Tan•gazine January - February 2014 Vol 3 Issue 07

January - February 2014 Volume 03 Issue 07

Year Of The Horse

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contents January - February 2014 Volume 03 Issue 07

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Tan.gazine news

Forget House Prices And Debt, Deflation Is Canada’s New Bogeyman After spending two years watching house prices and household debt measures, investors may spend 2014 focused on inflation reports when making bets on the Bank of Canada’s interest rate outlook.

Stephen Poloz has responded to economic challenges by dropping all guidance on the future direction of the bank’s trendsetting interest rate.

The slow pace of consumer price inflation surprised policy makers in 2013, reviving rate-cut bets and prompting the central bank to abandon its bias to raise borrowing costs. Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said in an interview last month he can’t explain the weak inflation, which is now almost a percentage point below where the bank forecast it would be at the start of last year.

“A lot of people are starting to position for CPI releases,” Mazen Issa, senior macro strategist at Toronto-Dominion Bank’s TD Securities unit in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. “Inflation is going to be one of the major stories for Canada” this year.

Statistics Canada reported Dec. 20 that annual inflation in November was 0.9%, unexpectedly staying below the central bank’s 1% to 3% target band. The difference between Canadian and U.S. two-year yields

4 | tanteam.com

narrowed by 4.22 basis points, the largest one-day reaction to Canadian CPI data since September 2011, when inflation was above the target band.

Inflation below 1% gives the Bank of Canada “plenty of reason to be dovish,” said Camilla Sutton, chief currency strategist at Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto.

The Dec. 20 report was “a disappointment because the market thought we would go back into to that 1 to 3%” target band.

Linkers Losing The Bank of America Merrill Lynch Canada Inflation-Linked Government Index, which tracks six bonds with a face value of about $45 billion, lost 0.3% between the inflation report and Thursday, compared with a 0.2% gain for U.S. linkers.

Inflation has been below the 2% midpoint of the central bank’s target for 19 consecutive months.

The bank forecasts it won’t return to that level for another two years.

That would mark the longest stretch of inflation below the goal since the country adopted inflation targeting in the early 1990s.

In 2012, policy makers and investors were focusing on rising consumer debt. With near historic low mortgage rates sparking a rally in Canadian house prices and fuelling record debt levels, the

Bloomberg News January 03, 2014

central bank singled out household indebtedness as the greatest domestic threat to the economy. It introduced a rate-rise bias in April of that year, making it the only G-7 central bank to hint at higher borrowing costs.

Rate Bets A year ago today, investors priced in more than 21 basis points of tightening by the end of 2013, trading in overnight index swaps showed. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg last January forecast a rate increase by the end of the year.

Today, swaps trading shows rate-cut bets have increased, meaning investors forecasting a change are roughly balanced between rate cuts and increases during 2014.

Elsewhere in credit markets, the extra yield investors demand to own the debt of Canadian investment-grade corporations rather than of the federal government fell 1 basis point Thursday to 118 basis points, or 1.18 percentage points, according to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Canada Corporate Index. Yields fell to 3.11% from 3.14%. In 2013 the spread narrowed 17 basis points.

Yields on provincial debt relative to federal benchmarks fell 1 basis point to 64 basis points and narrowed 11 basis points in

Tan.gazine news In 2012, policy makers and investors were focusing on rising consumer debt. With near historic low mortgage rates sparking a rally in Canadian house prices and fuelling record debt levels, the central bank singled out household indebtedness as the greatest domestic threat to the economy. It introduced a rate-rise bias in April of that year, making it the only G-7 central bank to hint at higher borrowing costs.

2013, according Bank of America’s Canadian Provincial & Municipal Index. Yields were 3.07%, compared with 3.09% on Dec. 31 and 2.55% at the start of 2013.

Corporate Debt Corporate debt returned 0.8% in 2013, compared with losses of 2.3% for provincial debt and federal-government securities, Merrill Lynch indexes show.

The difference in yields between Canadian and U.S. two-year notes — one gauge of relative interest rate expectations — fell from 91.6 basis points at the start of 2013 to 75.5 basis points at 8:14 a.m. in Toronto.

That spread moved

sharply after Poloz, who replaced Mark Carney as governor in June, completely abandoned the central bank’s bias at his Oct. 23 rate announcement and began to single out weak inflation as the biggest risk to the economy.

At 1%, Canada’s benchmark rate remains the highest in the G-7.

