Canada Real Estate Attracting Foreign Investment It seems like Asian investors aren’t the only ones taking an interest in Canadian real estate. Sotheby's International Realty is seeing an increasing surge of demand from wealthy Syrians, Egyptians and Europeans looking for a safe and relatively stable place to park their millions. Sotheby's Canada CEO Ross McCredie reported an uptick in "very significant transactions" in areas throughout Toronto, many with young families who originally had planned to settle in the U.S but fell in love with Canada instead! Montreal's exclusive Westmount area has also slowly become the top of the real estate wish list for high-net worth Syrians and Egyptians looking for a stable location for their money and families. Many of the high end deals which exceed over $10 million - aren't even showing up in MLS tallies because of privacy preferences from the buyers. The lack of inventory seems to becoming a major problem in luxury real estate market and agents are having to find their own properties rather than look to the MLS system. “They see this as a stable country. They love our currency. And they see cities that have changed dramatically ...

Edmonton Housing on the Rise A tighter supply of resale homes in Edmonton, coupled with an increased amount of new buyers entering the market has resulted in year-over-year price gains for most home types, according to Royal LePage House Price Survey. Detached bungalows increased by 1.7 per cent to $329,679 compared with the first quarter of 2012, while standard two-story homes went up 0.7 per cent to $357,109 and standard condominiums decreased slightly by 0.2 per cent to $202,838 from a year earlier. Inventory was down from the first quarter, as most active buyers were first-timers who were looking for either detached bungalows or other single-family homes. Tom Shearer, a broker for Royal LePage Noralta Real Estate, said that "The lack of available homes combined with a continued entry of new buyers has led to an increase in prices". Shearer also mentioned the relatively low levels of inventory in Edmonton are leading to multiple offer situations and bidding wars, especially among houses priced between $250,000 and $350,000. Edmonton's housing is slowly but surely picking off as the demand for Edmonton properties is steadily climbing higher. The quarterly survey looked at over seven ...

2013 is becoming one of the best years yet for the Edmonton real estate market. According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp, the pace of housing starts in the Edmonton region outpaced the national market for the month of March. Housing starts reached an astonishing 1,176 homes in the month, up 14 per cent from March 2012. The multi-family sector saw the most gain, up 17 per cent going to 750 starts in March from 639 last year. "The trend in total housing starts moved up in March as a result of strong construction in both the single-detached and multi-family markets," said David Lan, CMHC senior market analyst for Edmonton. “Housing starts continue to be supported by employment growth, net migration and low mortgage rates.” If the March pace was sustained over the year and after seasonal adjustments, CMHC said there were 14,863 starts in the Edmonton region, compared to February’s annualized figure of 13,624 Builders started 426 single-detached units in March, up nine per cent from a year earlier, CMHC said. All signs are pointing up for the Edmonton real estate market, and investors should keep a careful eye on this booming real ...

  According to Statistics Canada, the Calgary region had the third highest average value per dwelling in the country for 2011. Vancouver census metropolitan area had the highest value per dwelling at $482,000, followed by Victoria, at $393,400, Calgary, at $384,500, and Toronto, at $362,000. In terms of provinces, British Columbia and Alberta had the highest at $396,600 and $313,400 respectively. The Calgary Real Estate Board reported that Calgary had 6,944 MLS sales in 2011, up 3.41 per cent from the same period last year, with the average price rising by 7.72 per cent to $451,588 and the median price increasing by 5.87 per cent to $397,000. Overall, Canada experienced a total market value gain of 56 per cent in the last five years, with a total market value of $3,630.9 billion in 2011. Provincially, the total value of residential properties rose in every province from 2006 to 2011. The fastest growth occurred in Saskatchewan (132.6 per cent), where values more than doubled, followed by Newfoundland and Labrador (100.0 per cent) and Alberta (97.0 per cent). Source: Calgary Residential Property Value 3rd Highest

Alberta's booming economy and consistent job growth has allowed first-time homebuyers to spend more on a home. According to a report released Tuesday by BMO, first-time buyers in Alberta expect to spend $406,000 on a home, which is by far the highest average in the country. According to the First-Time Home Buyer's report, the average amount Canadians were expected to spend on their first home is approximately $300,000, with an average down payment of $48,000. First-time buyers in B.C. expected to spend on average $384,000 and $326,000 in Ontario. The report also found that first-time home buyers expected to be mortgage free in 20 years, and twice as likely (46 per cent versus 20 per cent) to choose a fixed rate over a variable rate mortgage. Even more interesting enough was that first-time home buyers who expected interest rates to stay the same or decrease over the next five years still preferred a fixed rate over variable rate mortgages (39 per cent versus 23 per cent). The good news for the Canadian real estate market is that according to the report, two-thirds of first-time buyers (66 per cent) said that the latest ...