You may have seen this new billboard if you were cruising around Spadina Ave and Queen St W after May 17th. As sarcastic as it is, having your parents help you with entering the real estate market is the new norm, particularly here in Toronto. Wealth is beginning to shift generationally as parents help their children with down payments and, in some cases, even paying the mortgage.
The dream of home ownership has been slipping further and further away for many Canadians. It was once a rule of thumb to aim for a home that was roughly priced less than or equal to four times your annual income. However, with skyrocketing home prices and property values, this is an incredibly outdated rule.
Toronto’s real estate market has been characterized by its intense competition, lack of supply and soaring prices. The pandemic has further exacerbated the market, pushing more and more buyers out. Millennials and younger Canadians, seniors and those on fixed incomes, and young families without the luxury of generational wealth are feeling the brunt of such a market.
OSFI has proposed new changes to the mortgage stress test in an effort to cool an overheated real estate market. Markets such as Toronto and Vancouver have been exploding over the past twelve months despite the pandemic. It brings the question of whether this will have the desired effect or will simply be a temporary solution to an ongoing problem.
The city of Toronto has been making moves to create supportive and affordable housing this week. Thanks to a new affordable housing initiative with a time limit on its funds, the city is attempting to tackle the ever-growing housing crisis we have in our city. Two buildings have been bought by the city with an announcement that they will be converted into 334 affordable and supportive housing units.
Competition has been a defining trend in Toronto’s real estate market for decades now. The supply is never enough for the constant demand for housing. As we’ve mentioned many times before, this has driven the prices in Toronto sky high forcing even fiercer competition and regular bidding wars on many properties. With so many buyers vying for their new home, it’s common to lose on offer night. An occurrence that often repeats for many buyers. How is it possible to stay positive in such a fierce and competitive market?
Despite a global pandemic and enduring the second wave, Toronto’s real estate market is as competitive and hot as ever. Rents are hitting a huge low as an unprecedented exodus from the city begins as remote working becomes the norm. With the many industries suffering through these changes, why is the real estate market still so crazy?
Home buyers in Toronto better be prepared as prices continue to surge. The Toronto Real Estate Board expects home prices to rise by 10% this year, leading to the average home price to surpass $1 million by the end of 2021. As with a higher price, the down payment required to purchase a home will climb even higher, leaving many unable to enter the market. Affordability issues aren't anything new to Toronto but it’s important to look at the gravity of the situation.
It’s January of the new year. While there are many things to be optimistic and hopeful about, from a real estate perspective, January is a tough month. Things are slow, supply is even more scarce and things can seem helpless. But that’s just January. Coupled with the state of the market in Toronto, things can seem bad but don’t fret too much. Plenty of good things are on the way.
Welcome to 2021! A new year with a plethora of opportunities waiting! Time to start fresh and leave the challenges of 2020 behind, right? Well, yes and no. As we welcome in the new year, it may be tempting to pretend like 2020 never happened. Unfortunately, just because it is a new year does not mean we can slip in our vigilance when it comes to our safety and the safety of others. Real estate is no different. We must continue to put safety as our top priority even when buying and selling houses.
This week in celebration of the holidays, we decided to have a look at how co-living could benefit you during this season. This year has been particularly difficult as we head into our second lockdown in Ontario, making seeing and visiting family difficult and in many cases, impossible. However, in a co-ownership and coliving situation, the holidays need not be a damper on the festivities. Here are 4 reasons why coliving can make the holiday season even more festive.
We’ve talked before about the crux and social stigma that surrounds our households before in our previous articles about the nuclear family and isolation. Today we wanted to dive deeper into the social stigma that surrounds multigenerational living, particularly the attitudes towards living with your parents when you are single and why living in a multigenerational household needs to make a big comeback as our cultural landscape changes.
December 2020 marks the closing of an unprecedented and unpredictable year. Despite the global pandemic, competition for residential real estate is still as heated as ever in Toronto and the wider Ontario markets. Today we decided to have a look at Ontario’s different real estate markets and see how 2020 fared amidst a tumultuous and challenging year.
A new rental trend may be emerging in Toronto. Laneway housing, also known as garden suites, are beginning to make an appearance in the neighbourhoods of Toronto. Since 2018, when Toronto went ahead and approved the by-laws for laneway housing, development began on new suites.
Single family homes are a treasured and coveted staple in Toronto’s real estate market. Not only are they a popular abode for families, they are also in massive demand for their investment potential. With high demand, comes high price. Prices for single family homes have continued to skyrocket in Toronto despite the negative aspects that such homes bring. In this article, we’ll go through the rise of the single family home and why, perhaps, it's time for a change.
Social isolation is becoming one of the most prominent issues facing today’s Canadian seniors. Canada’s population over 65 years of age has exceeded 6 million and is projected to exceed 9.5 million by 2030. In 2016, the number of people over 65 exceeded the number under 15 years of age. As one of the fastest-growing demographics in Canada, seniors face a number of issues that need to be addressed both now and in the future in order to succeed in attaining a satisfactory quality of life. The question is, how can we prevent social isolation from impacting seniors’ quality of life?
Toronto is at a pivotal point in the year 2020. Actions and policies over the next decade will shape the city. The success or failure by 2030 will depend on how we tackle workforce housing. In this article, we’ll take a look at workforce housing, why it is such a contentious issue and what can be done to ensure Toronto will succeed in the future.
A look into the future of Toronto’s real estate market. With a global pandemic raging across the world, the future is uncertain. In this article, we analyse different sources to predict what may become of Toronto’s real estate market. By no means is it certain, but perhaps its not all doom and gloom.
