Celebrities and real estate. New home for Slumdog child star

The makers of the hit movie Slumdog Millionaire have bought a new house for one of the two child stars discovered in Mumbai’s slums.

The purchase of a 23m, one-bedroom apartment for the family of Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, was finalised on Monday, said Nirja Mattoo, who helps oversee a trust set up by the filmmakers to help Azharuddin and his 9- year-old co-star Rubina Ali.

’ “They can move in,” Mattoo said, adding that the trust planned to deliver the keys on Thursday.

Both children lost their homes last month when authorities demolished parts of their slum.

Mattoo said the trust was actively looking for a new home for Rubina.

Ownership of the first apartment, which cost about 2.5-million rupees (50000), will be transferred from the trust to Azharuddin when he turns 18, provided he completes school, Mattoo said.

“He has to complete an education. We are very clear about that,” she said. However, she declined to say what would happen to the property if he did not finish school.

The apartment is located in Santa Cruz West, a suburb of Mumbai just north of the slum where the two children now live.

The government has promised to give both of them new apartments, but the families have resisted, saying the government flats are too far away from their neighbours and school.

Toronto Real Estate Market Sets Records in early May 2009

There are more signs of stabilization in the local real estate market.

Interest rates are at a record low for a five-year, fixed-term mortgage, still the most popular product among homeowners. Some banks are offering rates as low as 3.75%, if the buyer locks in for a full five years. But variable rates, tied to prime, have also continued to drop as the Bank of Canada has lowered rates.

The average house price of a single family home in Toronto has reached record levels. Last year, in the first two weeks of May, right after the April peak, and long before the news of the stock market crash and the world financial crisis, single family homes were worth on average $437,205. Now, that number has climbed to $439,459, which is the highest recorded.

So, if you were waiting for prices to drop in half like they did in some locations in the United States, you’ve probably waited too long.

Prices are rising, not dropping. Vendors with exceptional properties didn’t list them this year. They were going to wait and watch the market. So, this is the time to see the better properties become available. These are the properties that buyers stretch for. These are the ones that vendors insist on the best price. If they get listed over the next six weeks, you’ll see a significant upward push in the price structure.

Why? The answer is simple! First mortgages are at their lowest rates in 50 years.

Here are some comparative figures for Toronto, the 905, and the entire GTA. While the 905 didn’t fare quite as well as Toronto, the performance is still quite outstanding. The first two weeks of May 2009 appear, compared with the first two weeks of May 2008 in brackets:

City of TORONTO (”416″)

Sales 1,864 (1,734)

Average Price $439,459 ($437,205)

Rest of GTA (”905″)

Sales 2,697 (2,688)

Average Price $372,408 ($377,344)

GTA

Sales 4,561 (4,422)

Average Price $399,811 ($400,817)

Oddly enough, and this situation occurs rarely; it is both a good time to buy and a good time to sell.

In the condo market as well, one of the G.T.A’s top sellers, Brad Lamb tells The Sun there’s never been a better time to buy with developers offering many incentives.

Lamb says the condo market survived the worst of the bank crisis last fall, and prices are expected to hold steady for the next year at least.

Toronto real estate. No Bank Failures in Canada

One place where none of the banking drama is taking place is Canada.

Banks in Canada didn’t do the things that blew other banks up.  In the last quarter of 2008, all of Canada’s major banks were profitable, collectively making $2.5 billion during a period when U.S. banks lost more than $26 billion.

In fact, since the financial crisis began, American taxpayers have provided more than $300 billion dollars to more than 450 companies. During that same period, from their government, Canadian banks have not received one penny.

One reason: Take those infamous subprime mortgages given to risky homebuyers. They crippled banks in the U.S., where at peak, 25 percent of loans were subprime. In Canada? Three percent.

Another villain in the financial crisis were toxic mortgage-backed securities – risky loans that were chopped up and resold in countless different ways. Many banks gobbled up the now virtually worthless investments.

Canadian banks were up to their ankles in the toxic muck whereas American banks were over there heads.

One reason why Canada is the only industrialized nation in the world without a single bank failure in the current economic downturn.