“Under Carney, there was a shift in terms of focusing on financial stability risks,” said David Watt, chief economist at the Canadian unit of HSBC Holdings Plc. “Under Poloz, there has certainly been a return in focus towards what the Bank of Canada is mandated to look at, which is inflation.”

No Slowdown On Horizon For Housing Market: Royal LePage It’s the debate that’s destined to keep raging through 2014: Is Canada’s housing market too hot to touch, or set to keep climbing with no ceiling in sight?

“Talk of a ‘soft landing’ for Canada’s real estate market in the new year is misguided,” says one of the country’s biggest brokerages, early out of the 2014 gate, in its quarterly Royal LePage House Price Survey.

“We expect no landing, no slowdown, and no correction in the near-term.”

In fact, price gains are likely to average 3.7 per

Core Inflation Inflation last year averaged 0.9% through November, the slowest since the 2009 recession, falling to as low as 0.4% and never surpassing 1.3%. Core inflation, which excludes eight volatile components and is monitored closely by the bank as a gauge of inflationary pressures, averaged 1.2% last year and never fell below 1%.

“If core inflation is becoming unhinged, then you start to be concerned with the risk that the Bank of Canada may have to think a little bit more seriously about rate cuts,” Issa said.

Susan Pigg - Toronto Star

January 09, 2014

cent nationally in 2014 as buyers who’ve put purchases on hold the last year or two, expecting a major correction, have watched sales rebound and prices take off again, says Phil Soper, president and chief executive of Royal LePage.

“In the absence of some calamitous event or material increase in mortgage financing costs, we expect this positive momentum to characterize 2014.

In fact, we expect a market tipped decidedly in favour of sellers for the first half of the year, after which we project a shift to a more balanced market.”

tanteam.com | 5

Tan.gazine news -Continued from previous page

Those gains are likely to be even bigger in Toronto — Royal LePage predicts prices should climb a further 3.9 per cent in 2014 over average gains of 5.1 per cent in 2013 — as a shortage of lowrise homes in the 416 region continues to drive up average sale prices.

Things aren’t holding up quite so well on the new home housing front, however. Canadian housing starts, which started to cool in the latter part of 2013, are expected to continue their decline into 2014 as affordability, and a significant decline in condo construction, continues to impact sales.

Canadian housing starts slipped 4.1 per cent in December. As of the end of December, some 188,200 units had been started across the country, compared to 215,000 in 2012, according to figures released Thursday.

December was the lowest level for low-rise housing starts in 17 years, apart from the 2008 recession, although the slowdown in multi-unit condo construction accounted for most of the decline in building in 2013, according to the figures from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

Canadian new home prices essentially flatlined, with growth as of November, the most recent figures available, coming in at just 1.4 per cent year over year.

Where housing is headed is really anyone’s guess, with some economists and analysts warning that sales have softened the last three months and could remain that way through the first part of 2014 in the wake of a rush of buyers into the market over the summer as long-term mortgage rates climbed unexpectedly.

One ReMax realtor, with a respectable record of calling the ups and downs of Toronto’s condo market, in particular, blogged this week that he’s heard from so many buyers fed up waiting for prices to drop, he expects to see 95,000 sales transactions this year across the GTA. That would surpass the previous sales record of 93,193 back in 2007 and last year’s 87,111 sales.

6 | tanteam.com

The “moderate” price growth that defined the Vancouver market in 2013 is likely to continue through 2014, Royal LePage anticipates, with prices project to rise 4.4 per cent.

That’s because things are improving on the jobs and economic front, both major drivers of housing demand, notes the survey of some seven housing types in over 250 communities across Canada. Interest rates are likely to stay put, as well, it says.

But Royal LePage’s most ambitious assumption may be that “aggressive government intervention” — such as further tightening of mortgage lending rules, which knocked many first-time buyers out of the market in the latter part of 2012 and first half of 2013 — is “unlikely to occur in 2014.”

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has warned repeatedly that he’s especially watching the Toronto and Vancouver markets and is prepared to act again if needed.

Canada’s two priciest markets have had surprisingly rapid comebacks from what Soper terms the country’s “year-long correctional cycle of dramatically slowed sales volumes” that started in 2012.

The survey provides a breakdown of price gains in 17 major Canadian cities, and for three housing types: detached bungalows, standard two-storey homes and condominiums.

