Toronto Real Estate Blog

Which is better for you?

Are you a renter who is thinking of buying a home? It is the great dream, but many renters don’t really understand its potential impact on their lifestyle and finances. Buying a house can be the most rewarding purchase you ever make. It’s better to buy a home than to rent. You could compare buying to renting to see the advantages of both. But before you decide which is better for you, you need to answer the following:

1. How often do you expect to move in the future?
You should only consider buying a condo or house if you don’t expect to be moving a lot.

2. How stable is you employment situation?
You should only consider buying a home if your employment is indeed stable. Home ownership requires a number of regular payments like the mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, insurance, etc.

3. How much can you afford to pay for housing?
To answer this question you need to prepare a detailed monthly household budgeting plan. You need to look at how much rent are you paying now? And what is the maximum amount you are willing to pay?

4. Are you able to save money every month?
If you buy a condo or house its important to have some money set aside for emergencies.

5. Is it important to you to own your home?
Some would argue that this is the first question you should ask yourself. Home ownership, like everything else, is a matter of choice. Only you can decide whether or not home ownership is important to you. If it is then you may want to re-assess how you spend your money every month.

6. How is the math?
Although, it might seem that you will be spending more money on buying a house than renting, you need to consider your options and priorities. There are many more advantages of purchasing a home over renting.

Housing costs can be divided into shelter costs and investment costs. When you rent, you pay your shelter costs, and the landlord pays the investment costs. When you buy, you pay both, which is usually more. Ten years later when you sell the house, you will find that your investment did well and you saved a lot of money by buying. Buying real estate is an investment, and for many people it is a good one. You can purchase insurance to help you manage any potential risks like fire, earthquakes, and thefts. Remember to take your buying/selling costs into account when considering selling your home; the strength of the real estate market in your area will determine how long it takes to recoup your costs.

One of the greatest joys of ownership for many people is setting down roots. When you buy a condo or house, you have your own land, your own house, and a sense of becoming part of a community; meeting and sharing with your neighbours, and getting involved in local issues. This lifestyle can be very attractive, especially if you have children who will enjoy the stability a home can provide.

You can expect that your initial mortgage payments will be higher than your current rental costs. However, there are factors that make the decision to buy less painful like tax savings and other factors including building equity that offsets the additional monthly expense.

Buying real estate is usually a sound long term investment as it help you in the following way:

* Building equity vs. throwing your hard-earned money away as rent
* Real estate generally appreciates; a house bought today is worth more a few years down the road.
* In most cases there is no capital gains tax payable on the profit on a primary residence.
* In some cases mortgage interest is tax deductible. Please contact your accountant for advice.

To find out more about the positive aspects of home ownership and if you qualify to make the transition from a renter to a homeowner, contact a local real estate agent. Real estate agents will be more than happy to provide you with a consultation to see if you are a candidate to purchase a home.

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416-388-1960

By Derek Raymaker – Globe and Mail

There are two common assumptions when it comes to planning and launching a successful high-rise condominium community.

One is that it must have a premium location – either in a central downtown core or, failing that, in an attractive recreational site, such as a waterfront area.

The other is that it must be situated close to a mass-transit line to enable dwellers to eschew any reliance on cars.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve taken a look at some condo markets that have popped up and thrived despite the absence of one or both of these elements. We’re wrapping up our look at these counter-intuitive condo markets with western North York, a sprawling area between Bathurst Street and Islington Avenue, south of Steeles Avenue.

For the most part, western North York is a non-descript reflection of postwar residential development throughout North America, consisting of block after block of working-class bungalows with the corners of major intersections anchored by strip malls or small industrial parks.

As you head north, slightly more affluent neighbourhoods appear in the proto-suburbs that were built in the 1950s. The monotony of the tightly packed neighbourhoods is broken up by two huge tracts: The former Canadian Forces Base Downsview and its air strip – now a federal park – and York University.

Even in today’s high-octane market for detached family housing, this area does not produce much demand beyond those buyers who are looking for affordability within the boundaries of the 416 area code. But it has established itself as a family-friendly pocket, held together by tightly knit neighbourhoods.

Somewhat surprisingly, three locations around western North York have emerged as hotbeds of high-rise development, in spite of having nothing in particular working in their favour in terms of location or easy access to mass transit.

What does give them some advantage is their ready-made market of surrounding residents.

