Selling your current home and moving into a new one can be stressful enough, let alone worrying about your current mortgage and whether you’re able to carry it over to your new home. Porting enables you to move to another property without having to lose your existing interest rate, mortgage balance and term. And, better yet, the ability to port also saves you money by avoiding early discharge penalties. It’s important to note, however, that not all mortgages are portable. When it ... Full Article...

On March 2, 2010, the Bank of Canada confirmed that it would not be raising the Prime Rate.  Good news for all of us!  Those of us on a variable rate mortgages... its time to think about locking in!  And how about the Olympics?  It was probably the first time in my life I actually watched a bit every day!  I'm VERY proud of our Canadian athletes.  Good job you guys!

Let's take a break from real estate issues for a day and talk about relief money going to Haiti.  It has recently been published that Charitable groups such as WORLD VISION CANADA and INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT & RELIEF FOUNDATION take anywhere from 8.5% to 10% of all donations and use it towards administration.  This means SALARIES.   So if these organizations recently received something in the area of $10 Million, then 1 million went to salaries and administration?  Just in January 2010 alone? ... Full Article...

The City of Calgary Property Assessments are out!  What has happened to your property value?  Yep, its dropped.  Keep in mind that this assessment covers the period from July 2008 to July 2009.  The good news is there was some moderate growth in the last two quarters of 2009 so many of your assessments will once again be inaccurate!  For example, I've evaluated a house in Rocky Ridge at $400,000 whereas the new property assessment indcates $322,000.  If course not all the assessments throughout ... Full Article...

From the Desk of Dory Cameron… What’s the market doing now? Pretty much the same as it has done the last 3 months… those houses that are PRICED COMPETITIVELY are selling nicely and at about 98% of list price! We are still seeing some overpriced homes and even if those overpriced homes do get offers on them, the deals are not firming up because the bank appraisers are not appraising them at those higher prices. So everyone needs to be aware not to overprice their homes. Even ... Full Article...

OK, so summer is finally here! Stampede is over, hot weather is here and there’s long lines of campers heading off to vacation sites every Friday! But what’s the market been doing? Pretty darn good! While we are not seeing huge jumps in list prices, houses are nicely selling! Some areas, of course, faster than others but overall the market is healthy! Good news from the Bank of Canada…. Looks like the low interest rates are here to stay for quite a while now! Also, has an ... Full Article...

Calgary Home Sales Increase for Sixth Consecutive Month Calgary real estate shifts to a balanced market Calgary, July 2, 2009 – The number of single family homes and condos sold in June in Calgary metro are both up from the same time a year ago. MLS® sales activity of single family Calgary metro homes was 1,837 in the month of June 2009, showing an increase of 16 per cent from 1,584 sales in May 2009, according to figures released by the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB®). This is the si ... Full Article...

Time is right for first-time homebuyers, housing experts say THE CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO - Panelists at a BMO real estate conference say there is no doubt that now is a great time for first-time homebuyers. President and CEO of Brookfield Real Estate Services (TSX:BRE.UN)Phil Soper says affordability in many parts of the country is improving for the first time in a long time. He says the housing market has shifted from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market, which is good news for som ... Full Article...

Direct from the Desk of Dory Cameron…. an update for May 19, 2009. Over the last year, I have secretly begged the Bank of Canada to lower their rate. I have also secretly hoped that Kuwait oilfields would erupt in a sea of fire. I have prayed that people from all over the world would flock to Calgary as the best and most stable place on earth to live. None of this happened. Still, we desperately needed something to reduce the 8,000 listing that we’ve seen over the last year. The m ... Full Article...

Stability Returning To Real Estate - Confidence Seen Helping Calgary Resale Market Calgary's resale housing market is seeing an uptick in activity as consumer confidence increases and we can expect a slow, steady return to stability over the coming months, says the president of Coldwell Banker Canada. The local resale housing market has slowed compared with last year because of the current economic conditions and the high inventory of new homes built during the past few years of the boom, sai ... Full Article...

April Market The average price of a single family Calgary home in April 2009 has increased by 1% to $426,311 from March 2009. But we are showing a decrease of 10% from April 2008 when the average price was $474,564. A year over year decrease of $48,253. We are seeing single family home prices stabilize as we move back to a more balanced market. The average price of a Calgary condominium in April 2009 was $277,056 a 2% decrease from March 2009, and a decrease of 11% from April 2008 when the av ... Full Article...

All of us are nervous about the market these days. We’ve all had our RRSP’s take a dive, our house values have decreased, gas prices have suddenly taken a plunge… and we’ve been nervous for good reason!!! Is this a good time to buy? You bet!!!!! But should you buy a condo or a house? OK, condos are cheaper but hear me out! For 2009 we can expect housing prices to drop another 3% and condo prices to continue their decline at a 5% drop this year. What does that show us? ... Full Article...

Today marks the first day of the new website. The new site offers a wealth of fresh industry information that's constantly being updated. Have a great time checking it out!