Macdonald Realty

The developer's price of 2 yrs ago - against today's financing. There are several hundred examples of the pre approved purchaser now being unable to qualify, or needing to come up with a substantially larger downpayment, because the bank will only lend on 80% of the current appraised market value. One of many difficulties pre approved buyer's are facing, is the current price of the pre sell c ...

Sean B. Pasternak, Bloomberg  Financial Post Mortgage rates in Canada, which have plunged by almost 50% in the last year, aren't likely to fall further, said Phil Soper, chief executive of Brookfield Real Estate Services Fund."Certainly with the Bank of Canada's target rate set at virtually zero, there's very little room," Mr. Soper said Tuesday at a conference in Toronto on Canada's real est ...

Due to the market condition, many developers are offering great incentives now.  Pls make sure you do the following: 1)understand the disclosure statement that is provided by the developer.  If you do not understand any part of it, spend some money to get legal advice. 2) Add a clause to say "If buyer don't complete the purchase, this deposit is forfeited as liquidated damages as the sole r ...

Surprise jump in U.S. home salesALAN ZIBEL The Associated PressMarch 23, 2009 at 10:44 AM EDTWASHINGTON — Sales of existing homes rose from January to February in an unexpected boost for the slumping U.S housing market as buyers took advantage of deep discounts on foreclosures.The National Association of Realtors said Monday that sales of existing homes grew 5.1 per cent to an annual rate of ...

Federal Budget incl.Tax credit for home reno Great news for home owners. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=08f4db25-cfcb-45fc-b8c4-12094d2ce71a

Make A 5-7% Return On Investment (ROI)January 2009 Why would you buy a revenue property now when you feel the market is not going anywhere fast? Well, how about starting an investment now where you get a 5-7% return per year? When I started in the business, history has told me that when the market peaks then experiences a recession, it takes an average of 7.5 years before the peak property pr ...

How do we start fresh in 2009!   2008 is a year that most of us would like to forget.  From rich to poor, all of us lost money in all forms of investments. In the past, a lot of us would blame our financial advisors or stock brokers for we would have to rely on their expertise and judgement.  With the technology of the internet, we were able to do our own research and we still could n ...

INTRINSIC INVESTMENT VALUE     I just attended a economic seminar sponsored by the real estate board which brought in an analyst who used to work for CMHC. Cameron Muir states that BC's economy is much better than the rest of Canada because our U.S. trade is 45% of our total, compared to 80% in Ontario but the BC consumer confidence is rattled, just like the rest of the world, from all t ...

Excitment is over, what is next?   US Bail Out/Rescue Plan finally passed.  After the unexpected failure on Sept. 29th, the whole world was waiting for this to be passed.  The stock market rallied up before the legislation was passed and then went downward once it was passed.  Unexpected and completely the opposite of what you would think would rationally happen but that's where the ...

Change of Canada mortgage lending policy Canada's lending policy has always been a lot tighter than US especially among all the major banks.  A couple of years ago, a few major banks started not granting mortgages to apartments less than 500 sf or they would approve the lending only depending on which part of the city.  Down payment for those properties are going to be varied based on ...