More appetite for condo units, poll indicates

News Source: http://bestmortgagebrokers.net/

Condo investors worried about the future pool of buyers may take heart from a new poll suggesting that Ontarians are willing to take the plunge…and soon.

While most home-buyers would prefer to get their hands on a detached home, rising prices and limited supply are pushing their dreams out of reach.

However, that is good news for some investors as a majority of potential buyers say they would turn to the condo market for their future residential needs.

According to a recent survey on behalf of the Ontario Real Estate Association and The Ontario Home Ownership Index, almost 30 per cent of Ontarian buyers say they would consider condos. This push is naturally being led by potential buyers in the GTA region.

Almost 60 per cent of the 1,080 surveyed who are likely to purchase a home in the next two years say they would look for a detached house.

And despite all of the doom and gloom in the market, a majority of the survey respondents believe conditions are currently favourable to buy property, while most believe the overall state of the province’s economy is good.

However, not everyone is as positive. One in five believe the province’s real estate market is weaker compared to one year ago.

Interestingly, more Ontarians rank long-term investment value as they motivation for buying, followed by affordability/availability with 26 per cent driven by the desire to own their own home.

Realtor’s Top Tech Tools for 2014

News Source: http://firstmortgagerates.ca/

Real estate professionals are pouring more money into mobile technologies to make their businesses more efficient and expand their reach to clients, according to the 2013-14 Realtor Technology Survey conducted by NAR’s Center for Realtor Technology.

The survey, based on more than 1,200 responses, found that brokers spent a median of $1,410 on technology for their real estate business last year, up from $1,122 in 2012. Agents spent a median of $848, up slightly from $822 in 2012.

Tools that allow for conducting business quickly and conveniently from any location were rated the highest by Realtors. In the survey, they cited the most valuable technologies for their business:

• Real estate software for forms and contracts (particularly Authentisign, DocuSign, ZipForms, DotLoop, and FormSimplicity);
• Mobile apps (such as Dropbox, e-Key apps, Evernote, Google Maps, Open Home Pro, Paragon, and Supra);
• Electronic tablets (iPad cited as most valuable tablet);
• Property databases (such as local MLSs, Realist public records database, realtor.com®, Trulia, and Zillow);
• CRM solutions (Top Producer® and e-Edge);
• Social media (Facebook and LinkedIn)

Smartphones and tablets — iPads, Androids, Surfaces, or Kindles — are the tools that are most likely to be on Realtors’ shopping lists this year, with 29 percent of those surveyed saying they plan to purchase one this year. Realtors say they spend a median of 44 percent of their time corresponding or doing work for their clients on a mobile device.

The most popular smartphone among Realtors continues to be the iPhone. Fifty-two percent of Realtors say they own an iPhone for their business, while 36 percent use Androids and 3 percent use Blackberry devices.

Besides technology devices, real estate professionals are increasingly using social media to generate leads and stay in contact with clients. Ninety-one percent of REALTORS® say they use social media: 70 percent say they use it to build relationships and network, while 64 percent say they use it for marketing and generating leads. Facebook is the most regularly used social network among real estate professionals (at 77 percent), followed by LinkedIn (75 percent).

“Technology has transformed the way Realtors do business, but in real estate, being high-tech can never come at the expense of being highly accessible,” says Mark Lesswing, NAR senior vice president and chief technology officer. “Advances in smartphones and social media have made it easier for Realtors to stay in touch with their customers, but maintaining a strong, personal relationship with clients is still at the heart of the business.”

The full results of the 2013-2014 Realtor Technology Survey can be downloaded at crt.blogs.realtor.org.

Don't Be Affraid To Buy A Home. Use This Information To Help

Article Source: http://bestmortgagebrokers.net/

Buying a home or other piece of real estate will be one of the most significant decisions of your life, so it's vital that you go into this process with a solid understanding of what is involved. This article will lay out the basics and give you good advice on how to proceed.

