Bosley Real Estate and a team of local realtors recently opened its newest office in St. Catharines, Ontario (and celebrated with a launch party on April 5).

With over a decade of presence in Niagara, the brokerage reports the expansion “perfectly aligns with our company’s strategic vision.”

Bosley is led by Christan Bosley, president and broker of record, who says, “When establishing our newest St. Catharines location, it was important to assemble a team of local realtors who not only embody our brand but also uphold a commitment to excellence. We are thrilled to welcome aboard a stellar group of 10 realtors who share our values.”

Bosley shares the initial group of realtors brings extensive experience and a wide range of skills that have created a dynamic environment. “While they are all working autonomously, there is a remarkable spirit of collaboration and camaraderie that really makes it a special place to be.”

 

Last month, MLS listings in Metro Vancouver were up 42 per cent year-over-year to over 12,000, Greater Vancouver Realtors (GVR) reports. The region hasn’t seen levels like this since the summer of 2020. 

Sales in April reached 2,831, which was 3.3 per cent higher than the same time the year prior and 12.2 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average.

“It’s a feat to see inventory finally climb above 12,000. Many were predicting higher inventory levels would materialize quickly when the Bank of Canada began its aggressive rate hikes, but we’re only seeing a steady climb in inventory in the more recent data,” Andrew Lis, GVR’s director of economics and data analytics notes.

“The surprise for many market watchers has been the continued strength of demand along with the fact few homeowners have been forced to sell in the face of the highest borrowing costs experienced in over a decade.” 

 

Number of listings

 

7,092 detached, attached and apartment properties were newly listed for sale in April, a 64.7 per cent increase compared to the 4,307 properties listed the April before and 25.8 per cent above the 10-year seasonal average.

At the same time, 12,491 total properties were listed for sale, a 42.1 per cent increase compared to April 2023 and 16.7 per cent above the 10-year seasonal average.

 

Prices climbing except for apartments

 

Sales-to-active listings for all property types last month was 23.5 per cent, and the benchmark price for all Metro Vancouver properties is $1,205,800, a 2.8 per cent increase from April 2023 and 0.8 per cent more than March 2024. 

“Another surprising story in the April data is the fact prices continue climbing across most segments with recent increases typically in the range of one to two per cent month-over-month,” Lis says.

“The one segment that didn’t see an uptick in prices in April was apartments, which saw a 0.1 per cent decline month-over-month. This moderation is likely due to a confluence of factors impacting this more affordability-sensitive segment of the market, particularly the impact of higher mortgage rates and the recent boost to inventory levels, tempering competition somewhat.” 

 

Sales and prices by home type

 

Detached home sales reached 814, 0.7 per cent higher than April 2023. The benchmark price of a detached home is $2,040,000 — 6.3 per cent more than from April 2023 and 1.6 per cent higher than March 2024. 

Apartment home sales reached 1,416, 0.2 per cent higher than April 2023. The benchmark price of an apartment home is $776,500 — 3.2 per cent more than April 2023 and 0.1 per cent higher than March 2024. 

Attached home sales reached 580, 16 per cent higher than April 2023. The benchmark price of a townhouse is $1,127,200 — 4.3 per cent more than April 2023 and 1.3 per cent higher than March 2024.

 

Read the full release here.

 

Despite high interest rates, Canadians are taking advantage of buyer’s markets across Canada that are showing up for the first time since the pandemic, a Zolo survey of 800 homeowners who bought in 2023 found.

Much of the trends were a result of higher interest rates and the reduced buying power that was created. Therefore, homebuyers looked for ways to make their overall costs as low as possible.

 

The trends: Mortgage shopping, enlisting family, co-purchasing

 

People are shopping for the best rates, boosting down payments with the help of family (68 per cent) or pooling resources to co-purchase with friends or relatives (35 per cent, compared to 38 per cent who bought as a romantic couple).

Other findings included 34 per cent of buyers shopping for a mortgage lender (compared to 26 per cent in 2022). 38 per cent of buyers use a mortgage broker, which helps them secure the lowest possible interest rate.

Saving even a few tenths of a percentage on a mortgage rate can lead to a more affordable monthly payment. The report notes that mortgage expert and author Angela Calla agrees: “Mortgage professionals are dedicated to providing unbiased advice and empowering clients with a range of options tailored to their individual needs and financial goals.”

 

Home inspections on the rise

 

As well, 41 per cent of homebuyers used a home inspector, a prudent move to understand the ins and outs of a prospective purchase. In fact, buyers are more frequently getting home inspections compared to 2022 (which only saw 36 per cent using a home inspector).