Many buyers are empty-nesters who’ve grown accustomed to their local rituals and want to stay close to friends and neighbours.

Another surprise about the western North York condo market is that prices are not particularly discounted from the average price in the Greater Toronto Area.

At the end of January, the average price a square foot stood at $386, only $13 below the Greater Toronto condo average of $399, according to RealNet Canada data.

This is a 31% increase from the average price of $294 a square foot registered a year earlier, in January, 2007.

The transformation of the Downsview air base into an urban park will give the area a much-needed recreational feature, though development is proceeding at a glacial pace. Three high-rise communities poised to take advantage of the changes are in the works on the eastern edge of Downsview at Allen Road and Sheppard Avenue,

One is Metro Place, a community with a 14- and a 16-storey tower and 460 suites being sold in the first phase, with over half the suites already sold.

A total of five towers are planned for the site.

Prices and sizes at Metro Place closely reflect the market average for this area, ranging from $187,000 for 515 square feet of living space to $529,000 for 1,460 square feet, with prices including a parking spot.

The first two buildings feature an attractive and unique art-deco facade, and are within walking distance of the Downsview subway station, the terminus of the University-Spadina line.

Nearby, on the north side of Sheppard is the Plaza Royale, a 120-suite, eight-storey high-rise now under construction by the Torbel Group. Prices there range from $245,000 to $456,000 for between 735 and 1,265 square feet of living space.

As the prices indicate, Plaza Royale has a more exclusive boutique feel to it, with some handsomely designed suites featuring separate living and dining rooms and angular breakfast bars.

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416-388-1960

The brothers Michelis sweated over their Beaches reno for 10 months, adding $700,000 to its value. ‘It worked out really well’

By Carolyn Leitch – Globe and Mail

How do you take a tumbledown $458,000 house in the Beaches and sell it for $1,155,000 10 months later?

For two entrepreneurial young builders, the feat involved uncommon vision, a fight with city council, constant appeasement of the neighbours and one very hot and gritty summer spent digging out the basement by hand.

Steve and John Michelis recently played hosts to about 250 neighbours with wine, cheese and a chance to wander through the redesign that had been a flash point on tranquil Bellefair Avenue for months.

“Everybody wanted to take a peek – they’ve been dying for 10 months to see it,” says Steve. “People thought it was the horror house, it was so dilapidated.”

Once the party was over, they listed the three-bedroom detached for sale with an asking price of $1,099,000. They sold it less than a week later to the highest of three bidders.

“It worked out really well,” says Steve.

As the run-up in Toronto real estate stretches into its eighth year, the Michelis brothers have found that even a market where the easy money has already been made yields opportunities to exceed the expectations of two burgeoning capitalists – who were fairly audacious to begin with.

After all, anecdotes abound about houses that sell above the asking price with a bevy of offers – no matter how rickety, hastily-renovated or close to the highway or sewage treatment plant.

The current market conditions make it that much more difficult to find an overlooked gem that can be transformed.

In the end, Steve Michelis had to outdo several other bidders when he paid $458,000 for the tired old home at 42 Bellefair Ave.

“I bought it without my brother even seeing it,” says Steve.

When the elder Michelis saw the property his younger brother had purchased on the fly, he had a hard time envisioning a smooth transition to a nice, saleable family home.

The house had been sadly neglected by an elderly war veteran who lived there alone.

“Most people saw it as land value,” admits Steve of the rival bidders.

But Steve saw a traditional beach cottage that could be elegantly restored – especially with the help of John’s carpentry skills. They planned to do a rear addition to expand the kitchen and provide a walk-out to the garden. They also decided to finish the lower level by digging down two feet to create eight-foot high ceilings. They added water-proofing and a new bathroom.

Did they know going in that they would need to dig out the basement? “We knew,” admits Steve, “but we didn’t realize how hard it would be.”

The brothers are not neophytes in the building trade: this is the fourth house that they have flipped. The first was a Cabbagetown rooming house that was sometimes used as a crack den.

After some of their previous projects, an elderly gentleman’s house in the Beaches didn’t seem so daunting.

But it turns out they were not able to bring in the heavy machinery needed to excavate the basement. So the Michelis brothers and their team of four employees dug it out by shovel from the rear and heaved all of the earth out to the street so it could be carted away.