Here you can read more about Toronto real estate market and great Toronto mortgages – http://www.torontogreathomes.com/ONTARIO_MORTGAGE/page_929364.html

Alexandre Malkhassiants, Sales Representative and Mortgage Specialist,
Right at Home Realty, Centum Mortgage Decision
Office: (416) 391-3232
Cell: (416) 723-9383
E-mail: amalkhass@rogers.com
Web site: www.torontogreathomes.com
Toronto real estate market blog: http://torontorealestate.wordpress.com/

Toronto real estate. TORONTO GOES GREEN

Toronto real estate.  Toronto city committee wants to make green roofs mandatory on most new buildings.

 Roofs on new buildings with an area of 5,000 square metres or greater to be 30% to 60% covered by vegetation. The bigger the building, the more planted space it would have to have – otherwise fines of up to $100,000 could be levied.

As drafted, the bylaw would cover mid- to high-rise condos, retail space and office towers, but exempt low-rise, large-scale industrial, non-profit housing and public buildings like schools.

Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, who helped bring the city’s first power-generating wind mill to the Exhibition grounds, said he was “disappointed” the first draft of the bylaw was so “tepid.”

Mr. Pantalone asked city staff to come back in a month with a proposal that would include schools, low-rise buildings on “Main Street” and even private residences.

“Either we are the leading city in the world or we’re the ones who looked in the mirror and got scared,” he said.

Stephen Upton, vice-president development planning at building giant Tridel, pointed out that once installed, the rooftop shrubbery has to be left untouched for two years to allow it to take root.

More information is also required about how long the longevity of green roofs and how much should be budgeted in a condo corporation’s building fund for future replacement.

“I think there’s still quite a bit left to be understood, digested and refined,” Mr. Upton said. “Toronto green standards, those are things that shouldn’t be mandated but should be encouraged, like LEED is in the industry.”

But while the developers were balking at the bylaw, environmental groups were urging Toronto to move further and faster. The issue will return to the planning and growth committee for further debate in May.
network.nationalpost.com

If you want to know more about green Toronto, go here – http://www.torontogreathomes.com

Toronto real estate. GIVE YOUR MORTGAGE A SPRING CLEANING

Spring is here! And it just might be a good time to give your mortgage a spring cleaning – it could make a noticeable difference to your finances.

There’s one good thing about a recession:  it forces us to rediscover the virtues of a solid family budget. For some reason, the first budget items to be scrutinized tend to be the little luxuries:  outings, treats… But we shouldn’t forget the item that, for most families, constitutes the number one expense:  the mortgage.

Here are seven tips for managing your mortgage better.

Set the right goal

Not all households have been put in the same position by the current economic climate. For some, the situation is touch and go. Others aren’t on such shaky ground, but still want to be prepared for any eventuality. Unfortunately, giving yourself some short-term breathing room by reducing your mortgage payments also means signing up for a longer repayment period, which entails higher costs in the end. It’s important to be clear about your ability to pay in the short term so you don’t sacrifice your long-term security:  do you really need to reduce your monthly payments?

Reconsider your amortization

If you do need to lower your monthly payments, you can ask your financial institution to lengthen your mortgage amortization period. For instance, if you’ve borrowed $150,000 and your amortization period is 15 years, you can reduce your monthly payments by $300 simply by increasing the amortization to 25 years. Be careful, though! As soon as your financial situation allows, reverse this change:  shorten your amortization period to reduce the long-term cost of your loan.

Amortization:  a balancing act
$150,000 mortgage at 5.75%

Amortization	Monthly payment	Interest cost
30 years	$ 869	$ 162,811
25 years	$ 938	$ 131.259
15 years	$ 1,240	$ 73,232

If you have questions about mortgage, call mortgage agent Alex Malkhassiants at (416) 723-9383

You can find more information here – http://www.torontogreathomes.com/

Toronto real estate. Canada home buying intent up

A growing number of Canadians say they plan to buy a home over the next two years, and see a slide in the real estate market creating more favourable prices, according to a survey by the country’s largest bank.

The Royal Bank of Canada’s annual home ownership survey found 27 percent of Canadians polled intend to purchase a house over the next two years, up from 23 percent a year earlier.

The online poll of 2,026 Canadians conducted by Ipsos Reid between Jan 6-9 also found 65 percent of those surveyed believe it is a buyers market right now.

