JOHN LORINC

Globe and Mail

Denny Zane can pinpoint the moment when the famously heavy traffic in Los Angeles changed from slushy to solid. It was the summer of 2007, and the back-ups on the I-10, through the city’s west side, snaked back over 20 kilometres and reappeared day after day after day, with no obvious cause.

“Not just bad,” recalled Mr. Zane, an activist and a former local councillor, “but, like, ‘wow!’ It was the talk of the town. We’d crossed the threshold.”

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Reports indicate that the new housing market in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is regaining stability in early 2012 after a record-breaking sales year in 2011, said the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD).

RealNet Canada Inc., BILD’s source of new home market intelligence, reports that February low-rise sales in the GTA increased by 16 per cent over February 2011. These numbers are close to the historic trend, when compared to February 2010, which saw 1,610 sales.

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Garry Marr at Financial Post

The concept of an asking price is becoming virtually meaningless in today’s real estate market.

Is that because the market is moving so fast and realtors are so out-of-touch that they can’t price homes properly? Let’s hope not. In a world where the real estate industry is justifying commissions which are close to 5% of the sale price of a home, that wouldn’t look too good on the profession.

I think we can assume most real estate agents are more astute than that – they don’t list a home for $500,000 and have it sell for $600,000 by accident. Are we to believe they are so clueless that homes can routinely fetch 20% more than the realtor thought it was worth?

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I am not going to post any more links for a while.

If you want some info, do not hesitate to contact me.

Best,

Will

From Wall Street Journal

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Mar 23, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- According to a new report penned by Douglas Porter, Deputy Chief Economist, BMO Capital Markets, and Benjamin Reitzes, Senior Economist, BMO Capital Markets, financial stability for Canadian homeowners in the coming years will be supported by locking-in and opting for shortened amortization periods.

The report notes that over the past few years, BMO Economics has supported choosing variable rates. However, the view has changed based on current offers on long-term mortgage rates and interest rate increases expected over the next two years.

"Our interest rate outlook now projects that fixed mortgage rates will trump variable. While the decision ultimately depends on the individual, the low rate combined with a shorter 25-year amortization will significantly strengthen household financial stability," said Mr. Porter. "For those who are without financial flexibility and would run into difficulty from a pronounced upswing in interest rates, the potential extra cost for the protection of household finances now appears to be a price well worth paying."

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Jennifer Brown
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Apartment dwellers and building managers are getting ready for what has become one of the largest spring food drives in the province.

This will be the 12th year for the Spring HOPE (Housing Owners and People Everywhere) Food Drive, involving more than 2,000 rental-housing properties across the province. Volunteers will go door-to-door from 6:30 to 9 p.m. on April 24 to collect food for local food banks.

“When we first started, no one gave our industry credit for making an effort to put food on the table for those in need,” says organizer Bonnie Hoy of Bonnie Hoy & Associates. “Now, we’ve become the largest door-to-door food drive in the country, and food banks rely heavily on our participation to meet their targets.”

Hoy has worked over the years to encourage landlords to participate in the drive. In the beginning, there were about 75 buildings, all in the GTA. Now, there are more than 2,000 from Toronto, Ottawa, London, Hamilton and Kitchener.

Partners in the program include the Greater Toronto Apartment Association, the Federation of Rental Housing Providers of Ontario, The Eastern Ontario Landlord Organization and the London Property Management Association.

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Susan Pigg from Star

Canderel’s sleek new condo building sprouting from the ground at Yonge and Gerrard Sts. has a title that’s just waiting to be toppled — Canada’s tallest residential building.

When all 78 storeys are complete, Aura will tower 272 metres and — for a while at least — surpass everything in the city except the CN Tower and First Canadian Place.

But when it comes to being biggest on the planet, Aura has quite a few floors to go. If completed today, it would be No. 16th on the list of residential towers now dominating skylines that used to be almost the sole domain of iconic office towers.

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Noor Javed  from the Star

In the midst of Vaughan’s development boom, a quiet street leading into the city’s highly touted environmental corridor has become the next target for high-density condos.

For years, residents have strived to retain the rural feel of Pine Valley Dr., specifically the area that leads into the Kortright Centre for Conservation, an environmentally sensitive nature park just south of Major Mackenzie Rd.

But on Tuesday, city council approved, 7-1, an application to change the zoning of a large parcel of land across from the Kortright lands from rural and estate residential to high-density residential — essentially giving a green light to plans to build a multi-storey condo.

It did so with the okay of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and what that agency called “quite an investment” by the developer in green initiatives.

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GRANT BUCKLER

Special to Globe and Mail

Built just after the Second World War, the Toronto Now House was one of thousands of small homes thrown up to address a postwar housing shortage. Energy was cheap then. Buildings had little insulation and single-pane windows. Energy efficiency was pathetic by today’s standards.

A few years ago, the Toronto architectural firm Work Worth Doing renovated the house, adding insulation and rooftop solar panels, replacing windows and installing a new high-efficiency furnace. The home’s energy use dropped by about 70 per cent.

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