Make sure that the offer you make on your desired real estate is attractive to the seller. Confer with your realtor and lawyer so you have a realistic approach in the offer you make. If your offer is targeted to the sellers wishes, they will not hesitate to move forward with your deal.

When considering a piece of real estate you feel you may want to buy, talk to the owners of neighboring properties if you can. Realtors, mortgage providers, and sellers have their own interests and biases when they tell you about the neighborhood. The people who live and work right next to your potential property have first-hand experience with the area. Pick their brains if you can.

Oftentimes, homes that need major improvements are offered at lower prices. This lets you pocket some extra cash up front, and then you can make the repairs on your schedule. You will have the ability to renovate the house to your exact tastes while you accumulate equity along the way. Do not focus on what is wrong with the house; instead, focus on what is good. Behind the outdated kitchen and the peeling paint could be the home of your dreams.

You don't have to let the idea of becoming a property owner intimidate you. While the process may seem opaque and confusing at first, some basic education can clear up much of your confusion. By applying the ideas you've learned in this article, buying real estate can be a painless and rewarding process.

Why the Bank of Canada has an inflation and interest rate dilemma

Article Source: http://bestmortgagebrokers.net/

Have you checked out the price of steak lately? I did last week in preparation for the first family  barbecue of the season. What a shock! I hope everyone liked the chicken I bought instead.

  There’s no getting around it — prices are heading up. Inflation, which has been a non-issue since    the crash of 2008, has suddenly reared its head again. Last month Statistics Canada reported that  the Consumer Price Index rose 2 per cent in April on an annualized basis. That was the biggest      jump in two years.

  Gas prices, which everyone has complained about, were up by 6.6 per cent year-over-year. But the biggest increase, which may have gone unnoticed because many families are on monthly equal billing plans, was in the cost of the natural gas that heats many of our homes. It was up a whopping 26 per cent over last year.

As for those steaks, they’re 4.5 per cent more expensive than they were a year ago. And they weren’t cheap then.

The Bank of Canada didn’t expect our inflation rate to hit its two per cent target until early 2015 so we’re a year ahead of schedule. Higher energy prices and a lower loonie, which raises the cost of imports, are the main culprits. We’re not likely to see any relief soon. If anything, the loonie is likely to drift lower which will make everything we import even more expensive.

Related: Why we’re stuck in a low interest rate trap

The rapid return of inflation has left the new Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz caught between a rock and a hard place. Although he won’t say so publicly — no central banker would — he’d like to see our dollar fall even lower. That would give a boost to exporters by making our goods cheaper in international markets. Right now our manufacturers need all the help they can get; exports fell 1.8 per cent in April leaving Canada with an unexpected trade deficit of $638 million.

But if core inflation moves past the official two per cent target, Mr. Poloz and his colleagues might have to raise interest rates or risk losing credibility. That would have the effect of pushing up the value of the loonie, which is the last thing the Bank, or the federal government, wants right now.

For now, the Bank is dancing, trying to convey the impression that the inflationary spike is transitory, citing “the temporary effects of higher energy prices and exchange rate pass-through.” Although most economists are skeptical, Mr. Poloz continues to maintain there is a risk that we could sink back into the disinflation scenario that dominated the years immediately following the crash.

To give credence to this, we’re getting some trash talk about the state of the economy (“weaker than anticipated” said the statement released last week). And we’re told “the downside risks to the inflation outlook (are) as important as before.”

That kind of bank-speak is designed to give the impression that the next move on interest rates could just as easily be down as up (the current target rate is one per cent). That uncertainty helps maintain downward pressure on the loonie, which is what the Bank privately wants, even if it can’t come out and say so. Our dollar fell by about a quarter of a cent after the Wednesday morning announcement, so the strategy seems to be working for now.

But if inflation continues to move higher at the rate we saw last month, it could be crunch time for the Bank before the snow flies again.

Internal report says Parks Canada buildings in worse shape than claimed

OTTAWA — Parks Canada’s crumbling forts, historical houses and other heritage structures are in much poorer shape than the agency estimates.