The report notes this uptick in popularity is likely due to many Canadian markets moving into buyer’s territory, giving buyers more leverage to add conditions like home inspections to an accepted offer.

“It is definitely a result of a more balanced market,” Daniel Foch, real estate expert and host of the Canadian Real Estate Investor podcast, adds to the report. “Less competition means buyers can negotiate more favourable terms on their offers, and home inspections are among those favourable terms.”

 

Read the full report here.

 

Last Tuesday, the Amalgamation Task Force (ATF) for the Cornerstone Association of Realtors (Cornerstone) announced the election of Julie Sergi as inaugural chair of its 2024/2025 board of directors. Sergi will begin her role on July 1, 2024.

With 9,000 members, Cornerstone is the second-largest real estate association in Ontario and includes realtors from the associations of Hamilton-Burlington, Mississauga, Simcoe and Waterloo regions.

Sergi, a broker with Royal LePage Burloak Real Estate Services, has been a member of the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) for 19 years, first elected to its board of directors in 2018 and re-elected for two more terms before being elected president-elect in 2023.

The ATF will elect a chair-elect at its next meeting.

 

‘Our goal is to be a transformative force in the real estate sector, surpassing the sum of our individual parts’

 

“I am thrilled and honoured to have been elected as the chair of the Cornerstone Association of Realtors,” says Sergi. “Our goal is to be a transformative force in the real estate sector, surpassing the sum of our individual parts. The local realtor is our north star, and community will be everything for us. This is just the beginning of our exciting journey, and we can’t wait to evolve and grow with our members as we build a brighter future for realtors together.”

 

Collaboration with ITSO

 

Cornerstone is collaborating with Information Technology Systems Ontario (ITSO) to provide enhanced MLS services and professional standards to its members. The new organization believes that all Ontario realtors must have access to all Ontario MLS information to fulfill their fiduciary duty of care to their clients.

Cornerstone says it welcomes data share agreements with any Ontario real estate board/association or listing platform and is committed to working collaboratively to deploy essential protections and security.

 

Photo source: rlpburloak.ca

 

With the spring market blossoming and interest rates stabilizing, opportunity for first-time homebuyers continues to grow. While purchasing a home can be an exciting time for a client, navigating the complexities of the market and homeownership is often overwhelming. The role you play as a trusted advisor is crucial, especially for those entering the market for the first time.

Understanding how a property is assessed is one way prospective (and current) homeowners can make informed decisions on purchasing or selling a home. Here are three things to know about residential assessed values to help inform your conversations with clients.

 

1. Why values matter 

 

For many Ontarians, the place they call home is more than just a dwelling. It’s an investment, a cornerstone of financial stability and often their single largest asset. It’s also where they make memories with family and friends and connect with their community.

Knowing the assessed value of a home is an important detail to help ensure a first-time buyer is making an informed decision. The assessment data available through MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) offers insights into the local real estate market and can show how the home being purchased compares to others in the neighbourhood.

It can enhance decision-making efficiency and accessibility for real estate transactions and portfolio management. All realtors in Ontario have access to this assessment data along with other insights through propertyline.ca. This online platform allows users to access real-time property information for more than five million properties in Ontario and more than 10 million properties Canada-wide, making it easy to find complete profiles on a property, estimates of current real-time market values, maps and imagery that might be helpful for decision making. 

Understanding value can also help buyers anticipate and budget for tax obligations since property taxes are calculated based on assessed home values, at a tax rate based on what the municipality determines is needed to build and run a thriving community.

 

2. How residential properties are assessed in Ontario

 

There are more than 200 factors considered by MPAC when assessing the value of a property. The five key elements your clients should be aware of are: 

Location. The neighborhood where a home is situated significantly influences its market value. The desirability of the area often plays a crucial role in determining how much a buyer is willing to pay.
Lot size. The area of a property’s lot is calculated by multiplying the frontage by the depth.
Total square footage of living area. The exterior of the home is measured to determine the total area of the building. This measurement excludes areas like the basement, deck, porch or garage.
Building age. Property value is adjusted to reflect renovations or additions, considering the actual condition of the house rather than its original construction year.
Construction quality. The type of building materials used and the quality of finishes also play a role in determining a property’s assessed value.

 

3. The difference between property assessments and property taxes

 

First-time home ownership comes with unique experiences, like navigating property assessment and taxes for the first time.  Property assessments are available to both homeowners and local governments. Municipalities use these assessments to calculate property taxes. 