“We had to move everything from the back to the front,” says John.

We were going to try to save the house as it was and basically we just saved the façade,” says John.

But they stuck to plans to save the original wood trim and refurbish it. The decision meant having to move piles of wood from room to room as the work progressed on the walls.

The brothers figure they each lost 10 pounds over the course of the reno in sweat.

“Last summer we were probably in the best shape we’ve been in for eight or nine years,” says Steve. “I was ripped.”

Upstairs they found more surprises. Vermin had moved into the top floor while the owner lived down on the main.

“The raccoons were having a field day,” says Steve.

They also found six layers of shingles piled onto the roof.

“The old guy was getting ripped off by the roofers,” says Steve of unscrupulous workers who didn’t bother tearing off the old layer before adding new.

“When we took the roof off the house popped back up,” says John.

Meanwhile, the removal bins, trucks, noise and general commotion caused tension with the neighbours. The brothers tried to mend fences figuratively and literally, but they felt added pressure to get the job done as quickly as possible. At the same time, the brothers were fighting with the city for permission to put in a parking pad.

If they had torn down the house and built a new one, they would have had a much easier time getting a permit, they say. Even tearing the porch off the old house would have let them meet the requirements.

“Why should we be penalized for restoring a house that the neighbours thought was coming down? They thought it was a goner,” says Steve.

After much wrangling, they got the permit.

“It would have been a financial disaster if we hadn’t,” says Steve.

While Steve was fighting red tape, John was painstakingly restoring the wood inside the house and building a wood-panelled dining room stained a deep espresso brown.

Economically, that kind of restoration doesn’t make sense, they say. But they knew they couldn’t find wood of that quality today and John – who’s first love is carpentry – couldn’t stand to discard it.

John powered through many different grades of sandpaper to get the finish just the way he wanted it, then rubbed the stain on by hand.

“If you can make [prospective buyers] think that this was here, you’ve done a good job,” says John of the gleaming new dining room.

And if the brothers didn’t know themselves how time-consuming that work would be, they could have listened to their father and mentor. Michelis père is a builder of new homes.

Many family discussions have revolved around the irony of the older generation building new while the young guys are restoring century houses.

“My father thinks we’re crazy,” says Steve.

John worked in the family business for a time but he preferred to set out on his own. He makes more money that way, for one thing.

And the two brothers admit to a certain amount of sibling rivalry too. John is the elder and the builder at 34, while Steve is the rookie at 31. John started the business but it really took off when Steve gave up his job in the computer industry and the two started buying properties together.

“I wasn’t as productive before Steve because I couldn’t stay on the job site – I had to do all the running around,” says John.

Now one of them can always be at the job site to make sure work is going smoothly.

And now their Dad – who was rather skeptical when the pair set out – boasts about his sons’ success. They don’t hear that from him, of course, but from the people he’s bragging to when they’re out of earshot.

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416-388-1960

By Roma Luciw – Globe and Mail

Canadians have dodged the severe credit woes gripping the U.S., where the collapse of the mortgage market has triggered rising delinquency and foreclosure rates and left households saddled with debt, says a report from CIBC World Markets.

The author’s report, CIBC senior economist Benjamin Tal, maintains that the credit crunch has not affected the Canadian household credit market in a significant way. And although he expects the U.S. economic downturn will spill across the border and curb consumer spending, Canada will escape the bulk of the carnage.

“It would be naive to assume that the Canadian consumer will totally escape this U.S. credit crunch and weakening American economy, especially in Ontario and Quebec,” Mr. Tal said in an interview. “But it is a question of degree. The likelihood of a consumer-led recession in Canada is very, very remote at this point, because consumers did not get into the same kind of trouble as in the U.S.”

In his mind, the reasons for Canada’s more solid credit situation is twofold. “First of all, the Bank of Canada has been very active in cutting interest rates, which has eliminated some of the damage coming from the credit crunch,” Mr. Tal said. “So, if you are a regular person with relatively reasonable risk profile, you probably don’t feel the credit squeeze because the rates have not changed in a significant way.”

The other reason is that in the U.S., the kind of high-risk borrowing that characterized the subprime mortgage market made up a significant portion of the credit landscape. In Canada, that type of borrowing was small and has had only a marginal impact on the overall housing market and consumer credit situation.

