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Renovated Condo Ready for You!

Move in and Enjoy! Great Condo for Sale in Hunt Club Park/Greenboro Forget Renting This convenient ground level condo has been fully renovated since 2009. Featuring a bright, modern kitchen with appliances included, low maintenance, high quality floating and ceramic floors, new counter tops, an updated bath, spacious master, new patio door, newer windows and…

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4 Changes to Default Insured Mortgages

 The  following changes to mortgage regulations for insured (CMHC or Genworth) mortgages will be taking place July 9th, 2012: 1. Lowering the maximum amount consumers can borrow when refinancing their mortgages. This change will lower the maximum mortgage amount to 80% of the appraised value of the property from the current 85%. This change will…

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May Home Sales at a High for the Year in Ottawa

Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,896 residential properties in May through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system, compared with 1,659 in May 2011, an increase of 14.3 per cent. May’s sales included 364 in the condominium property class, and 1,532 in the residential property class. “Year-over-year for May, the Ottawa market is…

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Lock in those Rates!!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/05/22/oecd-canada-rates.html Canada’s central bank should move its benchmark target for the overnight rate above its current one per cent level or risk unsustainable increases in the country’s inflation rate and real estate market, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said today. The bank has held the rate steady at one per cent for the…

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Ottawa Home Sales Sailing Through Spring

Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,568 residential properties in April through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system, compared with 1,530 in April 2011, an increase of 2.5 per cent. April’s sales included 300 in the condominium property class, and 1,268 in the residential property class. “Sales in April indicate a steady Ottawa…

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Home Buying is Back in Ottawa this Spring

Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,396 residential properties in March through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system, compared with 1,240 in March 2011, an increase of 12.6 per cent. The five-year average for March sales is 1,276. March’s sales included 277 in the condominium property class, and 1,119 in the residential property…

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News Release, Ottawa Home sales up from January

Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,009 residential properties in February through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system compared with 940 in February 2011, an increase of 7.3 per cent. The five-year average for February sales is 949. February’s sales included 244 in the condominium property class, and 765 in the residential property…

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Paying off your mortgage early can cost you

Date Posted: February 23, 2012 Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to your mortgage payments is a terrific feeling. However, discharging early, though satisfying, isn’t without penalties. This article from the Toronto Star illustrates various situations in which a prepayment penalty can occur, and how to avoid paying more…

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Two steady housing years ahead: CMHC

The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the crown corporation that insures Canadian mortgages, seems optimistic about the housing market in the next two years. Recently, there have been steadily rising concerns of what record low mortgage rates will do to the housing market. However, in this article we learn the CMHC is predicting the market will stay…

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Resale Housing Off to a Typical Start

Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 684 residential properties in January through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service system compared with 677 in January 2011, an increase of one per cent. The five-year average for January sales is 652. Of those sales, 138 were in the condominium property class, while 546 were in the…

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Low interest rates may shield housing market from bubble

Rock-bottom mortgage rates have been the fuel behind Canada’s house-price boom. Now, they may also be the shield keeping that boom from becoming a bubble. Bank of Montreal chief economist Sherry Cooper argues that despite the Bank of Canada’s repeated warnings about the alarming deterioration in the country’s household debt levels, driven in no small…

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Ottawa unemployment steady at 6.3 per cent

By Vito Pilieci, The Ottawa Citizen January 6, 2012 Ottawa’s unemployment rate held steady in December, ending three months of increases, according to Statistics Canada. The national statistics watchdog said the creation of 5,400 new jobs in the region helped to keep the unemployment rate at 6.3 per cent during the month. More than 697,800…

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Helen Morris: Energy efficiency worth the effort

As temperatures head down to their seasonal norm, we’re turning up the heat at home. That means higher bills, but having an energy-efficient home can keep heating costs under control. EnerQuality designs and operates five “green” building standards for the construction industry in Ontario. “These focus on the design and construction of the home,” says…

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2011 a typical year for home sales in Ottawa

  Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 699 residential properties in December through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system compared with 618 in December 2010, an increase of 13.1 per cent. The five-year average for December sales is 611. The total number of homes sold through the Board’s MLS® system in 2011 was…

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Low Rates Improve Home and Condo Affordability

For an explanation, Canadians can look to the European sovereign-debt crisis, according to the latest Housing Trends and Affordability report by RBC Economics.  The report found the average housing cost of a standard two-storey home was 48.8% of the median pre-tax income, down 0.6% from the previous quarter. “It appears that developments related to the…

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