This And That

New immigrants driving housing demand, Scotia Economics reports - "Canadian immigrants are narrowing the homeownership gap with their Canadian-born counterparts, according to the latest real estate trends report released Thursday by Scotia Economics.

The report said of the more than one million immigrants that came to Canada between 2001 and 2006, 69% settled in the metropolitan regions of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. A growing proportion, however, settled in smaller areas, including Calgary, Ottawa, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Hamilton and Kitchener. Less than 3% chose to live in a rural area."

As immigration increases in all cities demand for rental housing and first homes will increase.

Home ownership getting more affordable: RBC - “Declining costs of home ownership during the last year were driven by significant cuts in mortgage rates along with the federal government taking an active role in supporting the mortgage securities market,” RBC said. “In the first quarter, monthly payments on a typical detached bungalow in Canada had decreased by close to 17% from a year earlier.”

“The average cost of maintaining a detached bungalow in Vancouver was 62.6% of household income during the first quarter, while in Toronto it was 45.9%, RBC said. Ottawa affordability was 39.1%, Montreal 36.5%, Calgary 35.1%, and Edmonton 34%.”

This works for investors both ways, what we lose in rental we gain in sales of rental properties. Even though vacancy rates decrease there are many ways to entice renters to your property i.e. rent-to-own.

Brakes put on rail line No money for Edmonton-Calgary link, gov't says – “A high-speed train whizzing commuters between Edmonton and Calgary in less than an hour could produce an economic benefit of up to $33.4 billion, says a new study -- but provincial Tory politicians aren't getting on board the idea right now.

The report, released yesterday by the Alberta government, envisions a downtown-to-downtown train -- costing between $3 billion and $20 billion -- with stops in Red Deer, north Calgary and south Edmonton.

A spokesman for the premier's office said a private-public partnership model discussed in the study suggests such a rail link could be built with private funds while the province could be called upon to contribute land for the line.”

It may be on hold for now but imagine what property values in Red Deer will be when the train is finally built. A savvy investor with an incredible telescopic view would buy revenue property there.