The Province of Ontario has just announced that it is extending the land transfer tax refund for first time buyers of newly constructed homes to now include resale homes. This means that first time home buyers can now save up to $2,000 on a resale home purchase. The legislation for this rebate has not yet been passed, but any first time home buyer that enters into an "agreement to purchase and sale" on or after December 13th, 2007 is entitled to a rebate of up to $2,000 once the legislation is passed.
The City of Toronto has also up dated their new land transfer tax so that first time home buyers should not have to pay the land transfer tax on the first $400,000 of their home purchase at all. Previously any first time home buyer who is buying a home that is priced over $400,000 had to pay the full tax up front and then get a rebate for the tax paid on the first $400,000. Under their new system, which they hope to have in place before Feb 1st 2008 when the tax starts, first time home buyers will be able to pay only the tax owing on the balance of the purchase price minus $400,000.
A quick update for anyone who missed the announcement. The Government of Canada has passed Bill C37 which changes the minimum loan to value amounts for conventional mortgages.
What does this mean to you? In the past if you were borrowing more than 75% of the purchase price, or value of the property, you had to get CMHC or Genworth mortgage insurance. Now that Loan to Value amount has changed so that there is no need for high ratio mortgage insurance if you are borrowing less than 80% of the homes value. This move will save you a large chunk of change (over a thousand dollars) if you can come up with a 20% downpayment. For those that had been saving up to have a 25% downpayment and avoid the insurance premium, you can now put 20% down on a larger or better home, or spend the extra 5% on furniture, upgrades or savings.
Busy! That pretty much sums up the current greater Toronto Real Estate markets and why I have not posted in too long. February and March had very strong sale, just lower that Feb. and Mar. 2006, but April 2007 blew past April 2006's 8361 sales. With 9452 sales in April 2007 this sets a new record for April sales in the GTA real estate markets.
Even Oak Ridges, which I have mentioned was at risk of having an over supply of homes, sold about 30% of the listed homes in April 2007. The MLS® districts for Richmond Hill and Aurora sold between 30% and 40% of the available homes in April 2007. Newmarket sold 45% of its housing supply and Markham's N11 district sold almost 50% of the available homes with 298 out of 611 homes being sold in April 2007.
Average sales prices were also up in April 2007. Continuing low mortgage rates and the strong economy are still setting the stage for exceptional volumes of sales in the resale housing markets. Even with a slight increase in recent 5 year rates, we are seeing that homes that are priced correctly, and have had a reasonable amount of "staging", are selling fast.
The mid May sales volume is also on route for a new record high for May. With just over 5000 sales in the first 15 days of May 2007, home buyers are telling us that there is still a very strong resale demand.
If you are looking to move in the near future and do not want to waste time and energy, and want to find your perfect home as quickly as possible, call me at 416-278-2335 (direct line) and set up an appointment with myself or one of my associates. I look forward to providing you with fast, professional service focused on your needs.
