Housing demand is influenced by housing affordability. In turn, that affordability is influenced by job availability, interest rates and population growth, or lack of. As long as an area continues to attract new people, then housing demand stays strong. That means more construction, and even more jobs.
December of 2011 saw strong home sales across Canada, but that same month saw prices flatten somewhat. Currently real estate prices nationwide are barely higher than they were in December of 2010, according to findings of the Canadian Real Estate Association, or CREA.
Not all property investors know, or take advantage of, the fact that RRSP savings can be tapped to assist with mortgages and down payments. Individuals have leeway to do so, and this gives them the freedom to do a little creative loan structuring. Cash, as well as TFSAs also can be part of the package.
Most of Canada’s provinces are expected to see economic growth next year, but clearly the stars will be in the western part of the country. On Friday, the Conference Board of Canada noted that Western Canada will see higher commodity prices and will enjoy increased investments in the energy industry.
During the last decade, the city of Edmonton has ranked second in the increase of home prices throughout Canada. Since 2000, the city has seen a 165 percent increase in home values, noted a Re/Max report released this past Monday.
Sylvancroft is an 8,000 square foot family home that has graced Stony Plain Road for roughly 100 years. It is surrounded by formal gardens and the home itself is made of Scottish stone and brown brick. This past July the mansion finally passed out of the family’s hands in bankruptcy court. The entire homestead was sold for $2.5 million to Ivan Beljan, an Edmonton developer.
Art glass, whether formed into a piece of free-form sculpture or part of a wall design, puts a bit of pizzazz into a room. Marjan van Esch and Dana Videla have an intimate understanding of this fact. Both are glass artists, operating out of an Edmonton studio and creating colorful pieces of art to complement an assortment of living and work spaces.
Edmonton’s home real estate market is considered to be quite stable. This is also good for the economy because one of the benchmark points in determining consumer confidence is a healthy real estate market. Both owners and buyers in Alberta’s capital city show a considerable amount of that confidence.
CIBC released a poll this past Monday that showed that of Albertans between the ages of 45 to 64, only 18 percent considered themselves debt free. That is a long time goal for many across Canada. In Alberta, younger residents are confident enough in their financial planning that they will be debt free by the time they reach the age of 52.
Christina Kramer, an executive from CIBC notes that is important for Canadians to remain on tract with their plans to get debt paid off. Everyone needs a personal goal, perhaps a specific age, to use as their debt-free date. While Albertans averaged 52, those in British Columbia averaged 58, and residents of Ontario expected to be debt free by the time they reached 54. The average for the entire nation was 55.
Downtown Edmonton is proving to be a profitable venture for those interested in investing in student rental housing. The market has softened somewhat, offering more choice for investors at relatively low prices for both properties and mortgage rates. The light rail system, or LRT, has also been recently extended, opening up more opportunities along the new rail lines.