That’s the finding of an independent consultant asked to review a comprehensive inventory created by Parks Canada to determine how much repair work is needed for its varied infrastructure across the country.

The agency’s 2012 inventory found that 47 per cent of all its assets — from dams, bridges and roads, to old stone forts — are in poor or very poor condition.

But Opus International Consultants Ltd. said its own sampling of hundreds of assets pushed that overall level to 53 per cent.

And so-called cultural assets — the historical houses, fortifications, locks and other heritage gems from Canada’s past — are in even worse shape.

Opus estimates 61 per cent of these 2,000 structures are in poor or very poor shape, compared with Parks Canada’s more rosy assessment of just 33 per cent.

“Results indicate that at the portfolio level the value of (Parks Canada) assets in poor condition has increased from condition reported in the 2012 National Asset Review,” says the Opus report, which cost taxpayers $316,000.

A copy of the Dec. 16, 2013, document was obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

Parks Canada has come under fire in recent years for weak management of its real-estate portfolio, which includes historic canals and archeological sites, in addition to campgrounds, access roads and visitor centres.

An internal evaluation in 2009 slammed officials for failing to maintain a reliable inventory of hundreds of buildings and other structures, estimated to be worth some $15 billion today.

In response, Parks Canada undertook a thorough review of all its assets in 2012 to set a baseline, estimating there was $2.9 billion worth of deferred repairs.

More than half the deferred work was earmarked for waterways, highways and bridges — so-called high-risk assets — but Opus found these structures were in better condition than Parks Canada estimated.

Instead, irreplaceable cultural assets were found to be the most neglected, with almost two-thirds requiring about $230 million worth of repairs and maintenance work.

A spokeswoman for Parks Canada said the agency is still reviewing the Opus report, which she said largely backs the inventory estimates about the cost of repair work.

“Parks Canada has invested an average of $119 million annually over the last 10 years on the recapitalization of its infrastructure,” Genevieve Patenaude said in an email.

“Investments include incremental capital resources announced by the government, the most recent of which was $19 million announced in Budget 2013 to address critical improvements to national park highways and bridges.”

Parks Canada, which operates more than 200 national parks, historic sites and marine conservation areas, has been hit hard since 2012 with budget cuts. The agency lost some 587 staff in 2012-2013, for example, or about 13 per cent of its workforce.

At the same time, 20.6 million people visited its sites in 2012-2013, a three per cent increase and the first rise in visitor numbers in four years.

Visit Dominion Lending Centres Mortgage Village to consult a mortgage professional.

Hundreds of Canadian Credit Cards Hacked By Infected Terminals, Firm Warns

A new strain of computer malware infecting payment card terminals in restaurant and gas station has compromised nearly 700 credit cards in Canada, a computer security firm says.

The viral code, JackPOS, infects point-of-sales terminals, a security breach similar to other highly publicized recent cases that struck victims such as the Target retailing chain or the White Lodging hotel management firm.

According to a map released Monday by the California security firm IntelCrawler LLC, JackPOS stole data from 400 cards in Vancouver and from 280 other cards at a location in Longueuil, Que., south of Montreal.

IntelCrawler said the infection appeared about three weeks ago.

In an e-mail to The Globe and Mail, IntelCrawler CEO Andrew Komarov said the point-of-sales terminals were breached through remote access, by hackers who created a large list of possible passwords (such as POS1, Administrator or 123456789) and then “brute-forced” themselves into the systems.

“It provides them good results, as the security in this sector is surprisingly really very poor,” M. Komarov wrote.

Other countries affected by JackPOS include Brazil, where data for 3,000 cards in Sao Paulo were stolen; India, where 420 cards were compromised in Bangalore; and Spain, where 230 cards were pirated in Madrid.

The two outbreaks in Canada likely happened at a gas station, said Richard Henderson, a Vancouver-based security strategist for Fortinet's Threat Research Labs.

“In Canada we’re lucky that the vast majority of our transactions done day-to-day are with chip-and-PIN, which are much more secure,” he said, adding however that some gas stations’ pumps are still relying on the old magnetic-swipe method that is more vulnerable to hacking.