Of those intending to buy, three in 10 saw favourable housing prices as a driving factor. The survey found 54 percent of Canadians expect housing prices will fall in 2009, up from 31 percent a year ago………………….. 

The RBC survey, which is considered accurate within 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, said 83 percent of respondents remain positive that home ownership is a good investment. This was down from 85 percent a year earlier and 90 percent in 2006…

If you want to know more, go here – http://torontorealestate.wordpress.com/ or here – http://activerain.com/amalkhass

Toronto real estate – http://www.torontogreathomes.com/

Toronto real estate. Canadian Banks Receive Highest Rankings

According to the Global Competitiveness Report, Canadian banks received the highest ranking, 6.8, out of a possible 7.0 (healthy, with sound balance sheets). The lowest ranking of 1 means insolvent and possible government bailout.

Canada’s stock has been rising quietly – the Canadians are known for their modesty and self-restraint – as American financiers and media are astonished to find that their northern neighbors have somehow avoided the subprime lending scandal and the housing market mess.

What’s Canada’s secret? With the exception of oil-rich Alberta, Canada did not have a strong construction surge as the United States did during the boom years. And mortgage interest is not tax deductible in Canada.

Canadian banks are national in scope; the top five banks have branches in all 10 Canadian provinces, making them less susceptible to downturns. They have large numbers of loyal depositors and a more solid base of capital. They are more tightly regulated than their U.S. counterparts, more liquid and less leveraged.

Among the top 10 largest banks in North America, 4 are Canadian banks:

• Royal Bank of Canada,
• Bank of Nova Scotia,
• Bank of Montreal,
• and Toronto Dominion, which bought Commerce Bank last year.

Canadian bank executives don’t have to be excoriated by Parliament before taking a pay cut. The CEOs of Canada’s three-largest banks have all voluntarily cut their own pay in response to the global economic crisis.

Canada has its share of problems – being linked to commodity prices – but financially it’s done a better job than its southern neighbor. While the Bush administration ran up massive deficits year after year, Canadian officials finally pushed through a stimulus package that resulted in the government’s first deficit in a decade!

Right now, the Canadian banks are selling at incredible bargains. With operating margins exceeding 30%, and dividend yields between 6% and 8%, Canadian banks are selling at only around eight times earnings. Bank of Montreal is selling for only six times this year’s expected earnings and is yielding 10%.

During a crisis, the good investments get hit like the bad ones. But when the markets recover, the good bank stocks will skyrocket.

Toronto real estate. FEBRUARY REAL ESTATE UPDATE

Canadian housing starts fell to the lowest since 2001 as work on urban single-family dwellings plunged to the lowest level since 1996.

New home starts fell 11 percent in January to 153,500 units on an annualized basis, the fifth straight decline, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said today, February 9th, from Ottawa. Economists anticipated the pace would slow to 165,000 units, according the median of 20 responses in a Bloomberg survey.

“Canada’s homebuilders are aggressively pulling in their horns on worries of a supply glut in a deteriorating economy,” Derek Holt, an economist at Scotia Capital in Toronto, wrote in a note to clients.

Potential buyers of new homes are being discouraged by job losses in the country’s first recession since 1992, which has also triggered a rising stock of existing homes that they can buy instead. Employers cut a record 129,000 workers in January, Statistics Canada reported Feb. 6.

Work on new single-family homes in cities fell 20 percent to 50,000 units, the lowest since February 1996. Condominiums fell 12 percent to 76,700.

New home construction declined in all five regions of the country in January, led by 30 percent drops in British Columbia and the western prairie provinces, the report said.

“Reduced sales and increased listings in the existing home market have led to reduced spillover demand in the new home market,” Canada Mortgage and Housing’s chief economist, said in the report.

Existing home sales will fall 17 percent this year, the CREA said in a separate report today, blaming waning consumer confidence.

Bankruptcies jumped 47 percent in December from a year earlier as more consumers struggled to pay their bills, the country’s bankruptcy superintendent reported on its Web site.