To date, Canada’s mortgage market has stayed defiantly healthy, with the pace of growth in overall residential mortgages outstanding rising by 13% last year, up from 10% growth in 2006, the CIBC report said. Furthermore, data suggest that activity levels remain “very strong” in the first two months of 2008, a direct contrast to the sharp downturn in the United States.

But with economic growth and the housing market set to cool from last year’s strong levels, Mr. Tal expects that the overall growth in mortgages outstanding in 2008 will be roughly 8% to 9%.

The U.S. is in the throes of the first consumer-led recession since 1992, Mr. Tal said. The collapse of the housing market, which has been an extremely important factor for the U.S. economy and consumer spending, and the falling stock market are both lowering the wealth effect.

At the same time, the “quality of borrowing in Canada has stayed much better than in the U.S.,” Mr. Tal said.

The arrears rate on mortgages in Canada, which is still “extremely low” at 0.26%, is also forecast to trend higher in the next year. However, a strong jobs market will underpin the economy so that the rate will likely remain low by historical standards, Mr. Tal said.

There has been a rebound in both direct loans and personal lines of credit recently. Overall growth in consumer credit remains strong, rising nearly 11% in 2007, with personal lines of credit dominating growth, the report said. It noted, however, that delinquency rates in the direct loans portfolio are starting to show a “modest” tick higher.

“When adjusted for inflation, credit growth during this cycle was not as strong as in previous cycles,” Mr. Tal said in the report. “This means that any softening in the pace of household borrowing in 2008 will not be as dramatic as in the past.”

Canadian households are juggling higher levels of debt. Overall debt rose 3% in the fourth quarter of 2007 while personal disposable income climbed 1.6%.

The recent drop in stock markets, combined with a slower pace of increase in home valuations, led the debt-to-asset ratio to climb in the fourth quarter of 2007 to 17.1%, its first increase since early 2006, the CIBC report said. Over the past year, the debt-to-income ratio in Canada edged up from 122% to 130%.

“At the same time, the debt service ratio, as measured by debt interest payments as a share of disposable income is still about 30 basis points higher than it was in 2006,” Mr. Tal said. “With widening credit spreads offsetting the declines in both prime and government bond rates, debt interest payment will remain relatively stable over the next few months.”

The number of consumer bankruptcies, which climbed by a mere 1% during the year ending January 2008, is forecast to pick up by as much as 5% this year as the slowing U.S. economy impacts growth in Canada, according to the CIBC report.

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416-388-1960

By James Rusk – Globe and Mail

Fights involving condo owners and condo boards are one of the most rapidly growing areas of law in Canada, a Toronto lawyer who specializes in condominium law said yesterday.

“We’re at a situation now where I said: If they stop developing now, we’d still be busier than ever. But they are not. It is just unbelievable the kind of situations that come up,” Marko Djurdevac of the law firm of Deacon Spears Fedson & Montizambert said in an interview.

Mr. Djurdevac, who edits a newsletter on condominium law, said that the disputes can range from issues such as the three p’s – people, parking and pets – to matters such as fights over finances and repairs.

Since they are about people’s homes, the battles are often quite fierce and quite emotional. “In a condo, it is communal, and it is a highly political environment. People are very serious about everything that is going on, no matter how insignificant it may seem to a third-party observer,” he said.

Often condo corporations find themselves in court, fighting owners who do not understand either the limits on what they can do with their property or the line between personal property and common elements shared by all owners.

For instance, he once had to seek a court order preventing a townhouse owner who ran a construction company from keeping a commercial cement mixer in his garage and a construction truck in the common driveway.

As condominium law has evolved, provinces have sought ways to keep the disputes out of court, he noted.

Since 2001, Ontario law, borrowing from an earlier provision in British Columbia law, requires most disputes to go through a mandatory mediation-arbitration process before getting to court, and most provinces have similar rules, he said.

The exceptions to the arbitration process are cases involving a breach of the provincial condominium law itself, but judges have been clamping down on what they think are frivolous attempts to avoid arbitration, he said.

Even though the law prohibits an owner from damaging the common property of the condo corporation, he said, a judge refused to hear a suit brought by a condo corporation against an owner whose dog was urinating on lawns and flower beds and referred the case to arbitration.

On the other hand, he had a case where the courts moved quickly to issue a court order against a property owner with a history of mental problems who was setting fires in her unit.

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416-388-1960