The average sale price of a Toronto bungalow was up 3.9 per cent in 2013, followed by 2.7 per cent for two-storey detached homes and 1 per cent for resale condo units, it shows.

The report doesn’t focus any attention on what to expect in the condo sector specifically in 2014, other than to point to a December report commissioned by Royal LePage which said that markets in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal face some “instability” over the next two years as sales drop off from boom levels and starts outstrip demand.

Tan.gazine news

Real Estate In The Next 100 Years

Back in 1967, when Canada was celebrating its centennial, the periodical Industrial Canada compiled a list of the 119 companies that had survived the nation’s first 100 years. While predictably many on that 1967 list have now faded away, a subset of those firms continue to this day; companies that have proven their adaptability and propensity for reinvention.

Perhaps Canada’s most celebrated commercial venture, The Hudson’s Bay Co., was established in 1668 and has the distinction of being the world’s oldest retailer. Imagine if the original leadership, a group of English noblemen and merchants, were to see the recently rebranded Hudson’s Bay Co. today? The company was thriving before the invention of the automobile, electricity and zipper, let alone global wireless networking.

Beyond Canadian borders are wonderful examples of companies that have reinvented themselves in the face of new competition and ever-evolving market conditions. General Electric, the oldest company on the Dow Jones index, has built fortunes on reinvention. My previous employer, IBM, was founded in 1911 to produce commercial weighing scales and mechanical tabulators. The firm evolved to define the information age and has for two decades running led the world in winning new patents registrations. Nokia, founded in 1865, started as a Finnish paper mill, rubber and cable works company. It evolved into the world’s largest mobile phone company, a position it held from the late 1990s until very recently. In the face of increasing competition, Nokia’s mobile phone revenue plummeted 40 per cent in the second quarter of 2013.

It must reinvent itself once more or face extinction.

How will the best real estate companies in the world operate in 10 year’s time? Will the “full service” brokerage evolve with the times, or gradually fade away, like the buggy whip builders of old? Over the decades, Royal LePage has had to evolve dramatically to survive and to thrive. But at the very heart of our business are

Phil Soper - Royal LePage President

November 29, 2013

core values that remain immutable. Companies like ours offer premium advisory services to facilitate the acquisition and sale of valuable real property. As property prices have climbed, both the reward for “doing it right” and the penalty for sub-par performance have increased dramatically. Today, our services are more important than ever.

In the face of tougher legislation and regulation, and the never-ending churn of new and disruptive American and low fee, very limited service competitors, it boils down to our proven ability to adapt. That a 100-year-old company like Royal LePage has faced tough times before and has emerged intact provides a good measure of perspective.

For example, there was a period in August of 1981 when mortgage interest rates spiked as high as 22.75 per cent. Sales plummeted. Brokerages failed. As such, challenges are to be expected and new opportunities will present themselves. Today’s historically low mortgage rates have opened the door to home ownership for a generation of young people. The global financial crisis provided this unexpected gift and Canadians have seized the opportunity with vigour.

The constant is that real estate is a complex transaction, and remains the single largest investment that most people make in their lives. While people are more informed, it comes down to bringing insight and interpretation to consumers.

Emerging technologies and new competitors will shock us. We can decide to roll over and wait for life to have its way with us, or we can reach out, embrace the change and make it work for us. Today’s consumers don’t need us to help them find a home in the way they did in the past. With the rush of mobile network enabled search technology, the average home buyer is a search expert. But that doesn’t make the real estate transaction any less complex. It doesn’t make us less relevant. But it does mean that the advice and counsel that we offer must encompass and leverage

tanteam.com | 7

Tan.gazine news

-Continued from previous page

these new ways of doing the tried and true.

Exceptional service provided by professional Realtors is more important than technology in and of itself. In the end, it comes back to the values inherent in our company’s long history – trust, experience, integrity and a commitment to our founder A.E.

LePage’s enduring belief that our main purpose is to sell service rather than selling houses.

Phil Soper is CEO of Brookfield Residential Real Estate Services, the parent company of Royal LePage

You Can Still Lose

Your Land By Adverse Possession Over 99% of the land in Ontario is now registered in the government protected system of land titles. However, that does not mean that your boundary lines are always protected. It is still possible to lose land based on the concept of adverse possession, or as we used to call it, squatter's rights.

Here's a recent example.

