HOUSING TRENDS AND AFFORDABILITY – September 2010

September 29, 2010 — Jennifer

Recently, a lot of articles have put the spotlight on the increasing cost of ownership throughout Canada. Please click here for the RBC Housing Trends and Affordability report for September 2010. Despite ownership costs going up, experts say that the majority of the market are still within the safe range so there is no need for panic. In the report, each province has its own statistics and analysis so it is easy to find the information you need. The visual representation of the statistics is also very helpful to get the overall picture of what has happened in the past quarter.

Published by: RBC

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8 Green Ways to Clean Indoor Air

September 28, 2010 — Jennifer

It’s been reported that indoor air – the air in, say, your home or your workplace – can be up to five times more polluted than outdoor air. That’s a pretty scary thought, especially if you consider how risk factors for things like asthma, allergies, and lung illnesses can increase as air gets dirtier and more polluted.

Well, you can now wave those fears goodbye. Here below are great green ways to ensure clean indoor air for your home – and a safer environment for your family.

* Don’t smoke inside your home – and don’t let anyone else break the rule. Experts state that there’s no safe level of secondhand cigarette smoke, so protect yourself and your family by applying the No Smoking rule indoors. If there are any cigarette smokers living in or visiting your house, ask them to step out and enjoy their fix outdoors…

Please click here for the full article

Written by: Chris Campbell
Date: September 20, 2010

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City of Seattle wants more eco-friendly ‘green roofs’

September 28, 2010 — Jennifer

Perched 18 floors above Madison Street is a rooftop oasis. Capping the M Street Apartments are beds of crimson and tan grasses, corrugated metal tubs that hold still-green tomatoes and basil, and a woodchip-lined dog run. It’s a green roof to behold.

“It’s a huge selling point” for prospective renters, said Jennifer Farmer, a senior property manager for the building on Seattle’s First Hill. “There’s always a ‘wow’ when we come up here.”

But Seattle city leaders want to move past the “wow” factor for green roofs, and expand their use citywide. On Thursday they’re releasing a report that inventoried Seattle’s 62 vegetated roofs, which cover the equivalent of nine football fields.

“That’s a pretty big chunk of land,” said Seattle City Councilman Mike O’Brien. “(But) when you think about what’s possible in a city like Seattle, that’s just a drop in the bucket.”

The city’s 8 acres of green roofs and rooftop gardens account for less than 1/10 of 1 percent of roofs overall. The new report, which was a collaboration between Seattle and the University of Washington Green Futures Lab, explores the potential for and hurdles to increasing the number of planted roofs…

Please click here for the full article

Written by: Lisa Stiffler
Date: September 23, 2010

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Why I think the HST referendum date is bad for the provincial economy

September 27, 2010 — Jennifer

Builders and renovators are concerned about the uncertainty caused by timing

To borrow a phrase from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, B.C.’s HST saga keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.

There have been many twists and turns since this controversial tax was announced just over a year ago and implemented on July 1. I don’t recall another issue that has been as front and centre as HST.

The latest is the announcement of a referendum on Sept. 24, 2011, 364 days from today. That’s an eternity! In fact, according to B.C. vital statistics, about 32,000 British Columbians will die before the referendum takes place. And, ironically, their arrangements will be subject to HST.

The people want a say, so the referendum satisfies that need. In the end, British Columbians might just vote in favour of the HST if they believe voting against it comes with grievous consequences, such as sizable cuts in health care, education and other services. My concern is the timing. The referendum, along with the overall HST issue, must be put to bed much sooner…

Please click here for the full article

Written by: Peter Simpson
Date: September 25, 2010

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Metro Vancouver priciest market for four-bedroom homes in Canada

September 27, 2010 — Jennifer

Metro Vancouver comes out as startlingly expensive in comparison to other areas of the country when it comes to four-bedroom, two-bathroom homes.

A report issued this week by real estate firm Coldwell Banker compared average prices across the country of detached four-bedrooms, and found the average price in Metro Vancouver to be well over double that of the next most expensive region, Calgary.

The going rate for this kind of home in Metro Vancouver was $1.3 million. In Calgary, that price was $551,920. Metro Toronto was even lower, at $495,398…

Please click here for the full article

Written by: Brian Cross
Date: September 24, 2010

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Fall Home show: What she saw and heard from the floor

September 22, 2010 — Jennifer

The more than 42,000 visitors to this year’s fall home show were confronted with the delightful dilemma that every visitor to the proverbial ‘‘Scarborough Fair” has negotiated: so much to see, so little time.

