ight PropertyNews
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
An Income Tax Deduction for Your 1st Home Purchase?
Did you know that you could be saving up to $750 in income tax if you recently bought your first home? Many have forgotten about the Federal program that was introduced under Canada’s Economic Action Plan Budget 2009. The Home Buyers’ Tax Credit (HBTC) is a non-refundable tax credit based on the amount of $5,000 that you claim in your personal income tax return on line 369. You would claim this amount in the year you completed on your home. So if you bought your first home last year, you could have up to a $750 surprise bonus this April! For more details about this program, please click here: HBTC--Arthur Ng
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Housing Affordability in Greater Vancouver
Many reports suggest that we have the most expensive real estate in the world. How then do the residents cope? The studies generally compare the ratios of average or median family income with the ability to finance a detached home. With the average price over CDN $1 million, many cannot afford to buy a house, but they do have other options.
Family dynamics have changed over the last 20 years. Couples are getting married later in life, having less children, and needing less space. While a detached house may be desirable, a townhouse or an apartment may be more practical where prices are less and the upkeep of the exterior and common areas is maintained by monthly fees. In fact, according to the REBGV MLS® statistics, more than 50% of all...
Friday, January 27, 2012
Sitting on the Fence
“I’m going to wait until prices drop.” “I want to save enough for a large down payment.”
“The prices are too high.”
“A better house might come up.”
“My friends/media told me not to buy.”
We hear these comments on a regular basis. I will say that the right time to buy is when the conditions work for you regardless of the market. If you can afford the mortgage and the property is in the right location and meets most of your needs, why wait? What happens if the prices don’t come down? If the prices do come down, would you and the others sitting on fence jump in at the same time to compete for the same property? When you find the near perfect house but wait to see if another better one comes up and doesn’t, and meanwhile the house that you...
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
2012 BC Property Assessments
“My property assessments are up over 15%! Does this mean that my house is worth more now?”
As Real Estate agents we get asked this question all the time, in fact I remember getting asked this question 30 years ago too! Logically homeowners and buyers look at property assessments as some sort of guide to determine house values; unfortunately this method of evaluation is flawed. For example, most properties that are assessed by the BC Assessment Authority are never even inspected, meaning no one enters the home to see its physical condition, properties are mostly viewed from the outside or aerial mapping and assessed based on land size/location and age of the dwelling (recent building permits may trigger some further investigations...
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Coldwell Banker Innovative Real Estate Marketing Methods
Coldwell Banker continues to lead the way with innovative Real Estate marketing methods, the latest way to use social media and Facebook to promote listing between agents is demonstrated in the cool video link below. The 2nd Annual Generation Blue Coldwell Banker International Conference is coming up in late February and focuses on the internet and specifically social media as the best way to market Real Estate today. Please take a look at this video and see what the younger generation of realtors and buyers are looking for when searching for properties!
--Paul Prade
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