Millennials are ‘generation screwed’ on real estate

By NextHome Staff
February 27, 2017
Millennials are ‘generation screwed’ on real estateBy Tim Hudak and Joe VaccaroMillennials want to be homeowners. Eight in 10 consistently say that home ownership is important to them, real estate is a good investment, and owning a home gives them a sense of pride. But millennials also say that owning a home is more difficult now than it was for their parents. They have a point.According to the Toronto Real Estate Board, the average price of a GTA home is expected to rise by double digits again this year, hitting a new average of $825,000. Prices keep rising because housing supply is not keeping up with population growth and demand.https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2017/02/22/millennials-are-generation-screwed-on-real-estate.html
Sleep well Toronto homeowners, your nightmare could be coming soonBy Christopher HumeToronto StoreysToronto homeowners had better hope their city’s red hot real estate market doesn’t cool off anytime soon. If and when that happens, living in Canada’s largest city would cost them a whole lot more than it already does.The reason is the Municipal Land Transfer Tax (MLTT). In 2016, it resulted in a whopping 42 per cent of the increase in Toronto’s tax revenue to the tune of $184 million. Were that to dry up, the city would have to look elsewhere to make up the shortfall. Most likely that would mean a hike in property tax rates, something Mayor John Tory and many city councillors ― not to mention homeowners ― vehemently oppose.http://torontostoreys.com/2017/02/sleep-well-toronto-homeowners-your-nightmare-could-be-coming-soon/
BMO declares Toronto housing bubble amid ‘dangerously’ hot pricesBy John GrayBNNAfter months, if not years of hand-wringing about Canada’s hot housing markets, BMO is calling it: Toronto’s housing market is in a bubble.“Let’s drop the pretence. The Toronto housing market — and the many cities surrounding it — are in a housing bubble,” BMO Chief Economist Doug Porter wrote in a note to clients Tuesday.Housing prices in Toronto and the surrounding area have become “dangerously detached” from economic fundamentals and are rising simply on the belief that prices will continue to soar higher, according to Porter.http://www.bnn.ca/bmo-declares-toronto-housing-bubble-amid-dangerously-hot-prices-1.672542
Toronto's Tory rejects BMO’s bubble claim; calls housing market ‘healthy’By John GrayBNNToronto Mayor John Tory is rejecting the notion the city’s housing market is in a bubble and insists the rapid rise in home prices shows the market is healthy.“Reports will come out from economists – I don’t dismiss them, I read them all – but I also talk to a lot of people in the federal government, the provincial government [and] in the private sector and none of those people, to a person, has as yet told me there is any kind of panic driven or panic-inducing situation,” Tory told reporters on Thursday.“There is a robust market with rapidly rising prices at the moment which is of course a concern – but it is a concern more because it makes it harder for people to buy a home as opposed to a concern that we should be pushing panic buttons,” he said.http://www.bnn.ca/toronto-mayor-john-tory-rejects-bmo-s-bubble-claim-argues-housing-market-is-healthy-1.673655
Define bubble: When ‘even pigs are flying’ in Toronto area housing marketBy Michael BabadThe Globe and MailDefine bubble: “Used to refer to a significant, usually rapid, increase in asset prices that is soon followed by a collapse in prices and typically arises from speculation or enthusiasm rather than intrinsic increases in value,” according to Oxford Dictionaries.Or, as Capital Economics sees it: When existing homeowners inflate prices “by leveraging their considerable housing equity to buy newer, bigger or more beautiful homes.”Or, as Bank of Montreal puts it: When “even pigs are flying.”http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-stories/define-bubble-when-even-pigs-are-flying-in-toronto-area-housing-market/article34089215/?cmpid=rss1
Ontario’s lack of foreign-buyer data sparks concern about a Toronto housing crisisBy Mike HagerThe Globe and MailUp! Up! Up!”That’s where Toronto’s real estate market is heading, according to a Chinese-language promotional article posted last month on Fang.com, a Beijing-based web portal that lists thousands of homes for sale in countries around the world.“You will really cry if you still don’t buy,” the same posting blares.http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/ontario-isnt-moving-fast-enough-to-track-foreign-buyers-observers/article34074430/
Contested developmentBy Jennifer PagliaroToronto StarMany question whether the Ontario Municipal Board should be allowed to continue wielding its unelected power over a city crunched for resources.The house on the corner is the last holdout amidst rampant condo development.Surrounded by cranes and the constant crash of heavy machinery from the mud pit that is now right next door, the two-storey red-brick home has stood at the corner of Broadway and Redpath Aves., northeast of the busy Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave. intersection, since at least 1931.http://projects.thestar.com/ontario-municipal-board-reform/contested-development/
Why a mortgage that leaves room for retirement saving is a must-haveBy Rob CarrickThe Globe and MailThe cost of owning a house and starting a family just might be the lost opportunity to get a good head start on saving for retirement.With the March 1 deadline for contributions to registered retirement savings plans just ahead, it’s a good time to look at how to balance life’s biggest financial responsibilities. Home ownership, starting a family and retirement saving – can you do it all?In cities with reasonably priced housing, you certainly can. But in expensive markets such as Toronto, Vancouver and their satellite cities, only high earners will manage this balance. Something will have to give in the household budgets of everyone else, and it’s probably going to be retirement saving.http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/get-a-mortgage-that-leaves-room-for-retirement-saving/article34086689/
  

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