too. Or, just let a mortgage broker do it.