If you want to know more, go here – http://www.torontogreathomes.com

GTA real estate. GREATER TORONTO AREA HOUSING MARKET UPDATE

As expected, the Canadian housing market has performed quite differently from region to region across the country. The number of units sold has decreased in double digits in some areas while prices dropped slightly in most areas. The most significant price decreases were in Canada’s most expensive city, Vancouver, which has experienced above average price increases for most of the decade. However the Canadian Real Estate market remained relatively stable compared to the market south of the border.
TREB Members reported 2,577 sales in December 2008, compared to the 4,646 recorded during the same month in 2007, and the 4,447 recorded in December 2006, TREB President Maureen O’Neill announced today. “Sales for the whole of 2008 were 74,552, compared to the 93,193 recorded in 2007, and the 83,084 recorded during 2006.”

The average price in December 2008 came in at $361,415, compared to $394,931 last year, and $336,217 in December 2006. For 2008 as a whole, prices averaged $379,347, compared to the $376,236 recorded in 2007, and $351,941 recorded in 2006.

The City of Toronto (416) recorded 1,105 sales in December 2008, compared to 2,302 in December 2007 and 1,827 in December 2006. For all of 2008, there were 29,878 sales, compared to 39,052 in 2007 and 34,404 in 2006.
The average price in the city was $387,482 compared to the $425,842 recorded in December 2007 and the $350,139 recorded in December 2006. For all of 2008 the average price was $410,271. In 2007 the comparable figure was $412,480, and in 2006 $378,776.

The 905 area saw 1,472 sales in December 2008, from 2,344 in December 2007 and 2,620 in December 2006. For all of 2008, there were 44,674 sales in this region, versus 54,141 in 2007 and 48,680 in 2006.
The average price in the 905 area was $341,847 in December 2008, compared to $360,307 in 2007 and $326,509 in 2006. For all of 2008, the average price was $358,665, as compared to $350,092 in 2007 and $332,976 in 2006.

Breaking down the total, 993 sales were reported in TREB’s 28 West districts and the average price was $338,855; 473 sales were reported in the 14 Central districts and the average price was $479,095; 491 sales were reported in the 23 North districts and the average price was $381,975; and 620 sales were reported in TREB’s 21 East districts and the average price was $291,488.

The median price for December 2008 was $305,000, compared to $320,950 in 2007 and $290,000 in 2006. For all of 2008, the Median was $325,000, as opposed to $320,950 in 2007 and $299,000 in 2006.

Toronto real estate. GTA SALES IN DECEMBER

Toronto Real Estate Board Members reported 2,577 sales in December 2008, compared to the 4,646 recorded during the same month in 2007, and the 4,447 recorded in December 2006, TREB President Maureen O’Neill announced today. “Sales for the whole of 2008 were 74,552, compared to the 93,193 recorded in 2007, and the 83,084 recorded during 2006.”

The average price in December of 2008 came in at $361,415, compared to $394,931 in 2007, and $336,217 in December of 2006. For 2008 as a whole, prices averaged $379,347, compared to the $376,236 recorded in 2007, and the $351,941 average recorded in 2006.

The City of Toronto (416) recorded 1,105 sales in December, compared to 2,302 in December 2007 and 1,827 in December of 2006. For all of 2008, there were 29,878 sales, compared to 39,052 in 2007 and 34,404 in 2006.

The average price in the city was $387,482 compared to the $425,842 recorded in December of 2007 and the $350,139 recorded in December 2006. For all of 2008 the average was $410,271. In 2007 the comparable figure was $412,480, and in 2006 $378,776.

The 905 area saw 1,472 sales in December, from 2,344 in December of 2007 and 2,620 in December of 2006. For all of 2008, there were 44,674 sales in this region, versus 54,141 in 2007 and 48,680 in 2006.

The average price in the 905 was $341,847 in December, compared to $360,307 in 2007 and $326,509 in 2006. For all of 2008, the average was $358,665, as compared to $350,092 in 2007 and $332,976 in 2006.

Breaking down the total, 993 sales were reported in TREB’s 28 West districts and averaged $338,855; 473 sales were reported in the 14 Central districts and averaged $479,095; 491 sales were reported in the 23 North districts and averaged $381,975; and 620 sales were reported in TREB’s 21 East districts and averaged $291,488.

Median Price:

The median price for December was $305,000, compared to $320,950 in 2007 and $290,000 in 2006.

The Median for the year as a whole was $325,000, as opposed to $318,200 in 2007 and $299,000 in 2006.