You’ve seen the ads in the real estate journals: “Basement ready for your development ideas…” wink, wink.
Illegal suites have been around since just after the earth cooled. They exist by the thousands as people have to live somewhere — and, by choice or necessity, a great many of them live in other people’s basements.
They’re known by a variety of euphemisms : mortgage helper, nanny suite, ‘additional accommodation’ in Realtorspeak. And after years of turning a more or less blind eye, Victoria has made them legal with the stroke of a City Hall pen. Both tenant and landlord may sleep more soundly now.
Let’s hope that other adjacent municipalities soon follow suite…er, suit.
July 27th, 2007
If this real estate thing doesn’t work out I’m thinking of becoming a butler. Apparently there’s a global shortage as the number of millionaires grows, and they can command up to $150,000. More in New York or London.
That’s good money for folding napkins and organizing wine cellars. And the required attributes appear transferrable from real estate: attentive, a good listener, and able to grasp something the first time as apparently millionaires don’t like having to repeat themselves.
And I saw ‘Remains of the Day’, and can raise a supercilious eyebrow when I have to
.
July 29th, 2007
Canada’s real estate market is the picture of health, yet the American market, in contrast, is experiencing its lowest existing-home sales level in five years. It’s down 11.4% over last year, and there are more than a million homes unoccupied and for sale.
Worse, foreclosure rates are on the increase.
There are many contributing factors, but one of them is certainly the ‘subprime‘, or high risk, end of the mortgage lending business. No job or prospects of one, coupled with shaky credit — not a good lending bet. In Canada that segment comprises only 5% of mortgages; in the U.S. it’s closer to 20%. Further, ARMs or Adjustable Rate Mortgages have generally not been available to subprime borrowers here; in the U.S. they have, and that has added still more unpredictability to an already unstable situation.
How big will the subprime losses be as they roll over for renewal? Estimates vary, but Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently put the number at $100 billion — yes billion. As the bulk of them won’t reset for another year or so, the picture is unclear. Some say higher — much higher.
Woo hoo, as Homer Simpson is wont to say.
July 31st, 2007
I came upon a site on the net recently that featured a calculator that purported to help prospective buyers decide if they should rent or buy. Now there may be some markets where that is a legitimate question, but I say with great humility that my street isn’t one of them. My neighbour bought three years ago Christmas for $375,000 — and just sold it for $808,000.
Don’t wait to buy real estate. Buy real estate and wait.
That said, what are some of the vehicles available to first time buyers to help them break into this daunting market? The Home Buyer’s Plan, for one. The taxman will allow both you and your spouse to withdraw $20,000 tax free from your RRSPs towards a home purchase providing you haven’t owned one in the last five years. The amounts you borrow have to be repaid in equal installments over 15 years, commencing in the second calendar year after the withdrawal, but if you fail to repay the amounts to your RRSP it becomes a taxable liability.
There is a downside other than the drag of having to repay, however: it could impinge on your ability to make full RRSP contributions since you may now have a reduced cash flow.
Bottom line? My inclination would be not to disturb your RRSPs for this or any other purpose unless you absolutely have to. Retirement will come soon enough; meanwhile, the banks are practically giving mortgage money away. Use theirs — even if it is lent to you over 40 years.
August 1st, 2007
That drugstore on wheels, the Tour de France, is mercifully over — for this year, at least. The pharmacological controversy that surrounds it may be new, but the race itself is no stranger to contention. Consider:
– In 1914, in a foreshadowing of Rosy Ruiz‘ taking the subway while running the Boston Marathon, a rider was towed by a car.
– In 1924 two brothers were caught using chloroform and horse ointment to improve their results.
– In 1967 a British cyclist died after taking amphetamines.
– In 1978 a Belgian rider was found to have avoided testing by concealing a rubber bulb under his arm with another person’s urine in it.
– In 1998 an entire team was kicked out for using banned substances
– In 2002 a Lithuanian racer’s wife was arrested after poice discovered a trunk full of performance-boosters. She said it was for her ailing mother.
Swifter, Higher, Stronger indeed.
August 2nd, 2007
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