June 2015

Based on value, momentum, economic strength and rental income potential...

Anyone who’s been to or lived in Edmonton will tell you: the big West Ed Mall isn’t the city’s main attraction. “There’s so much more to Edmonton,” explains Mark Slobodan, realtor with RE/MAX Excellence. Considered the blue collar city of Alberta’s oil patch, much of the wealth comes from tradespeople who work in the oil sands. But locals also know that the city has the distinction of being Alberta’s cultural, governmental and educational centre. The University of Alberta (UofA) makes its home here, and the city’s famous nickname—“Canada’s Festival City”—is due, in part, to the vast number of festivals that are part of the city’s thriving arts scene, most of which is centred

Ever wondered where’s the best place to live in Canada? MoneySense knows.

After months of sifting through reports from Environics Analytics, Statistics Canada and other data providers, MoneySense released their annual report on the best places to live in Canada in 2015.

“In a country that measures 6,521km across, with massively different economic regions and seven distinct climate zones, you can imagine it’s a ton to digest,” writes Mark Brown, the Reports and Rankings Editor at MoneySense. “We carefully weigh dozens of factors to geta  big picture of the overall health of 209 communities across the county.”

Considering 34 different factors, MoneySense believes that there’s a strong correlation between the economics of a city and the type of life

A friend of mine sold her Toronto house because prices were so high. She didn't want to get caught in the downdraft. 

If you've been listening to all the warnings from foreign banks about a Canadian house price crash, that sounds smart. But before you congratulate my chum on her forethought, you should know she made that decision several years ago.

Of course, since then Toronto house prices have only continued their dramatic rise. Although Toronto and Vancouver lead the way with soaring real estate, prices in many other Canadian cities continue to rise. 

In the face of a series of recent reports of houses selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars over their asking prices, I thought it a good time to look at why all the gloom-mongers have been

Kamloops housing market 'surged' during first part of 2015

KAMLOOPS – With more houses being built and home-buyers spending more the Kamloops housing market is off to a very good start in 2015.

According to Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation single-unit housing starts in Kamloops 'surged' in the first three months of 2015. The report from the corporation shows every category of housing start grew during the first quarter, with the exception of rental apartments. The first quarter of 2015 saw just one rental unit built, compared to 88 in 2014. 

The corporation notes there is a provincial trend towards multi-family dwellings and the trend is seen in Kamloops as well, where the number of starts on semi-detached homes tripled. Single-family