When it comes to property taxes, each of Ontario’s 444 municipalities decides how much money is needed to build and operate thriving communities – for example, building a new recreation centre and indoor skating rink, maintaining the scenic trail that runs through the neighbourhood and funding essential fire and ambulance services. The municipality then determines the municipal tax rate and collects property taxes to pay for the municipal services.

 

By helping your clients navigate their home purchasing journey and understand the real-time information available, they’ll develop a deeper understanding of how Ontario’s 5.6 million properties are assessed. This will help you strengthen those business relationships. 

To access resources to inform your conversations, check out our Realtor Training on topics such as how data is collected, the factors affecting real property value and how to correctly calculate property taxes. The First-time Homeowner’s Hub has also been developed to help your clients unpack property assessment, taxes and other commonly asked questions.

 

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) has launched a case against two Ontario realtors, and two additional (unknown) defendants.

Court documents provided to REM state that the defendants — Sandra Maher and Penny Dutkowski, who are not TRREB members, along with two unknown individuals — used TRREB’s confidential or proprietary information to communicate with TRREB members. This includes via websites like nomandatoryorwp.ca and change.org/p/say-no-to-mandatory-realtor-benefits-orwp.

 

TRREB’s claim

 

TRREB’s Statement of Claim says, “All of the Defendants used TRREB content without authorization, including links to TRREB’s proprietary and confidential material.”

The claim goes into specifics of this, including that defendants “opposed ORWP and engaged in efforts to stop the implementation of ORWP applying to all Ontario realtors. The Defendants, and others, created a Meta Facebook page called “OROMOO” … stated to be an acronym for: Ontario Realtors Opposed to Mandatory OREA ORWP.

However, rather than the Meta Facebook page being directed at OREA, it was directed at TRREB, its officers, directors, members and employees. The OROMOO Meta Facebook page became a forum for libelous, slanderous and defamatory posts about TRREB, its officers, directors, employees and suppliers.”

Among other things, TRREB is claiming “$1 million for civil conspiracy, wrongful interference with economic relations, tortious interference and wrongful interference with contractual relations,” and, “In relation to any Defendants who are former TRREB members, damages in the amount of $1 million for breach of contract, and breaches of their membership obligations.”

About the case, John DiMichele, TRREB CEO, says, “Out of respect for the legal process, we will not be commenting considering that the matter is before the courts.”

 

Dutkowski and Maher’s defense

 

Dutkowski and Maher’s Statement of Defence states they “deny each and every allegation in the Statement of Claim, unless expressly admitted herein, and put the Plaintiff to the strict proof thereof.”

It explains that TRREB is a trade association operating on democratic principles that represents more than 70,000 real estate agents and brokers practicing in the GTA and that it’s also a constituent board of OREA, a professional association that represents real estate brokers and salespeople across Ontario.

“OREA is also a democratic institution that represents the interests of its members … This lawsuit is about that democratic process. TRREB takes issue with the fact that the Defendants sought to influence OREA policy in a manner that the TRREB Board of Directors did not like.

Specifically, the Defendants Penny Dutkowski and Sandra Maher – two long-time realtors and senior members of the profession – opposed the introduction of a mandatory health benefits plan that they felt would harm them and other more senior members of the profession (and in particular senior citizens).

TRREB now brings this lawsuit to silence dissent and to intimidate the Defendants and other realtors in Ontario. In reality, this claim is a political dispute disguised as a tort claim and bears all the hallmarks of strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPP). It should be summarily dismissed.”

 

Statement from defendants’ lawyers

 

Dutkowski and Maher are being represented by lawyers Robert Stellick and Simon Bieber of Adair Goldblatt Bieber LLP in Toronto. They made the following statement on behalf of their clients:

“As the Statement of Claim makes clear, our clients have been sued by TRREB for their efforts to overturn the OWRP. The specific claims being made against them are set out in the Statement of Claim.

As the Statement of Defence makes clear, it is our view that this lawsuit has no merit and has been brought to silence and intimidate our clients and other realtors in Ontario. We intend to bring an ‘anti-SLAPP’ motion to seek to have the claim summarily dismissed.”

 

What is a SLAPP suit?

 

A SLAPP suit (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) is defined by the Toronto Metropolitan University’s Centre for Free Expression as follows:

“SLAPPs are lawsuits brought by individuals, corporations or others to intimidate and silence critics by forcing them into legal battles that would be extremely costly and time-consuming to fight. The goal was not to obtain justice; it was to exhaust, defeat and intimidate their critics into being silent.

A typical example is publishers, newspapers or media outlets being sued to stop publications which expose corporate or political wrongdoing. Similar tactics are used to mute the voices of community activists and researchers who are exposing harms from development projects or toxic chemicals or corporate malpractice.”

 

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