April 2013 Canadian Economic Fundamentals

[Ally]

Canada's housing market drawing the big-money crowd







Sotheby`s International Realty is seeing a surge in demand from wealthy Syrians, Egyptians and Europeans looking for a safe and relatively stable place to park their millions ` Canada`s softening real estate market.







There has been an uptick in `very significant transactions` in tony areas like Oakville and North Toronto by Europeans, many with young families who originally had planned to settle in the U.S. but fell in love with Canada instead, says Sotheby`s Canada CEO Ross McCredie.







Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Royal LePage to empower its agents with real estate's first fully mobile, bilingual marketing centre




SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 04/17/13 -- In a bold effort to cut the cord that tethers real estate agents to their desktops, Royal LePage Real Estate Services (Royal LePage) announced today it will launch the real estate industry's first fully mobilized, bilingual Marketing Centre.







Canadian real estate agents for the first time will be able to create and distribute all their English, French and bilingual online and print homebuyer and seller marketing programs on iPads and Android tablets. Royal LePage, Canada's leading real estate company, made the announcement today in San Francisco at a meeting of The Realty Alliance, a network of real estate firms that serves nearly every major market in the continent.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

For the real picture on unemployment, pay heed to the job vacancy rate




The king is dead. Long live the king ` of statistics that is.




For the past 50 years, the king of economic statistics, the one awaited each month with bated breath by finance ministers, central bank governors, pundits and the general public alike, was the unemployment rate. A rising rate was political poison, a falling one grounds for governmental preening.



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[Ally]

Number of EI recipients unchanged in February





Statistics Canada says the number of people receiving regular employment insurance benefits was virtually unchanged at 528,900 in February following three months of declining numbers.






However, the number of beneficiaries was down 7.4 per cent compared with a year earlier.




Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Productivity overrated as key to growth, report says




Jobs, not productivity, may be the secret to Canada`s economic strength, according to provocative new research.




An abundant supply of labour is the key ingredient that has allowed Canada to expand its economy over several decades despite disappointing productivity gains, a trio of economists from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board and the International Monetary Fund argue in a report to be published Wednesday in the International Productivity Monitor.



Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Canada loses status as economic superstar




Canada`s economic growth will be the slowest among Group of 20 countries outside Europe as it grapples with a cooling housing market and as policy makers rein in deficits, according to the International Monetary Fund.





Canadians are losing faith in economic `miracle` amid prolonged slowdown. Read more





The Washington-based lender cut its 2013 Canadian growth forecast to 1.5%, from an October estimate of 2%, while boosting its projections for Japanese growth to 1.6%. The U.S. economy will grow at a 1.9% pace this year, while the euro area contracts by 0.3%, the fund said Tuesday in its World Economic Outlook.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Where real estate prices are skyrocketing




Just six years ago, Kitimat, B.C., was on the brink of implosion. Statistics Canada cited the northern coastal community as the city with the greatest population decline in Canada. The vacancy rate for rental homes was 44.5%, and jobs were hard to come by.




But now Kitimat is the focus of an energy export boom. Real estate agents are fielding calls from buyers in Alberta who are snapping up property for personal use and business development. Home sales in 2012 almost doubled those in 2011, and Shannon Dos Stantos, an agent with ReMax Kitimat, estimates close to 60% of the sales are from buyers in the Lower Mainland or Alberta. Prices are rising accordingly. Half-duplexes that sold for $60,000 five years ago now go for twice that.





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[Ally]

BMO: Canadian REITS to buy now




Total returns from real estate investment trusts in 2013, while a little less generous than in previous years, should still be pleasing to investors, according to BMO Nesbitt Burns.




BMO initiated coverage on 19 Canadian REITs and real estate corporations today. While most received `outperform` ratings, BMO believes investors should be picky, selecting names with solid corporate structures, rising distributions, smaller capitalizations, and those that may be potential takeover targets.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Get ready condo flippers, the CRA is hunting you




You just sold your condo, you made a hefty profit and know you have to pay your taxes.




The bill might be more than you think.




If it`s your principal residence, there`s no tax, as long as you have the paperwork to prove it. The Canada Revenue Agency is taking a closer look at the condominium sector in what some in the industry have dubbed the `Condo Project.`







Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Flaherty still has his economic bragging rights




WASHINGTON ` Jim Flaherty usually finds his comfort zone in the company of global financial leaders.



