August 2012 Ontario Economic Fundamentals

[Ally]

Rental licensing battle looms in Hamilton




Licensing rental units is the latest weapon the city is considering in the controversial battle against illegal apartments in older homes.




Landlords and tenants, however, worry they`ll be caught in the crossfire.




City councillors will debate long-awaited recommendations on regulating rental units, particularly those in converted family homes, at a Sept. 18 meeting.




Licensing would help the city crack down on absentee landlords who split single-family homes into more apartments than the neighbourhood can handle, said Councillor Bernie Morelli.





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[Ally]

Home start numbers indicate momentum swing




Ontario urban housing starts were trending at 77,600 units in July, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.




The trend is a moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates of housing starts. The standalone monthly SAAR was 72,400 units in July, up slightly from 71,000 in June. While single detached construction edged lower, multifamily home construction remained elevated in July.





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[Ally]

Why the SPIS can cause more grief than it spares




As a result of its promotion by the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA), the seller`s property information statement (SPIS) continues to be a source of never-ending business for litigation lawyers and endless grief for unlucky buyers and sellers who are being swept into the bottomless pit of lawsuits because they used it.




It`s time to debunk some of the myths surrounding the form, many of them promoted by OREA and its industry apologists. Here they are:




` Myth: Commonplace advice for sellers signing the form is Liars Beware. Nothing could be further from the truth. The real reason sellers often get sued is not because they lie but because the SPIS is complicated, highly technical, misleading and highly ambiguous. It is impossible to complete the form fully and accurately without expert advice from industry professionals. And judging from more than 200 Canadian lawsuits, even the professionals get it wrong sometimes.





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[Ally]

City repeating Sheppard subway mistakes with Eglinton LRT




While all eyes are focused on the development skirmishes downtown, the real planning war is being waged ` and lost ` on streets like Laird Dr. and Overlea Blvd.




These are the battlefields where the struggle to create a more dense urban form has not only failed, it has turned into a rout. The forces of suburbanization have prevailed and as a result Toronto`s future is that much more compromised.





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[Ally]

Doubling up in London




It`s not something that instantly jumps out and grabs you about London, but you might call Canada`s 11th-largest city the Twin City.




No, we`re not talking newborns, but look-alike buildings.




If you fly over London, or look carefully at its skyline from the ground, you`ll find most of its tallest office and residential buildings are built in pairs.




From the downtown`s original office towers, the 1970s-era City Centre buildings, to planned new residential highrises, such as Old Oak Properties` 16-storey luxury apartment project near Southdale Rd. and Colonel Talbot Dr., you see double an awful lot on London`s skyline.





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[Ally]

Toronto condos outpace low-rise home sales in July




Toronto-area condo sales were above their long-term average in July, while low-rise home sales sunk to less than half the average, the Building Industry and Land Development Association said Tuesday.




Compiling data prepared by RealNet Canada Inc., the association said municipality intensification has pushed people into high-rise dwellings.





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[Ally]

Housing affordability becoming more challenging in the GTA




The heat of Toronto`s red-hot market may be `dissipating,` but housing affordability has declined across Ontario for the second consecutive quarter with higher costs yet to come from rising interest rates, says a study from RBC Economics.




The cost of carrying the mortgage, utilities and taxes on a benchmark two-storey detached home in the Toronto area climbed 1.1 percentage points to eat up 63.9 per cent of median pre-tax household income in the second quarter of this year.




The cost of owning a bungalow was up almost 1 percentage point to 54.5 per cent, says the report.





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[Ally]

University gets exciting foothold in Windsor's downtown - for $2




Fifteen hundred university students will be flooding into the downtown by the fall of 2014, creating a `post-secondary cluster` in Windsor`s core, University of Windsor president Alan Wildeman told city council Monday night.




In a presentation using architectural concept drawings, the university presented its detailed vision for what it plans to do with four downtown properties it is acquiring, including three municipally owned sites that council agreed to hand over for a nominal sum of $2.





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[Ally]

Will condo bust spread?




The gentle flap of For Sale signs in the torrid summer breeze has suddenly become a lot more commonplace in our `hoods. No longer are they all plastered with a Sold Over Asking sticker in a matter of 48 or 72 hours. Some people attribute this slowdown to vacation-time doldrums. But has Ottawa`s new war-on-the-house campaign already had an impact?




Hmm. It wouldn`t be a surprise. After all, the 30-year mortgage has been murdered, with the drop to just 25 years equating to a mortgage increase of almost one per cent in terms of monthly payments. The cash-back home loan will also soon be history, so first-time buyers must actually use their own money rather than the bank`s. Borrowing qualifications are being hiked and regulators are insisting appraisals be more thorough. And no longer will CHMC even insure a mortgage on a house changing hands for more than a million.





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[Ally]

Highway 11 4-laning hits completion milestone




The `gateway` to northern Ontario will soon be a four-lane thoroughfare all the way to North Bay. After more than a decade of construction, the widening of Highway 11 from two to four lanes from Huntsville to Powassan just south of North Bay wraps up this summer.




Underway since 2000, the four-laning completes earlier expansions of the highway both south of Huntsville and from Powassan north to North Bay.





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