With Stephen Harper promising 700,000 new Canadian home owners by 2020 if the Conservatives win, the pressure is on the other leading parties in the upcoming federal election to show how they will help the average Canadian with housing and renovations. Here’s a round-up of the election promises.

Conservative

The incumbent Conservative party has been the most vocal on the subject of home ownership, and on September 29, Harper announced that his party is setting a target of creating 700,000 new homeowners by 2020.

Promises to give Canadians more tools to buy and improve homes are enshrined in the Conservative platform, and leader Stephen Harper has bragged about Canada’s high home ownership rate, calling it a sign of a strong economy, despite

The B.C. Real Estate Association will be making a fresh appeal next Tuesday for the provincial government to lower the Property Transfer Tax.

The association, representing the province’s 18,500 realtors, will make its case during pre-budget consultations by a government committee.

This will be the fifth consecutive time the BCREA is making such a plea. And it appears this may be the year the advice is heeded.

The push for a lower PTT comes amid rising frustration in Vancouver over prohibitive house prices and mounting evidence of tax avoidance and evasion by foreign property buyers.

Locals have every reason to be apoplectic at the high taxes they are asked to pay in relation to home ownership when it is so obvious that a sizable and

Real estate agents say anecdotal resurgence of American buyers

American buyers enticed by the low Canadian dollar are scooping up B.C. properties, according to several luxury market real estate agents. 

Jonathan Cooper, vice-president of operations for the Macdonald   Realty Group, says he has anecdotally seen a resurgence of Americans interested in Vancouver homes. 

"There was activity from all nationalities around the Olympics, but especially because of our proximity to Washington state, a lot of Americans were here at that time... talked to agents, went to open houses," he says. 

"They're high net-worth families who have heard about Vancouver, love how beautiful it is ... and yeah, it's a second home for vacation purposes."

And now

Outdoor Features that Help Sell Houses

Whether it’s a deck, landscaping or a pool, the features in your outdoor space make a big difference when selling a home – even in winter.

Effortless is Best

People lead busy lives, and Barbara says this is reflected in how most house hunters perceive outdoor features. A stunning outdoor space that requires a lot of effort to maintain can be a tough sell. “We all admire large, beautiful gardens, but how many people want to dedicate the time and money to maintaining them?” The same applies to outdoor features that incur high maintenance costs. “A lot of people see a swimming pool as a liability more than an asset,” Barbara explains.

On the other hand, ready to go, practical features such as a

Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) residential sales in the province are expected to reach 100,000 units in 2015 for only the third time on record. This will also be the first time since 2007 that BC home sales surpass the ten year average. The surge in housing demand is broad-based across most BC regions, with nine of 11 boards expecting an increase in unit sales ranging from 10 to 26 per cent over 2014 levels. A record 106,300 homes traded hands on the BC MLS® during 2005.

The housing market is being underpinned by strong economic growth, improving labour markets, population growth and persistently low mortgage interest rates. British Columbia can boast the best performing economy in the country this year. Real GDP growth of 2.5 per cent this year and

The Conservative Party of Canada has made two more pre-election pledges aimed at home buyers, one of them promising that if elected, the federal government would raise the maximum permitted amount taken from an RRSP to put as a down payment on a first home.

Currently the Home Buyer’s Plan allows first-time buyers to take up to $25,000 out of their RRSP to put down on the purchase or construction of their first house, as long as it is repaid. This maximum would be increased to $35,000 under a newly elected Conservative government.

“For many Canadians, owning a home is their most important investment and the achievement of a key life goal,” said Prime Minister Stephen Harper. “We want to help more Canadian families purchase their first dream home.

A common problem many soon-to-be home-buyers have is that they have the will to buy, but not the means. If you’re looking to buy but don’t have enough saved up for a down payment, try these bits of advice that are sure to help grow your bank account.

Cut back on your spending: While it’s one thing to scale down on some of your everyday luxuries, it’s another thing to completely cut off your spending. Like many things in life, there is a fine balance when it comes to this. If you try to give it all up at once, it’s likely you’ll snap and go back to your old ways before you know it. Be sure to make a conscious effort to spend less, but don’t forget to enjoy yourself along the way.

Eat out less: Whether you’re the kind of person that eats out a couple

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