Leslie Truxa and Lydia Sani bought a home at 146 Humbercrest Drive in Toronto in 1989. Their driveway extends to the tip of the home to the north of theirs, at 148 Humbercrest Drive. Their side door opens into the driveway area. According to their evidence and the evidence of a predecessor of theirs on title, they had always used the entire driveway area, believing it to be their property. Morgan and Leslie 8 | tanteam.com

Mark Weisleder - The Star

January, 2014

Reiner bought 148 Humbercrest Drive in December of 2005. They later started to build a new house.

In the course of building, they hired a surveyor to prepare a new survey for the property. The survey showed that Reiner's title actually extended about one foot into the driveway used by Truxa and Sani. They demanded that the driveway be removed. They both ended up in court.

In a decision dated September 24, 2013, Judge Eva Frank confirmed the rules for claiming title by possession: 1. There must be actual possession for the statutory period, in this case, ten years, by themselves or those through whom they claim; 2. Such possession was with the intention of excluding from

possession the owner or persons entitled to possession; and 3. Discontinuance of possession for the statutory period by the owner and all others, if any entitled to possession.

Both of these homes were registered in the old Registry System until 2001, when they were moved by the government into the Land Titles System. About 65% of the homes in Ontario belong in this category, called Land Titles Conversion Qualified.

To prove the claim, Truxa and Sani had to prove that they or their predecessor in title had used the land continuously for at least 10 years prior to 2001 and excluded the owners of 148 Humbercrest Drive for the entire period. This was proven from the evidence.

Tan.gazine news However, the possession was actually based on a mistake, as everyone just assumed the property line was the edge of the driveway.

The judge confirmed other prior cases that held that "the law should protect good faith reliance on boundary errors of innocent adverse possessors who acted on the assumption that their occupation will not be disturbed.

Conversely, the law has always been less generous when a knowing trespasser seeks its aid to dispossess the rightful owner."

What this means is that if you know that you don't own the land to the boundary line and are trying to take it by possession, the burden of your proof will be more strict than if it happened through honest error, as was the case here.

An interesting question is whether the owners of 146 Humbercrest Drive would have been compensated by title insurance if they lost the use of the one foot as a result of the survey. In my opinion, if they had no knowledge of the error when they took title, and the problem was discovered later, then they would be entitled to compensation, based on the loss of value to their lands in not having use of the extra foot.

However, if the owners of 148 Humbercrest made a claim, then in my opinion they would not be successful as they probably thought that they did not own the extra land when they bought the property in the first place.

Why Initialing Pages

Of A Real Estate Purchase Offer Is Important Some homebuyers wonder if every page or change on a real estate contract needs to be separately initialed by both parties to make it legal. The short answer is no, but if it is initialed, it is better proof that all terms were brought to everyone’s attention should things go wrong.

Here’s a story of what can happen when things get missed.

In the spring of 2011, Sushil Batra and his wife were looking for a property in Surrey B.C. to open a store selling wholesale and retail cloth. Batra found a two-acre piece of land owned by Satish Kumar and made an offer on June 28, 2011.

What are the lessons of this case: • Have a survey prepared when you buy a home, to learn if there are any boundary issues before you close your deal, especially if you plan on demolishing the home to build something else; • Don't assume that you have "stolen" land, just based upon years of use. A lot will depend on where and when the land was registered in the land titles system.

Always seek legal advice before making any claim.

Mark Weisleder - The Star

January, 2014

After negotiation, Batra agreed to pay $4,040,000 and offered a deposit of $100,000 with a closing date of July 28, 2011. The deposit was supposed to be paid within 48 hours of acceptance.ey Mtor: Are you ready to own property?

Batra’s offer said that the deposit would be paid to the Century 21 real estate brokerage in trust. When it was signed back and accepted by the seller, the words “Century 21” were removed and replaced with “direct to seller.”

The words “in trust” were not removed. The clause was initialed by the seller, but not by the buyer, Batra.

Batra paid the deposit to the real estate brokerage a few days later on July 2. He later found out that Kumar had sold the property to someone else on July 14, completing the deal one week later on July 21. Batra sued for damages of $300,000, an amount outlined in the agreement if the deal did not close because of the fault of the seller.

Kumar argued that there was no deal with Batra because the deposit was paid late and to the wrong party. In addition, since the deposit language change was not initialed by Batra, the contract was void.

tanteam.com | 9

Tan.gazine news -Continued from previous page

The judge disagreed. In a decision dated June 21, 2013, Madam Justice Barbara Fisher of the B.C. Supreme Court decided that even though the deposit clause was not initialed by the buyer, it did not result in the contract being void.

