2020 Outlook: Real Estate Market Forecast After a two year slump, the future's looking bright again for Canadian real estate. Economists expect positive growth in the national housing market in 2020, supported by low mortgage rates, a solid job market, and a rising population. In fact, in a recent report, RBC Economics called 2019 a “turning point for Canada’s housing market.”1 To understand why—and where the market is headed—we take a closer look at... [read more]

CMHC Tightens Mortgage Insurance Rules Starting July 1 The government-backed Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp said on Thursday it would tighten rules for offering mortgage insurance from July 1, 2020. The move would make it harder for riskier borrowers, who offer downpayments of less than 20 per cent to access CMHC's default mortgage insurance. CMHC is establishing a minimum credit score of 680 instead of the current 600, the group said in an emailed statement. It will... [read more]

Super Hot Greater Toronto Area (GTA) Real Estate Market Sales Jump by 29.5% and Home Prices Increase by 16.9% in July 2020      TORONTO, ONTARIO, AUGUST 6, 2020 - Toronto Regional Real Estate Board President Lisa Patel announces that Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 11,081 sales through TRREB’s MLS® System in July 2020 – a 29.5 per cent increase over July 2019 and a new record for the month of July. On a preliminary seasonally adjusted basis,... [read more]

The New Normal: A Strong Housing Market Expected to Continue into 2021 Circumstances like a once-in-a-hundred-years pandemic and historic inventory shortages might have made you assume that the housing market would lose steam, but there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. As Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) senior economist, Shaun Cathcart noted, “records [are continually] being broken” in the residential property market.1 Indeed, rather than a slowdown, we are... [read more]

Should you get preapproved for a mortgage before you start house hunting? And the answer is BIG YES!! Here are three reasons why: You’ll find out how much home you can really afford. You’ll gain credibility when you’re ready to make an offer. You’ll speed up the buying process. In fact, this could be a costly mistake not to get the mortgage pre approval done. To help home buyers protect from this and other common pitfalls there is a new FREE... [read more]