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According to a recent report by the Centre for Policy Alternatives the rapid increase in prices in Canada’s 6 major housing markets is a good news bad news story. Good news for home owners who have seen a steady increase in their home’s equity. Bad news for some prospective new homeowners wanting to buy their first home. Good news for an economy bouyed by home construction and low interest rates. Possible bad news if interest rates go high enough to make mortgage payments unmanageable. David Macdonald, author of the report, suggests that homes are affordable because of record low interest rates. But if rates go even marginally higher, mortgages will quickly become unaffordable. The report recommends that mortgage lenders “stick to slow, gentle increases”. It also suggests that a return to more conservative lending rules (10% down, 25 year amortization) would be beneficial in the long term. Before you start a home upgrading project you will need some expert advice. Once of the first decisions you should make is who you will get to do the work. Whether you decide to do it yourself or you wnat to have an experienced handyman or home renovator do the work, you can get a wealth of advice from a home center like Home Depot, Lowes, Rona, or Home Building Centres. Not only can they give you design ideas, but they can suggest reliable tradespeople too. They may have tradespeople on staff who can do certain aspects of your project. Or they will certainly be able to suggest some reliable tradespeople. Dryers put out a lot of heat. And that heat has to be vented properly. If your dryer’s vent is plugged the heat can build up and cause a fire. Especially if you have not cleaned the lint and fluff from your lint filter. – real-estate-webs.info/?p=693 In this video from Lowe’s Mike Kraft their home improvement expert, offers helpful tips for maintaining your string trimmer. Learn how to replace string, change the oil, clean the trimmer filter and more that will help keep your trimmer working like new. Installing a retainer wall can be a great way to dress up the outside of your Kitchener home. In this video Mike Kraft from Lowe’s explains how to install a stone retainer wall using standard materials available at most Waterloo Region area home building centers. There are many different types of blocks available in the Waterloo Region area for creating retaining walls. You should investigate the alternatives to determine the best match for the look you are aiming for. This project will involve some simple excavating, so after you have determined your location, call a Waterloo Region area utility company to locate where your various utility lines are buried under the ground. In this video you are shown exactly how to do the project yourself. It describes what tools you will need and how to measure off the area to be contained within the new wall. You are also shown how to properly make the ground ready and how to construct the wall so it will last for years. For more information on sources for materials and tools for projects like this, get in touch withlawn and garden centers. If you dont’ have the time or energy to do this project yourself, give me a call and I can recommend Waterloo Region area experts who can do a great job for you. 
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Watch this interview with economist Will Dunning where the discussion focuses on the question whether the bouyant real estate market in many parts of Canada should be called a “housing bubble”. Will Dunning suggests a bubble typically has a number of characteristics including: - Rapid growth of asset values (house prices) According to Dunning the current situation does have the first two characteristics, but does not have the second two. Most home purchasers are not biting off more than they can chew, while the major lenders are equally cautious. Therefore he concludes we are not in a “bubbly” situation. Why should we care about this? The advice here is not to be concerned about the current hot market because it is is caused by a bouyant employment market. As good paying jobs increase in numbers housing prices are pushed upwards. As well we are seeing an important shift where many currently renting in larger Canadian cities are making the move to home ownership. In small cities there has often already been more people owning their own homes. In both cases (larger and smaller cities) the news is all good. Conditions make it a good time to purchase a house in the K-W area. The economy is expanding, interest rates are still relatively low, and the price of homes is expected to steadily appreciate well into the future. So you’re finally going to tackle that major home improvement project. You’re going to add some closet space, put in a home office, finish the basement, or any of the scores of renovation projects homeowners do all the time to their Waterloo Region houses. With a major renovation involving a number of tradespeople, when it comes time to decide who you will hire your first choice will usually be a general contractor to oversee the whole project. Once that person or company is hired the daily management of the job is more or less taken over by your contractor. You are counting on your contractor to hire the right Kitchener-Waterloo carpenters, drywallers, electricians, plumbers and painters. That makes it very critical to select the right contractor. In this article titled 10 Things to Know About Hiring a Contractor the writer reminds us how you should be sure of your contractor’s credentials before hiring him or her to take on your expensive and complicated project. Some of the most important things to do are making sure that they are currently holding a valid license to operate as a contractor in Waterloo Region, and that they have adequate liability insurance so you don’t end up with a damaged or destroyed house. Once you are comfortable with credibility and followed up on a number of references, be sure to sign a agreement. Be sure the contract contains specific information outlining the details of the work to be done, as well as who is to take care of things like permits and inspections. Also be careful to specify when the project is to be completed, and when you are expected to make payments. It should also contain a termination clause in case things really go wrong. When outlining how payments are to be made be careful to make clear that you will not pay by cash (if that is what you prefer), that all payments will be made to the contractor (not to suppliers or sub-contractors), and that you will be holding back a reasonable percentage until a certain number of days after the project is completed. That will give you time to make sure all work is done satisfactorily. Short term economic forecasts from the economists used by the Canadian government to prepare the federal budget have been revised upwards. In December the average growth rate was projected at 2.6% for 2010. They now say it will be 3.1%. Growth in 2011 has been revised downward slightly from 3.2% to 3.1%. Unemployment is projected to fall to 8.1% by the end of 2010. In other words, according to these economists the Canadian economy is chugging along at a pretty good clip, and will do so for at least the next two years. All of which is good news for Canadian and K-W homebuyers. April 26, 2010 – Luxury home sales hit new highs in 9 or 13 regions across Canada, according to a recent ReMax Canada report. The report was based on information from brokers. A luxury home is usually thought of as one falling within the top 1% to 5% of sales. The luxury price range varies across Canada from $400,000 in St. Johns to $2-million in greater Vancouver. The most expensive home sold in Q1 in Canada was in Vancouver – an 11,600 sq. ft. home for $10M. The average price for a single, standard detached home in Vancouver is now $800,341 – up more than 20% from a year earlier. Prices across Canada have also increased significantly in the last 12 months – almost 20%. Resource: >Globe and Mail |
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 Andy Hendershot  Twin City Realty Inc., Brokerage 83 Erb St. W., Waterloo ON N2L 6C2 Office: 519-885-0200 Direct: 519-572-6804 Email: andy@hendershot.ca Thanks for visiting my blog. Contact me for more information about buying or selling your home in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and surrounding communities. |
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