She added that even if the parties were not in agreement on this issue, there was a binding contract, as the parties had agreed on the essential three elements of the contract, namely the parties, the property and the price, a principle laid down by the Supreme Court of Canada in

1920. She also noted that the words “in trust” were not deleted by the seller. So even if there was no final agreement on where the deposit would be paid, it would not make the contract void.

The judge was also satisfied that the contract was not finally accepted until June 29 or 30 so the deposit was in fact paid in time as well.

When contract terms are ambiguous, a judge is permitted to hear evidence from the parties involved in order to correct any ambiguity. It was clear from the

decision that the judge preferred the evidence given by Mr. Batra, the buyer, who was awarded the $300,000.

The main lesson is that it makes much more sense to make sure that all contract changes and pages are initialed by both the buyer and the seller, so that there is no confusion or unnecessary legal expenses later.

Fake Real Estate Ads Prey On Buyer Desire For Home Deal

CBC News.ca

December 02, 2013

Police say fraudulent websites targeting potential renters are becoming more common than scams to sell homes

An Ottawa woman says she was shocked to learn the condo she was selling online was also being offered on another website at a deeply discounted price, part of a complicated scam targeting unsuspecting home buyers.

Julie Gutteridge is selling her upscale downtown Ottawa condo for about $260,000, and placed ads with real estate website Grapevine and online classified advertiser Kijiji.

She then noticed a nearly identical ad — with the same digital photos she had used on her advertisement — on another real estate website.

The one difference: the price. The clone ad listed the condo for $108,000.

"I was shocked... because I first heard of it, 10 | tanteam.com

then I got an email from just a person that had noticed the two listings," said Gutteridge.

"They actually used the same description that was on Grapevine. Not only the pictures of my unit, but the same description, address, everything but the unit number ... and of course the contact information," she said.

Police investigators have seen a number of fraudulent websites targeting potential home renters, particularly people coming from far-away cities. But for someone to attempt to sell a home that he or she doesn't own is rare and particularly involved.

Buyer pressured to close sale quickly "This is fairly elaborate, going to the point of setting up false law firm websites," said Sgt. Mike Noonan

Tan.gazine news

with Ottawa police's organized fraud section.

"They are duplicating the ad, but drastically reducing the asking price, and that's what seems to jump out at legitimate homebuyers. They see, 'Wow, look at the price of that home and it looks good,'" said Noonan.

The key to the confidence game is a reliance on both the desire of a homebuyer to get a good deal, and pressure from the supposed seller to close the deal quickly, says Noonan.

CBC Ottawa's Simon Gardner learned this first-hand when he called the number on a duplicate advertisement for a different home â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in Orleans, and listed in a duplicate ad for $129,000, or less than half the actual price.

Gardner identified himself as "Andrew Gardner" and created a plausible back story after CBC News determined a journalist would be unable to understand how the seller's operation worked if he called and represented himself as such.

The man who picked up the phone identified himself as Paul â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a name CBC News assumed was fake â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and said he couldn't meet Gardner in person because he was in Toronto with clients.

He claimed he was selling the home at a discounted price because he was under financial stress and needed money fast, but offered assurances that the home had not been a grow-op.

"Actually we do need some money urgently and there is no lien on the house, the house is paid for and it's going really quick. I have a couple of other interested buyers," Paul said.

He said in order to close the deal, Gardner would have to deposit $12,000 in a bank account.

The man then said his lawyer would contact Gardner with details about the transaction. The man also provided a link to the website of a Toronto law firm specializing in real estate.

Law firm not recognized by law society Checks with the Law Society of Ontario reveal the firm doesn't exist, and the phone numbers listed on the website are not active.

But nevertheless, Gardner was sent official-looking purchase documents asking him to wire his deposit into a Royal Bank account in

Brampton, Ont. The account does exist, but it is unclear whether the account holder is involved or is an unwitting victim in a confidence scam.

Noonan said tracking the suspected scammer is difficult, particularly if operating outside Canada.

"The internet service providers, we don't seem to be able to track down. Our suspicion is that it's not even originating from within Canada and with a money wire service. Once that money leaves the country, it can be retrieved anywhere in the world," he said.

Gardner made repeated efforts to meet with Paul, as well as his lawyer, to try to close the transaction in person, but was met with a series of excuses. After weeks of back-and-forth emails, text messages and phone calls, Gardner identified himself as a reporter and said he was investigating a potential real estate scam.

