April 2012 Ontario Economic Fundamentals

[Ally]

Five housing hot spots in Toronto




Talk to real-estate agents, and most express disbelief at how the Toronto market keeps defying the doomsayers month after month.




What`s fuelling it? Those bargain-basement mortgage rates keep affordability in line, even as prices have risen, says Toronto Real Estate Board analyst Jason Mercer.




Factor in the number of potential buyers per house, and you`ve got a recipe for price hikes. Mercer says recent sales totals projected annually could make 2012 the second-best year on record (after 2007), even as listings have lagged.









Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Why Toronto's heated housing market is unsustainable




MONTREAL ` While Canada`s high-flying housing market continues to stabilize, it`s increasingly evident that one city ` Toronto ` is a glaring exception.




In sharp contrast to price moderation in most cities and a significant drop in Vancouver, where buyers are being priced out of the country`s costliest market, Toronto buyers are on a spending spree ` one that looks as if it won`t end well.




New figures from the Canadian Real Estate Association show prices up by 10.5% in Toronto over the past 12 months, the only major city with a double-digit gain. In contrast, Montreal gained a modest 3.7% and Vancouver is down by 3.1%.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

All aboard Ontario's efficiency bus




It`s easy enough to understand why the Ontario Liberals would call a press conference to tout a move that, the government says, will save taxpayers $25-million a year. The decision to merge two of the many agencies that are involved in the province`s energy supply is not quite as exciting as being able to announce it had, say, Stopped the Gravy Train, but at least it can say it has Fired Up the Efficiency Bus.




But, $25-million of what, exactly? The answer goes to the problem that looms for the Liberals, as sharply increasing electricity costs threaten to anger voters and dwarf any of the benefits realized by Wednesday`s announcement that the Ontario Power Authority and Independent Electricity System Operator will be combined.







It`s no secret that Dalton McGuinty`s Liberals have placed a huge bet on growing a green-energy sector by subsidizing the production of renewable energy. Although energy bills have been steadily rising since the party took power in 2003 ` the average cost of a kilowatt of electricity was more than 30% higher last year than it was five years ago ` the Liberals have somewhat masked this fact by handing a 10% rebate back to consumers with the euphemistically named Clean Energy Benefit, which also happens to utterly contradict the conservation incentive that should be part of a switch to a greener grid.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Ontario energy prices going up on May 1st




Peak power for time of use customers will go up 0.9 cents a kWh as of May 1, a change that should add $3.99 a month to the `electricity` line of the bill for someone using 800 kwh a month, the Ontario Energy Board said in a press release.




`Prices are changing principally because the forecast supply cost is changing,` the board said in a release.




`As coal generation continues to decline, it is being replaced with natural gas, nuclear and renewable generation. This includes refurbished units at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station along with more wind and solar generation.`





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Internet realtor says there's 'nothing to fear'




Realtors have nothing to fear from TheRedPin.com, says Rokham Fard, one of the company`s co-founders. In fact, if you`re a sales rep in the Greater Toronto Area who enjoys providing great customer service but don`t like spending a lot of time prospecting and advertising, TheRedPin.com wants to talk to you.




A member of CREA, it was the first company to launch a virtual office website after the Toronto Real Estate Board`s controversial VOW policy was approved. Fard says the technology-based brokerage`s website offers up to 120 more data points on listings than are on realtor.ca. Combined with its extensive listings of new home and condominium offerings, TheRedPin says it has a database nearly 1.6 times the size of the MLS system in Toronto, making it the largest residential database in the GTA. It`s also updated several times a day, so new listings appear on the site much faster than on realtor.ca.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Peak hydro rates to raise 8% on May 1st




Regulated electricity prices during peak and mid-peak periods will move up more than 8 per cent on May 1, the Ontario Energy Board has decided.




The off-peak price will increase as well, but by a more modest 4.8 per cent, the board announced Thursday.




The board calculates that a consumer who uses 800 kilowatt hours of electricity a month will pay an additional $3.99 a month under the new rates.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Barrie will shine brightly in Ontario's economic future



According to Bloomberg News, if you took your time from a clear vantage point such as the top of the CN Tower you should be able to count 128 construction cranes on condominium development sites between you and the outlying borders of Metropolitan Toronto this spring.



For some further perspective, that's three condo's being built in Toronto for every one under construction in New York City at present, that ratio grows to seven to one between Toronto and Chicago.



Vancouver has also been experiencing a similar flury of condo development that has to have many of us who pay attention to our day to day economic news scratching our heads. Calgary and Edmonton are showing higher levels of current economic recovery and future economic promise yet there is no where near the level of vertical growth or real estate value increase in either city.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Solid March for home sales in Cambridge



Residential sales activity recorded through the MLSÂ System of the Cambridge Association of REALTORSÂ Inc. came in above year-ago levels in March 2012.





According to the Association`s statistics, home sales numbered 290 units in March. This was up four per cent from levels reported in the same month a year earlier, and also stood above the five- and 10-year averages for March sales.





On a year-to-date basis, sales activity pulled two per cent ahead of levels reported over the first three months of 2011.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Ottawa looking to silence the hum of Zug island



The Hum of Zug Island. It sounds like a title for a children`s story, an enthralling tale to join such classics as Pierre Berton`s The Secret World of Og or Roald Dahl`s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.





But no such fun or frivolity on Friday.





