Artificial interest rates will destroy savers
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Beware the distortions of too-low interest rates
The Buy Side
Beware the distortions of too-low interest rates
TOM BRADLEY | Columnist profile
From Friday’s Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Jun. 23, 2011 6:06PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Jun. 24, 2011 6:33AM EDT
Check out the comments for this interesting article.
We’ve had low interest rates for years, and really low rates for almost three. We’re used to them, and may even be getting complacent. I had more questions and concerns from clients about rising interest rates a year or two ago than I do now.
Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s not a time to be complacent. Quite the opposite. Low rates are causing enormous distortions in the economy and financial markets, and it’s important to understand them, and try to be on the right side of the divide. Continue reading
BlackBerry vs. iPhone
Lainie Filkow, left, and husband Bryan Borzykowski. The couple are both with Rogers, but Bryan ends up paying more for data on his iPhone, than Lainie does for her Blackberry data use.
Like any married couple, my wife and I often agree to disagree. At least, that’s the case when it comes to our mobile phones.
I’m an uncompromising iPhone fan — getting a 3GS changed my life — but my wife is a dyed-in-the-wool BlackBerry user. She swears by the tactile keyboard. Continue reading
Anxiety, as condo sales hit record high
June 21, 2011
Tony Wong
http://www.moneyville.ca/article/1012922–anxiety-as-condo-sales-hit-record-high
A rendering shows the interior of the penthouse condo in the Four Seasons hotel in Yorkville. The unit sold for $28 million.
Are too many condominiums being built in Toronto? Continue reading
A debt disaster by whatever measure you use
Neil Reynolds
June 22, 2011
The U.S. federal government spent $30,000 per household last year, an increase of $5,000 in two years. State and local governments spent $25,000 per household. Total government spending thus reached $55,000 per household – in a country with 114,825,421 households.
To provide this exceptional largesse, the federal government borrowed $12,600 per household. Without this loan, these various levels of governments would have spent only $17,400 per household – or precisely the spending (adjusted for inflation) that federal, state and local governments required four decades ago. Continue reading
City’s history comes alive under Marta’s tutelage
Marta O’Brien, with her cat named Mozart climbing a bookcase in the background, and her husband are happily renting a compact two-storey house in Toronto’s east end. She isn’t bothered by the reaction of people who learn that she doesn’t own property.June 10, 2011
David Hayes
Special to the Star
June 10, 2011
The history of apartment buildings in Toronto is a complicated one, explains Marta O’Brien, an architectural historian with an encyclopedic knowledge of Toronto’s past.
The first building permit for one was issued in 1899, but at the turn of the century many people associated apartment buildings with tenements; they worried about property values and safety. A bylaw was passed in 1912 prohibiting the building of apartments in residential areas, although by the early 1920s they were appearing everywhere. Continue reading
Are students the target of new rental bylaw?
Barbara Hall, chief of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, worries that a new bylaw passed in Waterloo will further reducing the available rental units for students.
May 20, 2011
Jennifer Brown
Special to the Star
http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/realestate/article/994907–are-students-the-target-of-new-rental-bylaw
Landlords who lease their rental properties in residential areas of Waterloo have concerns that a new bylaw requiring them to have a licence is too restrictive for them and their prospective tenants.
On May 9, Waterloo city council approved a rental housing licensing program and bylaw, which will come into effect April 1, 2012. The new bylaw addresses rental housing in low-density areas of the city and attempts to “limit the impact of large rental units on residential neighbourhoods.” Continue reading
Grow-op suspect busted after being spotted in newspaper photo
May 12, 2011
Peter Edwards
Jennifer Wu
http://www.thestar.com/NEWS/GTA/crime/article/990644
In happier times, Sau San (Jennifer) Wu loved getting her picture in the newspaper, posing with a cellphone at her ear and a coy smile on her face in ads for her former Richmond Hill real estate business.
Now, Wu is heading to prison after getting her photo in a newspaper one time too many.
York Regional Police detective Dave Noseworthy spotted her face in the background of a photo in an online Romanian newspaper earlier this year, five years after Wu fled the country — and charges of helping run the largest indoor residential marijuana grow operation in Canadian history. Continue reading
A square deal for city renters
19 May 2011 04:01
http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/local/article/865043–a-square-deal-for-city-renters
A crane on the skyline is a potent sign of Toronto’s seemingly never-ending condo boom. But as prices outpace rents, investors could decide to pull out.
A glut of condominiums in the Toronto market is keeping rents down even as the cost of buying a unit has been rising.
It’s a great recipe for renters, but not so tasty for investors, who buy an estimated 45 to 60 per cent of all new condos in Toronto, according to a study released yesterday by Urbanation Inc.
“Rents are not keeping up with price inflation in any of the major municipalities in the Toronto area,” said Ben Myers, executive vice-president of the market research firm.
“As the price of new condominium projects continues to escalate, the expectation would be that rents in newly registered projects would be higher than projects registered in years prior.”
However, rents have barely budged from the 2007 level of $2.26 per square foot. The average condo leased in the first quarter of 2011 was 800 square feet, with an average rent of $1,686.
“Positive monthly returns for investors are being eroded,” Myers said.
That could spell trouble for the still robust GTA condominium market if investors — buyers who don’t intend to occupy their units — decide to pull out because they can’t get the returns in rent they need to justify their investment.
Why I wouldn’t sell my home myself
May 13, 2011
Mark Weisleder
http://www.moneyville.ca/article/990097–why-i-wouldn-t-sell-my-home-myself?bn=1
Since writing about whether you could create a bidding war without an agent, I have received numerous emails from sellers, real estate agents and companies that provide “for sale by owner” services on the pros and cons of selling by yourself.
Allison Philpot sold her home in Ottawa using a For Sale by Owner marketing service. She listed her home for $419,000, and was able to create a bidding war after her first open house. She received a top bid of $429,000, which she accepted. Continue reading