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March 2015 Ontario Economic Fundamentals

Ally

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Harsh winter leading to delays on construction sites

TORONTO – The harsh winter dealt a severe blow to Ontario’s construction industry as it kept workers out of the cold and away from the job.

Alan Vhinat, the senior vice-president of highrises at Great Gulf, said the high winds and low temperatures have forced his teams to take more time off from building the 76 storey condo at One Bloor East.

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London poised for growth



The real estate market in London, Ont. has traditionally been conservative and safe, but recent significant increases in housing starts and home prices are signaling a land of opportunity for investors.

Housing starts were trending up at 2,048 units in February 2015, compared to 1,890 in January, according to new CMHC figures. Single-family detached starts were stagnant, but the starts for all other types of housing saw a giant leap forward.

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Thunder Bay best city to buy real estate in Canada?

As Toronto and Vancouver real-estate prices hit record values, prospective homeowners may want to expand their search for the best deals in Canadian real-estate.

The latest edition of MoneySense magazine, which looked at top 35 cities in Canada to buy real estate, suggests looking north would be the place to start.

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Study shatters Barrie's commuter town myth

Barrie and Simcoe County are not bedrooms for the GTA, a new labour market study reveals. That’s just one of several common myths the study debunks. Despite what you see on Hwy. 400 each morning, as cars fill the southbound lanes for hours, the reality is more people are coming into our communities to work than leaving.

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Toronto's housing bubble not bursting anytime soon

Toronto Dominion Bank has published a report which found the cost of renting or owning a home in Toronto is becoming unaffordable for many residents.

Canada’s average home price is a little over $400,000, but Toronto’s values climb as high as $575,000. This wide gap in prices leads experts to think that the country is “in danger of becoming the New York City of the north.”

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Hope Barrie is prepared for the coming growth in
housing demand


Metrolinx is building a second track on part of GO Transit’s Barrie corridor to bring better transit to the region.

It's part of a 10-year plan.

Grading and signal improvements are already underway on a six-kilometre stretch of the line between the York University and Rutherford GO Stations, with track construction to follow.

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Twitter founder sets up office in #Ontario to support
"Square" payment system as they need CDN talent

Square is a mobile payments solutions company based in San Francisco, U.S., headed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. To grow globally beyond the U.S., Square needed world-class engineering talent and chose to create a product development office in Ontario, Canada.

Challenge

Many jurisdictions offer innovation clusters of various sizes with engineering talent. But Square needed top talent with a global mindset at the forefront of mobile payments technology. Which location would provide Square with a deep talent pool, a world-class IT cluster, a business friendly environment and a stable, growing economy?

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Brantford named 4th best city in Canada to buy real estate



Brantford has been pegged the fourth best city in which to buy real estate in Canada, according to the recent edition of MoneySense magazine.

In a ranking of 35 Canadian cities, Brantford's real estate market is bested only by Thunder Bay (first), Calgary (second), and Barrie (third).

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The great divide in Toronto housing

Considering the February weather that Torontonians have just endured, the overheated housing market defies all logic. It feels a bit like saying that the average house price in Whitehorse just crossed $1 million.

Along with this new threshold, we hear the all-too-familiar memes: low interest rates, limited supply and excess demand all combine to create a hot and heady marketplace for sellers and real estate agents, even when it feels like -25 C outside. Young buyers beware: either hurry up or make do in a condo.

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Hamilton's jobless rate down slightly



Canada’s unemployment rate climbed to 6.8 per cent in February as Alberta’s labour market showed its first significant decline since the global oil slump.

Statistics Canada’s latest labour market survey says the country’s jobless rate crept up from 6.6 per cent the previous month _ even though it only registered a month-to-month net loss of 1,000 jobs.

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Morguard makes towering reinvestment in Toronto rental market

From the upper floors of The Heathview apartment towers, there’s a panoramic view of something puzzling about Toronto real estate.

South to the shore of Lake Ontario are the clustered outcroppings of condos. Precious few of the new buildings contain apartments purposely built as rentals. The demand for rentals is heavy, but developers have preferred to construct condos. So rental demand has been partly sated by the fact that nearly one-third of condos in Toronto are rented out by their owners.

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A lack of listings leads to lively bidding for Toronto homes

Lively bidding for a small house in Leslieville last week caused a buzz around the neighbourhood when the house sold for $96,000 above the asking price of $499,000.

One neighbour on Berkshire Avenue looked around at his own nearly identical bungalow and called listing agent Christopher Stevenson to pepper him with questions about the sale down the street at number 21. By the end of the conversation, the owner at number 75 had decided to enlist Mr. Stevenson to sell his house too.

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GTA realtors release mid month resale housing figures

Toronto Real Estate Board President Paul Etherington announced that Greater Toronto Area REALTORS(R) reported 3,838 sales through the TorontoMLS system during the first two weeks of March 2015. This result represented an 11.8 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2014. New listings were also up over the same period, but by a lesser annual rate of 8.4 per cent.

"Strong year-over-year growth in home sales continued during the first half of March for most home types in the GTA, both in the City of Toronto and the surrounding regions. This suggests that households continue to view the purchase of a home as a quality long-term investment. But for a lack of low-rise listings in some neighbourhoods, it is quite possible that the number of sales could have been higher," said Mr. Etherington.

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Ottawa's share of immigrants drops; newcomers look to Montreal and the West

Ottawa’s share of new immigrants continues to decline as newcomers increasingly opt for the economic opportunities of Western Canada or the cultural diversity of Montreal.

A Statistics Canada study released Wednesday reveals that the percentage of immigrants who cited Ottawa as their intended destination has dropped to 2.4 per cent in 2012 from 3.4 per cent in 2000.

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Innisfil considers groundbreaking plan to build infrastructure for new buildings

the Hwy. 400...

A groundbreaking “made-in-Innisfil” solution is the best way to build infrastructure to service industry along the Hwy. 400 corridor, council heard last night.

Under the proposal, Innisfil would be the first Ontario municipality to own and operate a separate corporation to oversee water and wastewater services.

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Innisfil considers groundbreaking plan to build infrastructure for new buildings

the Hwy. 400...

A groundbreaking “made-in-Innisfil” solution is the best way to build infrastructure to service industry along the Hwy. 400 corridor, council heard last night.

Under the proposal, Innisfil would be the first Ontario municipality to own and operate a separate corporation to oversee water and wastewater services.

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Video: TTC fires managers over subway expansion project


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Warning to investors in Canada's 'hottest' market


A city councillor in the country’s hottest market is spearheading a move to crack down on the illegal conversion of secondary suites – something that could affect 90 per cent of investors.

A city councillor in Hamilton, Ont. is aiming to board up illegal secondary suites, a measure bound to impact investors who depend on that rental income to cash flow.

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Price gap between condos, new houses soars


In a sign of things to come as Toronto’s spring housing market heats up, the gap between the price of a new house and a new condo skyrocketed to nearly $300,000 in February.

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