2 May

New Fraser Valley listings stood-up as spring market fails to show in April

General

Posted by: Kimberly Walker

SURREY, BC – Buyer activity in the Fraser Valley stayed coy throughout April despite a bump in inventory across all three major residential types. The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board processed 1,708 sales of all property types on its Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in April, a decrease of 23.4 per cent compared to the 2,230 […]

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13 Apr

The Flexible Down Payment Program

General

Posted by: Kimberly Walker

One of the toughest challenges for homebuyers is being able to save money at the rate of property price increases. We know many high-income renters would like to be homeowners, but they’re just unaware of how to make the transition and are unable to save fast enough. There are several options which are great for […]

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11 Apr

The Mortgage Insurance Market & Wholesale Lenders

General

Posted by: Kimberly Walker

The Canadian mortgage market used to be very simple. We had the big banks, credit unions, and trust companies. However, almost 20 years ago, the Canadian government made three major changes to the Canadian mortgage industry. First, the government and CMHC put their weight behind Canadian mortgages by guaranteeing an insurance payout to lenders in […]

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10 Apr

Setting Up Your HELOC

General

Posted by: Kimberly Walker

A HELOC, or, Home Equity Line of Credit, can be one of the greatest gifts you give yourself. Borrowing money against your home as you accumulate equity through a shrinking mortgage or an increasing property value- something almost many people in the Vancouver and Toronto markets can relate to. With all this increasing value and […]

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6 Apr

Unique Homes Have Special Problems

General

Posted by: Kimberly Walker

Recently one of the former members of the boy band New Kids on the Block expressed an interest in buying this lighthouse off the coast of Virginia in the U.S. Unique homes can be a lot of fun to own and to live in. However, there are some things you should be aware of before […]

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6 Apr

Housing affordability improves for first time in 2 years

General

Posted by: Kimberly Walker

There was an improvement in Canada’s housing affordability measure at the end of 2017. It was the first time in two years that RBC Economics Research’s Housing Trends and Affordability Report has shown a decrease in its aggregate measure, albeit just 0.2 percentage points nationally to 48.3%. As the measure is shown as the share […]

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