'How do you sell a house you don't own?'

"What scam is that, I don't get you," Paul replied.

"Well, let me ask you," said Gardner. "How do you sell a house you don't own?"

At that point, the phone went dead, and Gardner received a text a short time later.

"Nice try Andrew (Simon) you are a good scam baiter," the text read. "Pls lets drop everything. I am leaving this stupid job. I got forced into this lifestyle."

It's not known if anyone has fallen for this kind of fraud, but Gutteridge feels it may already have hurt her chances of selling her place.

"They may assume what I have on Grapevine is a scam or [may] not be comfortable moving forward with anything," she said.

Noonan said homebuyers should be wary of suspiciously low price homes when the supposed seller never has time to meet. As for home sellers, he said the best you can do is keep an eye on real estate websites to ensure your ad hasn't been duplicated.

tanteam.com | 11

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30yr Mortgages Remain A Focus for OSFI

Canada’s banking regulator is still monitoring 30-year mortgages, the head of Canada’s financial regulator told a conference of mortgage brokers in Toronto on Monday.

In recent years there has been a shift in the marketplace, with lenders offering more 30-year amortizations, and that’s something that the regulator is studying, Julie Dickson, the head of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions said.

“We are getting more information and talking to institutions about that,” she said.

While Finance Minister Jim Flaherty changed the mortgage insurance rules in July of 2012 to cut the maximum amortization of insured mortgages to 25 years, uninsured 30-year mortgages are still available for consumers who have a downpayment of at least 20 per cent.

Roughly half of all new uninsured mortgages now have 30-year amortizations, Ms. Dickson said.

Tara Perkins - Globe and Mail

November 25, 2013

“This is a market that continues to bear very close watching,” Ms. Dickson told the conference during a speech, referring to the country’s housing market broadly.

“We continue to closely monitor real estate lending.”

She noted that the regulator considered tightening the mortgage-lending rules that banks must follow, known as “guideline B20,” this spring and decided not to make any changes at that time.

“Prudent lending practices should not change over time,” she said during her speech.

“It’s a dynamic mortgage market, so we’re constantly monitoring and getting a lot of information still,” Ms. Dickson told reporters afterwards. “We’re still analyzing and I expect that we’ll continue to do this for a long time, but we need to be ready to act if we feel we need to act.”

Ms. Dickson said the regulator will not weigh in on whether or not a bubble has formed in Canada’s housing

market, because to do so could encourage banks to lend more or create an unnecessary slowdown.

“The continued strength of housing prices across many Canadian cities in the second half of 2013 is undeniable,” she said.

“Some might suggest that all is well in the mortgage market because delinquencies are low and credit score of borrowers are high,” she said. “However, delinquency rates and credit scores are lagging indicators that can deteriorate rapidly if economic conditions worsen. So OSFI encourages financial institutions to pay considerable attention to the quality of borrowers, both in the current environment and potential future environments.”

That being said, Ms. Dickson did point out some ways in which Canada’s mortgage lending is more prudent than in some other countries.

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Tan.gazine news Greater Toronto REALTORS® Report December 2013 Mid-Month Resale Market Figures December 17, 2013 -- Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 2,483 residential sales through the TorontoMLS system during the first two weeks of December 2013. This number of transactions represented an 18 per cent increase compared to 2,104 sales reported during the same period in 2012. The number of new listings entered into the TorontoMLS system was basically unchanged from a year ago.

“The key story in the GTA housing market continues to surround the availability of listings, or lack thereof. With the cost of homeownership remaining affordable, we have seen a resurgence in buying activity in the second half of 2013. However, growth in listings has not matched growth in sales. The result has been more buyers competing for fewer listings. This is why we continue to experience strong price growth,” said Toronto Real Estate Board President Dianne Usher.

The average selling price for December mid-month transactions was up 10 per cent to $520,379, compared to $471,602 reported for the first 14 days of December 2012.

“Inventory levels will remain low in many parts of the GTA in 2014, especially where low-rise home types are concerned, including single-detached and semi-detached houses and townhomes. Expect above-inflation price growth to continue next year,” said Jason Mercer, the Toronto Real Estate Board’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis.