It`s hard for an entity spending a quarter of a trillion dollars a year to claim not to be a behemoth



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[Ally]

Pipelines still best option for moving oil and gas to markets in Canada, abroad





In the spirit of Earth Day, it might be useful to take a closer look at today's Canadian energy pipeline sector and sort through some key facts that have a bearing on Canada's environment.




According to the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, companies transport enough crude oil and petroleum products to fill 15,000 tanker truckloads and 4,200 rail cars daily.




Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

It's not the labour market, it's Gen Y




Sit down, take a nice cold sip of your iced grande half-caff sugar-free non-fat vanilla hazelnut latte, turn off Angry Birds on your iPhone 5, and pay attention, 'cause Gen Y? We need to talk.




You see, Millennials -- or those born between 1981 and 2000 -- have an interesting relationship with the state of employment in Canada. We've all heard it -- they're unemployed, underemployed and underpaid, and have a penchant for complaining about their gloomy state of employment. And the media doesn't have a problem reminding them of it.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Research, negotiation are powerful tools when shopping for a first mortgage




TORONTO, Cananda - First-time homebuyers shopping for a mortgage have all the technology at their fingertips to make informed decisions, and financial experts say those resources should arm them with enough knowledge to prepare themselves and even negotiate a better rate.




"In today's environment, with so many things on the Internet, social media in general, there's no reason why people shouldn't be doing a lot more research," said Jim Murphy, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Most Canadians say they won't get sucked into a bidding war




Most Canadian home shoppers are not willing to get pulled into a bidding war to get the perfect place, although first-time buyers are more likely to pay above the asking price, says a poll released Tuesday.




According to a Bank of Montreal Home Buying report, 28 per cent of Canadians surveyed said they would enter a bidding war for a house or condo. That figure was higher among first-time buyers, with 39 per cent saying they would engage in a battle with multiple offers, which most often drives up home prices ` to the delight of sellers.



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[Ally]

Most Canadian homeowners have no plans to downsize




Recently I wrote a


But since that story, several housing observers have said the baby boomer generation and their children are not finished with those big homes yet.





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[Ally]

Canada taking a backseat in global recovery, says S&P




Canada emerged from the financial crisis with hardly a scratch, but it is going to find the global economic recovery a lot more difficult.




The stock market has been suggesting this for the past two years. The S&P/TSX composite index has fallen more than 13 per cent since April, 2011, while benchmark indexes in the United States and Japan have enjoyed double-digit increases and even German and U.K. indexes have shown slight gains.



Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Oilsands monitoring goes online




The federal and Alberta governments are on the verge of opening data and evidence of the impacts of oilsands development to the public.




Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent and his Alberta counterpart, Diana McQueen, are scheduled to launch a new online database Monday at Carleton University, allowing the public to follow progress of a new monitoring program that is tracking impacts on water, air and wildlife in the oilsands region.



Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Wind turbines have reduced property values, court says





An Ontario court says that landowners near a proposed wind farm have suffered diminished property values.






A lawyer for the landowners says the decision will clear the way for more actions against both wind developers and those who lease their land for wind turbines.






But a spokesman for the wind power company says the evidence that the court heard was `speculative,` and the proceedings never reached the point where core issues were addressed.






Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Canadians paying off debt quicker, borrowing less





TORONTO ` Fewer Canadians are letting their debt repayments lapse for more than three months compared with a year ago, according to a report out today by credit monitoring firm Equifax Canada.







The study found that the percentage of unpaid non-mortgage debt classified as going into 90-day delinquency settled at a moderate 1.2 per cent in the first quarter of this year, a slight increase from 1.19 per cent from the fourth quarter.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Canadian real estate CEOs show cautious optimism for coming year




Canadian real estate executives are bullish about their prospects for the coming year, but a few unknowns, like continued low U.S. interest rates and the level of demand for Canadian products and resources, were cause for caution. The report, `Canadian Real Estate Outlook,` by Ferguson Partners, Ltd. (http://www.fpladvisorygroup.com), brings together insights from some of Canada`s top real estate CEOs to paint a picture of where the Canadian real estate sector is headed in 2013.





Read the full article here.