Down Windsor way, the maddening Hum of Zug Island is serious. It`s like a sci-fi threat to civilization as we know it. Or at least to a good night`s sleep.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Toronto real estate cooling? Nah




Toronto`s gravity defying house prices should continue their upward climb over the next three years with gains of about 4 per cent both this year and next, predicts a new housing report by Central 1 Credit Union.


That means the average Toronto home could cost $523,000 by the beginning of 2014, up from about $500,000 right now, despite interest rates that could climb to an average of almost 4 per cent for a one-year term and 5.7 per cent for a five-year rate by 2013, says the report released Friday.





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[Ally]

Feeling at home in the heart of Toronto




TORONTO ` Travelers flying into Billy Bishop Airport after dark see the Toronto skyline shimmering like a diamond necklace.







Sparkling along the Lake Ontario shoreline are dozens of high-rise condominiums, lights gleaming through their glass facades. Many of these condos are in the downtown core and were built over the past decade, as city living came back into fashion. Today, real estate agents say, such units are being snapped up as fast as they go on the market.






In the fourth quarter of 2011 alone, almost 900 condominium units were sold downtown, 25 percent of the approximately 3,600 condo sales citywide.






Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Ontario's NDP will vote for budget after Liberals agree to surtax





TORONTO ` Ontario's minority Liberals will survive Tuesday's crucial budget vote and avoid another election after striking a deal with the New Democrats to hike taxes for the wealthy.



Placing a two percentage point surtax on incomes over $500,000 was a key concession to lock in NDP support, even though the Liberals didn't meet all their demands.





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[Ally]

Waterloo's new land-use plan addresses its diminishing space




WATERLOO ` City council has endorsed an important new plan to guide how land is used in Waterloo.




It`s the first revision since 1990 and it envisions a city with people and buildings packed more densely onto land, in particular in areas where traffic and transit are busy.




It envisions land being used in a more mixed way, including for community gardens. Homes, workplaces and businesses will be closer together and will more often share buildings, rather than being segregated.




Waterloo crafted the new plan in part because it is running out of space for new suburbs.

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[Ally]

Metrolinx poised to OK four LRT lines




The Metrolinx board meets Wednesday and appears ready to approve council`s plan to build four new light-rail lines by 2020. If this plan goes ahead, fractious debate at council under Mayor Rob Ford will have delayed the Sheppard LRT by four years: its original completion date, 2014, is its new groundbreaking date. The Sheppard LRT would now open in 2018.




The plan, which calls for new light-rail lines along Eglinton, Sheppard, Finch and the Scarborough RT, still requires approval from the provincial Cabinet. Metrolinx president Bruce McCuaig says he is confident that despite delays stemming from the city`s 18-month transit debate, the new LRT lines will see full service by the original deadline of 2020.





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[Ally]

Councillors plead for more stops on Air Rail Link connecting Union Station to the airport




Toronto will hit a major milestone in its quest to join the ranks of cities with airport-to-downtown rail service when it breaks ground this spring on a three-kilometre track into Pearson`s Terminal 1.




After years spent on environmental assessments and political wrangling, the express service from Union Station to Toronto Pearson International Airport is slated to open in time for the arrival of the Pan American Games in 2015.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Bubble trouble




What do Canada`s real estate market, Apple shares, gold prices, and the entire country of Australia have in common?




The answer starts with a `b` and rhymes with `rubble,` ` which is all that investors may have left when prices suddenly come tumbling down, as pundits insist they will.




All the above are being called bubbles.









Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Major new arena gets green light north of Toronto




Markham may be one step closer to building an NHL-ready arena after city councillors approved a plan to finance a new sports complex.




The 20,000-seat arena comes with a $325-million price tag, half of which will be covered by a private partnership, GTA Sports and Entertainment (GTASE), with the other half to be covered by the city.




Late Thursday, council voted 11-2 to go ahead with plans to borrow $162.5 million.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

S&P puts Ontario on negative credit watch




One day after the governing Ontario Liberals survived a vote on its 2012 budget, a ratings agency is challenging the province`s fiscal plan.






Standard & Poor`s Ratings Services put the province of Ontario on negative credit watch Wednesday, raising the possibility of a punitive downgrade.




`We believe the province`s main credit challenges include its continuing weak budgetary and debt metrics and its challenging cost-containment plan required to achieve budgetary balance by fiscal 2018,` S&P said in a statement.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Hamilton building permits boucing toward a boom



Hamilton is on track to surpass the previous $1-billion record building boom set in 2010 as the city gathers its first-quarter building-permit reports.





The total value of construction in the first quarter of this year is $271 million, up $75 million compared to the first quarter of that record-setting year.







Aside from the warm winter, Neil Everson, the city`s director of economic development, said part of the reason for the fast start is the issue of permits for long-awaited developments such as the $15 million in construction at McMaster Automotive Resource Centre (MARC) on Longwood Road, expected to be complete by January 2013 at a total cost of $26 million.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Daimler plant closing in Mississauga




The lingering after-effects of the Great Recession are still shredding Canada`s manufacturing sector, more than two years after North America emerged from the downturn.




The latest victim is a Daimler AG`s Orion bus manufacturing plant in Mississauga, which will close within the next 12 months as the company abandons the North American transit bus business, eliminating the jobs of about 200 active workers and another 200 on layoff.





Read the full article here.