JackPOS appears to be a variation of a previous malware, Alina. Both are known as RAM scrapers, which capture card data when it is transmitted from the sales terminal to a payment-processing centre.

Mr. Henderson said JackPOS’s key feature is its ability to hide on a machine by pretending to be a version of Java, a programming platform used by some computer applications.

“That’s a really neat obfuscation technique by the malware to make it look like it’s a legitimate piece of software.”

According to a global security report by the anti-cybercrime firm Trustwave, victims of point-of-sale hacking tend to be merchants or franchises who have to outsource their IT work and rely on contractors who access their systems remotely. Weak passwords and remote access make it easier for hackers to breach POS systems.

Most of the breaches can be attributed to three criminal groups, with the data being dumped in Russia, Ukraine or Romania, the Trustwave report said.

The rollout of chip-and-PIN cards in Canada and Europe have made fraud harder. However, the report said cyber-thieves still go after POS targets in hotels and premium retailers, because those businesses attract an international clientele that does not have chip-and-PIN cards.

Visit Dominion Lending Centres Mortgage Village to consult a mortgage professional.

How Higher Rates Might Affect Your Mortgage

Interest rates have been so low for so long that we barely raise an eyebrow about the warnings of higher rates ahead. But long-term interest rates might tick upward this year as the U.S. Federal Reserve cuts back on its economic stimulus which has kept rates low.

For the past five years, the Fed has been buying U.S. Treasury bonds every month by creating the money. It writes a cheque to buy the bonds which has expanded consumer credit, making it cheaper to borrow money.

The impact of the Fed’s action on Canadian homeowners is a gradual increase in long-term mortgage rates. This includes the five-year fixed rate mortgage, now among the most popular. In 2013, 82 per cent of new mortgages were fixed rate terms, according to the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals.

“We expect long-term rates to rise later this year, which will impact five- and10-year mortgage rates in Canada,” said Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at CIBC.

A homeowner who chose a five-year mortgage in 2012 would have paid 2.99 per cent. In 2013, the average was 3.29 per cent. That’s why it’s a good idea to take a look at how you might be affected by higher rates, especially if your mortgage will soon come up for renewal.

The idea is to prepare for the worst, says Robert McLister, editor of Canadian Mortgage Trends.

“At the very least, folks should run a couple of rate hike scenarios through a stress test calculator,” McLister said.

The goal is to ensure you can afford payments at that higher rate come maturity time.

“If the results look ominous given your budget, the time to strategize is now, well before maturity,” he said.

Here are some examples:

If you have a $300,000 mortgage at 3.49 per cent and rates rise by two points at renewal time it will cost you $274 more a month. At $400,000 it’s $365 more per month.

Here are some options if your payments are too high for you to carry at renewal:

Refinance: If you have to, extend the amortization. If you’ve worked it down to 20 years, say, increase it. This option generally requires at least 20 per cent equity in the home and it means you’ll be increasing your interest bill over the life of the mortgage. It’s a last-ditch thing to do, McLister says, but “it’s better than defaulting on your mortgage.”

Take a payment vacation: Some mortgages have a skip-a-payment feature. This is an alternative to extending your amortization.

Go shorter: Choose a shorter term with a lower interest rate and payment. That assumes you can handle the risk of rising rates when it comes time to renew again, but if you’re having cash flow problems, there’s a good chance you can’t.

Downsize: A last resort, maybe. But consider selling or renting out a portion of your home.

McLister says that if you find yourself in this position then maybe it’s time to sell and avoid the stress.

“If your budget is stretched, something will happen to stretch it further. It’s Murphy’s Law of borrowing,” he said.

While long-term interest rates may finally head up this year, the Bank of Canada remains committed to keeping short-term rates low. As the spread between long- and short-term interest rates widens, variable rate mortgages become more attractive.

“When long-term rates rise, more and more people look at variable rate mortgages,” said Tal.

Visit Dominion Lending Centres Mortgage Village to consult a mortgage professional.