First time home buyers

The 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.

There’s more to this than the average $770,745 cost of a

BCREA 2020 First Quarter Housing Forecast Update

Vancouver, BC – January 23, 2020. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) released its 2020 First Quarter Housing Forecast Update today.

Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) residential sales in the province are forecast to increase 10.3 per cent to 85,290 units this year, after recording 77,349 residential sales in 2019. MLS® residential sales are forecast to increase 6.3 per cent to 90,700 units in 2021. 

“The outlook for home sales in 2020 is considerably brighter than the past two years,” said Brendon Ogmundson, BCREA Chief Economist. “Momentum carried through from the end of 2019 to 2020 will put the housing market on more solid footing, aided by low interest rates and an improving

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has defended mortgage stress test rules and warned federal policymakers to hold the line amid calls from industry associations to ease the rules.

“My job is to advise you against this reckless myopia and protect our economy from potentially tragic consequences,” Evan Siddall, CMHC’s president and CEO, said in a letter to the Standing Committee on Finance dated Thursday.

Siddall urged the committee to “look past the plain self-interest” of the parties lobbying for easing the rules. The Mortgage Professionals Association of Canada (MPAC), the Canadian Home Builders Association (CHBA), and the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) have all called for such change, according to a report by The Canadian

Real estate association offers optimistic forecast, saying buyers are gradually “adjusting” to mortgage stress test

Home sales in B.C. are likely to rise slightly this year, and more in 2020, according to a forecast released February 25 by the B.C. Real Estate Association (BCREA).

The association said it expects residential sales in the province to rise two per cent to 80,000 units this year. This follows a slow 2018 in which 78,345 homes traded hands on B.C.’s MLS®, which was 24.9 per cent lower than in 2017.

BCREA also predicted home sales to increase a further 6.9 per cent to 85,500 units in 2020. This would be a very normal level of activity, as the 10-year average for home sales in the province is 85,800 units.

The association

Vancouver, BC – March 12, 2019.

The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) is calling on the federal government to revisit the B-20 stress test so that more BC families can achieve their dream of home ownership. Mortgage lending rules, known as the B-20 stress test, have eroded housing affordability by reducing the purchasing power of families by as much as 20 per cent. Introduced last year, the stress test forces even the most credit-worthy borrowers with large down payments to qualify at an interest rate that is two percentage points above the rate they negotiate with their bank.
 
“We would like to see a review and reconsideration of the current mortgage underwriting ‘stress test,’ as well as a return to 30-year amortizations for

The Housing Cycle is Entering A Big Shift In Key Cities Across North America

If you are a baby boomer, this might sound familiar: You moved out of your parent’s home as soon as you graduated from high school; you lived in a place you rented – maybe even a ‘room’ in a larger house, where you shared the bathroom with the other tenants; you could put all your belongings in one small bag; and you saved up to buy a car.

That was the ideal lifestyle of the largest demographic ever to populate the world. It’s estimated that 9.6 million baby boomers are in Canada today and they are rapidly becoming the senior population – a population whose living conditions are far different today.

But did you know that there is another demographic as big as – if not

A house being sold “as is” is a real estate term you should know before you start house hunting.

You found a house in your dream neighborhood. It has the right number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and a nice backyard. It’s just what you were looking for. Then you learn it is being sold “as is.” That house that seemed so perfect now seems a bit frightening.

Selling as house “as is” basically means the seller will make no repairs or improvements and is selling the house in its current condition. In many cases, the houses are “as is” because the seller can’t afford to make the improvements. “Once you buy that house, it’s yours and you’re pretty much stuck with whatever decision you made, so you really need to be very educated and thorough about what you’re

A special thank you to my past and present clients, friends and family for another great year.

I am proud to announce that I have been recognized at the ‘Red Diamond’ award level by Royal LePage corporate. The ‘Red Diamond’ recognizes some of the country’s top performing Realtors, and I have been ranked in the Top 2% of Royal LePage’s 18,000 Realtors. 

 Thank you SO much to all of our clients. Obviously, we could not have achieved this without your trust in allowing us to support you through the buying and selling process. We feel so lucky to be able to do what we do for a living, and we are extremely excited to see what 2019 brings.

 I very very pleased to also announce that I ended the year at the Royal LePage number 1 Realtor for Kamloops

In a nationwide survey of over 9,000 prospective homebuyers carried out on its platform, Point2 Homes found that 66% of the Millennials interested in purchasing a home would like to do so within one year.

However, almost half (49%) of the survey-takers aged between 25 and 38 years old have savings significantly under the national average down payment amount, which is $25,000. Moreover, some of the Millennials in the survey state that they haven’t managed to set aside anything at all, meaning that the desire to buy a home might be in conflict with Gen Y’s budgetary realities.

Most Millennials Set Aside Less Than 10% of their Monthly Income

35% of Millennials state that they set aside less than 10% of their income each month and 30% of respondents

When buying a home – most of the negotiations occur before the seller and buyer sign the contract.

You’ve found the perfect Kamloops home for sale. You write an offer.  It gets accepted. And now, you feel like the transaction is a done deal.

Although, the negotiations don’t necessarily end with the acceptance and signing of the purchase contract. In fact, sometimes negotiations continue after the signing. In many cases, just after the buyer home inspection, issues typically arise, and any such issues can spark another round of buyer and seller negotiations.

So, you do the home inspection, which brings up a whole slew of issues. The electrical wiring isn’t up to code, there’s water leaks in the basement, and squirrels have wreaked havoc on the