18 | tanteam.com

Tan.gazine news Sales and Average Price Up in Calendar Year 2013 In December, the median price was $520,398 from the $477,756 recorded during December of 2012 Toronto, January 06, 2014

Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 4,078 residential transactions through the TorontoMLS system in December 2013 – up by almost 14 per cent compared to 3,582 sales reported in December 2012.

New listings entered into the TorontoMLS system were down by almost four per cent over the same period.

Total sales for calendar year 2013, at 87,111, were up by approximately two per cent compared to 85,496 transactions in calendar year 2012.

“After a slow start to the year, sales growth accelerated to a brisk pace in the second half of 2013. Despite the inclement weather in December, we finished the year with a respectable gain in transactions compared to 2012. Looking forward, I believe that home ownership in the GTA will remain affordable as borrowing costs stay low. The result could be a further increase in sales in 2014,” said Toronto Real Estate Board President Dianne Usher.

“The average selling price will be up again in 2014 and by more than the rate of inflation. The seller’s market conditions that drove price growth in the second half of 2013 will remain in place in many parts of the GTA. Some neighbourhoods, especially those characterized by low-rise home types like singles, semis and townhomes, will continue to have less than two months of inventory,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis.

The average selling price for December 2013 sales was $520,398 – up by 8.9 per cent compared to the average of $477,756 in December 2012.

The average selling price for 2013 as a whole was $523,036, which represented an increase of 5.2 per cent compared to the calendar year 2012 average of $497,130.

tanteam.com | 19

Tan.gazine news Greater Toronto REALTORS速 Report January 2014 Mid-Month Resale Market Figures November 18, 2013 -- Greater Toronto Area REALTORS速 reported 3,131 residential transactions through the TorontoMLS system during the first two weeks of November 2013.

This result represented a 21 per cent year-over-year increase compared to 2,582 sales reported during the same timeframe in 2012. Over the same period, new listings were down by more than four per cent.

"The results for mid-November indicate that GTA households remain comfortable with the costs of home ownership," said Toronto Real Estate Board President Dianne Usher.

"If not for the persistent shortage of listings for most home types, we would likely be experiencing an even higher level of sales as more buyers would be able to make a deal on a home meeting their needs."

The average selling price for November 2013 mid-month transactions was $538,708, representing an 11 per cent increase compared to $485,988 in 2012.

"More buyers competing for a smaller number of listings has translated into an accelerating pace of price growth. This theme has been most prevalent in the low-rise market segment, including single-detached and semi-detached houses and townhomes. However, it is important to note that the condominium apartment market has also become tighter," said Jason Mercer, TREB's Senior Manager of MarketResale Analysis. Market Figures January 2014 Mid-Month

Greater Toronto REALTORS速 Report

TBA SHORTLY! Kindly Check Back On January 20, 2014

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Tan.gazine news Price Growth Continues in February In February, the median price was $510,580 from the $500,249 recorded during February of 2012 Toronto, March 05, 2012

Greater Toronto Area (GTA) REALTORS® Toronto’s additional upfront land transfer tax reported 5,759 sales through the TorontoMLS arguably played a role in the slower pace of luxury system in February 2013 – a decline of 15 per cent detached home sales,” added Ms. Hannah. in comparison to February 2012. It should be noted The MLS® HPI Composite Benchmark that 2012 was a leap year with one extra day in price covering all major home types eliminates February. A 28 day year-over-year sales comparison fluctuations in price growth due to changes in sales resulted in a lesser decline of 10.5 per cent. mix. The Composite Benchmark price was up by February 2014 Market Figures The average selling price for February 2013Monthly more thanResale three per cent on a year-over-year basis in was $510,580 – up two per cent in comparison February. to February 2012.

“We will undoubtedly experience some “The share of sales and dollar volume volatility in price growth for some market segments accounted for by luxury detached homes in the City in 2013. However, months of inventory in the of Toronto was lower this February compared to low-rise market segment will remain low, resulting in Kindly Check On February last. This contributed to a more modest pace of averageBack price growth above three per20, cent 2014 for the overall average price growth for the GTA as a TREB market area this year. whole,” said Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) Our current average price forecast is President Ann Hannah. $515,000 for all home types combined in 2013,” said “Stricter mortgage lending guidelines that Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market precluded government backed mortgages on homes Analysis. sold for over one million dollars and the City of

Greater Toronto REALTORS® Report

TBA NEXT MONTH!

RAYMOND DAEZ

Manager, Residential Mortgages

Telephone: (416) 705-3239 Fax: (905) 824-2174

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