Angelo DeGasperis
boaz feiner
If you purchased a home three years ago, you’ve likely seen a substantial growth in your home property. In the last year alone, homes have increased on average by nine per cent, and with land and development costs continuing to rise, coupled with all time low interest rates, home values will continue to increase for the near foreseeable future. If you’re in the market to buy, now may be the time because the home that you desire will likely be less affordable next year. Besides the financial benefits, new homes are better built due to more stringent building standards, are better designed for greater use and comfort and are also far more energy efficient. Once upon a time, buyers had limited choices of finishes when buying a new home. Today, we offer our clients a 6,500-sq.-ft. design showroom where they can customize their homes to suit their own personal lifestyles.
There have been very few instances where buying a home has not proven to be a good idea. History has shown that, over time, the value of a home in the GTA has appreciated. Today, if you are fortunate enough to find a home that you can afford and that suits your family’s lifestyle, my advice would be to go ahead and buy it. We are experiencing unprecedented low mortgage rates which are a further benefit to buying now. With available land for new development dwindling, the volume of new homes being built will decline in the years ahead. There’s something very special about owning your own home, and when that home is new, you have warranty protection for the first few years you live there and fewer maintenance and repair surprises. Building codes are constantly being upgraded and improved and there are many cost savings to owners of new energy efficient homes. When you buy a new home it will have been designed for today’s family – rather than the family of a generation before you. At Geranium, we are always adapting and updating our designs. Recently, we successfully introduced home designs in Stouffville and Pickering that have much less formal space and much more generous open concept family/kitchen/breakfast rooms than designs we sold a decade ago. This is how families want to live today.
President & CEO of CountryWide Homes
president, Housing Division Geranium corporation
2012 Condominium Builders’ Annual
018-021 Symposium CONDOGTA.WK.indd 21
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3/8/12 1:25:44 PM