At Home asked Suzannah Millette, the author of our advance story on the Vancouver Home and Interior Design Show (Visitors will exit wiser, and happier, organizers, exhibitors promise Sept. 3), to walk the (waterfront convention centre) floor and find those exhibitors whose wares and expertise are locally generated (and to be universal and inclusive in her appreciation of the indigenous),

Her file follows:

Modern Shed

Strictly speaking, this one isn’t entirely local. The product is American, but comes from less than 100 kilometres away, just south of the border. And the company that sells it – Westcoast Outbuildings – is a North Vancouver company…

Please click here for the full article

Published by: The Vancouver Sun
Date: September 17, 2010

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Home sales drop 35 per cent as prices climb in B.C.

September 20, 2010 — Jennifer

Average Metro price rose 12 per cent to $681,000 in August, compared to the same month last year

Housing sales dropped 35 per cent this August compared to last year, to 5,590 units, according to a report released Tuesday by the B.C. Real Estate Association.

But sales increased seven per cent in August on a seasonally adjusted basis compared to July 2010.

The average price of a B.C. home climbed 3.6 per cent to $487,804 in August compared to the same month last year. “August home sales posted the first month-to-month increase since March of this year,” said BCREA chief economist Cameron Muir in a statement. “Lower mortgage interest rates and an improving labour market are inducing additional consumer demand. The number of new residential listings in the province has fallen 30 per cent since April,” added Muir. “With fewer new listings, total active listings are now on the decline, signalling that an end to the buyers’ market may be on the horizon.”

Year-to-date, B.C. residential sales’ dollar volume has increased eight per cent to $26.9 billion, compared to the same period last year. Residential unit sales rose two per cent to 53,717 year-to-date, while the average residential price climbed 10 per cent to $501,226 over the same period…

Please click here for the full article

Written by: Brian Morton, Vancouver Sun
Date: September 15, 2010

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Pricey Region

September 17, 2010 — Jennifer

A recent Demographica survey found Vancouver to be the least affordable city among 272 studied, so it is not surprising that editorialists, columnists and urban-issue educators are boldly espousing their views on why Metro Vancouver is an expensive region in which to live. High on their list of impediments to housing affordability are the heavy taxes, fees and levies imposed on development; and wrongheaded urban-growth policies. I am certainly glad to have some company on the soapbox. Click on these recent columns by Michael Goldberg and Don Cayo.

Published by: GVHBA Monday Morning Briefing
Date: September 13, 2010

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New home prices drop for first time in 13 months

September 17, 2010 — Jennifer

The price of new homes fell 0.1 per cent in July after a 0.1 per cent increase in June — the first drop in more than a year, according to Statistics Canada’s latest report.

The agency’s New Housing Price Index released Tuesday lists Vancouver, London and Greater Sudbury and Thunder Bay, Ont., as the top contributors to the decline.

Between June and July, prices decreased most in Greater Sudbury and Thunder Bay, which dropped 1.9 per cent; London, down 1.8 per cent; and Windsor, Ont., which fell 1.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, construction on new housing units fell 3 per cent between July and August, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The seasonally adjusted rate of housing starts was 183,300 units in August, compared with 188,900 in July, the organization reported Thursday…

Please click here for the full article

Published by: CTV Edmonton
Date: September 09, 2010

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Sellers’ market over for housing

September 17, 2010 — Jennifer

Anyone hoping that the real estate market turned around for the better in August probably won’t want to hear the latest news from Vancouver and Toronto. The real estate boards in each city are among the first to release their monthly sales data, and tend to foreshadow the broader national data that will be released on Sept. 15 by the Canadian Real Estate Association. Here’s what they’re seeing:

SALES

The two cities released their August data late last week, and real estate boards in both cities have conceded that the heady days of the seller’s market are over. In Vancouver, sales were down 36 per cent from August, 2009. In Toronto, sales were 22 per cent lower.

“The prospect of interest rate hikes and new mortgage lending rules prompted some households to purchase a home sooner than they otherwise would have this year. The result has been a larger than normal dip in sales over the summer months,” Toronto Real Estate Board president Bill Johnston said…

Please click here for the full article

Written by: Steve Ladurantaye for CTV News

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