Blog

Condos Dominate in 2017

January 16th, 2018
Looking back on 2017, we had many surprises in the real estate market. By the end of the year, condo sales were dominating the marketplace.Let’s look at some stats for just a moment. In 2017, the average price of a condo was up 14.4% to $504,200. Compare that to the average price of a home, which actually dropped 2.5% to $990,089. That’s quite a difference!So why are condos so hot? There are ...

Don't Stress Over the "Stress Test"

January 12th, 2018
We’ve all heard a lot about the new “Stress Test” that took effect January 1st. But let’s just quickly recap here: the OSFI (Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions) now requires that all homebuyers requesting a new mortgage prove that they can actually afford the prime rate set by the Bank of Canada, regardless of whether the mortgage rate they were quoted is lower than prime. ...