Calgary Real Estate Blog

New Real Estate Fees for 2015 As reported by the Calgary Herald, last week’s provincial budget included some pretty hefty hikes to land title and mortgage registration fees, which are paid by the buyer at the time of a transaction’s closing. These fees are calculated, in part, as a percentage of a home’s selling price, and have remained stable since 2011.

After July 1, 2015, buyers will pay 0.12 percent of their new home’s purchase price in mortgage and land title registration fees, up from 0.02 percent, in addition to a flat fee of $75 (increased from $50). What that means to the average homebuyer is that instead of paying $290 (based on a $500,000 home with a 20 percent down payment), they’ll now be forking over $1,230.

User and registration fees went up virtually across the board in this latest budget, and so it’s not a huge surprise that these particular ones did too. Alberta’s land transfer and mortgage registration fees were among the lowest in the country, not to mention our being blessed with no land transfer taxes, and so its unlikely this will have any effect on Calgary’s real estate market other than inspiring some grumbles as buyers write cheques for closing costs. When Ralph Klein slashed these fees from 0.1 percent to 0.02 percent, interest rates were higher and the market slower than we currently enjoy; in our present economic climate, this increase is a fairly obvious move.

It is always important to consider closing costs when determining how much house you can afford. Remember, while the mortgage will likely be paid off over 25-plus years, closing costs are due right away and add up to several thousand dollars. Curious about what closing costs you may be looking at when you purchase? Check out our Buyer’s Guide, then contact me!

At a time when there is a lot of fear around how provincial budget cuts will affect education spending, here’s some good news: the Calgary Board of Education has been advised that the previously announced starter schools in West Springs/Cougar Ridge, Cranston, Saddle Ridge, and Aspen Woods will instead have complete build outs. What this means is that instead of building in phases, where each of these buildings would accommodate only 250 students in the first phase, the schools will be built in full.

As a West Springs resident who was subject to a lottery to get his son into the kindergarten that’s five minutes’ walk away, I’m obviously thrilled with this news.

Construction is planned to begin this summer, and there is an open house for residents affected by this announcement on February 25 at 6:30 pm, at the Education Centre downtown (1221-8 Street SW). For more information, click here. And I’m happy to discuss my experiences entering the school system this year, just contact me!

Holey moley, were those record-breaking weekend temperatures pretty great, or what? I hope you managed to get some outdoor time with your family to soak up this rather stellar chinook.

Don’t let the disappearing snow fool you, though: we’re still in the dead of winter, and have more -30 days ahead of us. With that in mind, it’s not a bad idea to ensure all this runoff isn’t going to damage your home when the party’s over: check for pools of standing water near your foundation, and take this opportunity to repair and clean out your downspouts. If for some reason you decide to turn the water back on for your outdoor hoses, don’t forget to shut it back off and drain the hoses again before anything bursts. If your flower beds have perennials, like strawberry plants and the like in them, ensure they don’t get too dry after the snow cover disappears – otherwise they might not come back.

And for those of you not subscribing to Edmonton’s push to keep Christmas lights up through February to make winter more bearable, now’s a good time to box up those LEDs too.

Otherwise, get out there while the sun is shining and get some colour on your pasty self!

Chinooks are also a great time to house shop – to chat about your options, give us a call!

As oil prices drop due to increased production and reduced global demand (I filled up for 98.9 at Costco this week), I’ve heard rumblings from people fearful of property values plummeting along with the price of crude. It’s not a foolish worry: Calgary’s market fluctuations have often risen and fallen along with our province’s energy economy, as one would logically expect. Not this time, however, at least, not yet.

The Globe and Mail ran an excellent breakdown in early October describing Calgary’s continually strong market growth, as the median house price rose to nearly $490,000 in September, up $10,000 from the month previous. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute, Calgary and Edmonton are the top markets in Canada for real estate investors. The survey quoted by the Herald notes the increasing numbers of young adults moving to Alberta for employment are helping drive condo sales as they enter the market looking for urban dwellings; as they age, their housing needs will progress, too, meaning we will likely see a very healthy market for a decade or more.

While increased prices aren’t necessarily music to the ears of those looking to buy their first property, they speak to the stability and robustness of the city’s market, making investment in Calgary real estate a sound decision in many cases (although your personal mileage may vary – I’m not offering personal financial advice here). Thinking of jumping in? Check out my Buyers Guide, then contact me to set the wheels in motion.

In the news a few days ago was the story of Derek Johnson, a man who allegedly posed as a Realtor, under an assumed name, to illegally obtain the title of a home in foreclosure. It reportedly cost the victim several thousand dollars, over the course of more than half a year, to reclaim his home’s title. Johnson has been fined by the Real Estate Council of Alberta $50,000 for posing as a Realtor; this is not the first time Johnson has been in trouble with the Council.

This story serves as a reminder to anyone seeking to engage in a real estate transaction that the licence status of any real estate professional or brokerage may be easily verified through the Real Estate Council of Alberta’s website. Using the public search, you can instantly confirm that the professional with whom you intend to do business is indeed in good standing with the RECA.

Realtors need to be licenced by RECA, and to uphold the organization’s standards of conduct to maintain that licence.

There’s a plethora of other useful information on the site as well, so I encourage you to take a few minutes to surf through it if you are considering entering the market as either a buyer or seller.

On a side note, the Calgary Home + Design Show is coming September 18-21, and I have a promo code that’ll save $5 off your tickets if you buy before August 26: click here, and enter the code SAVEFIVE.

Despite sensational headlines and the occasional, truly shocking and tragic violent crime (of which there have been two too many in recent months), it bears a reminder that Calgary is a remarkably safe place in which to live. Our crime rate, along with the rest of the country, has been on a downward slope over the past 40-plus years, and last year our fine city was ranked 25th out of 33 cities in terms of crime rate (Toronto had the lowest number of crimes-per-100,000 people, while Kelowna, BC had the highest).

Surely there are a multitude of factors contributing to our safe streets. Effective policing, especially on the prevention side, our mayor’s efforts to build a greater sense of community through things like Neighbour Day, the high rate of employment and relatively good wages available, even our cliched-but-true notion of cowboy hospitality. Are there some neighbourhoods that are rougher than others? Sure there are, as there would be in any city. But they’re all pretty safe, especially compared to pretty much anywhere south of the border.

As we grieve, en mass as a city, for Nathan O’Brien and his grandparents, along with the five university students murdered at a party in April, it’s important to maintain perspective with regard to how violent – or not violent, as the case may be – Calgary is as a whole. There will always be senseless crimes in the world, but there will also be inspiring feats of generosity and caring, and in Calgary the latter greatly outnumbers the former.

As part of the efforts to commemorate 2013’s epic flood, and the epic outpouring of community spirit and fellowship that followed, Mayor Nenshi has dubbed June 21 as Neighbour Day, named, according to the city’s official website,”in honour of the overwhelming community spirit that rose against the waters,” which is a pretty good line.

Some in my community, and many others I’d imagine, are planning a block party, and the city is waiving the $25 permit fees for such events on this special day. There are tools and templates, and other information available at the city’s site. If you plan on hosting a party, you’d better get cracking.

To keep up-to-date on Neighbour Day events, follow the official Facebook event page and the hashtag #yycNeighbourDay on Instagram and Twitter.

So our lame spring this year had another side effect besides delaying our kids’ soccer season by a couple weeks: the unusually lengthy period Calgary lawns were snow-covered this year created an ideal habitat for vole infestation. Voles – which look like little round, fat mice – love to chew on the roots of grass and trees in Calgary suburbs under the cover of snow, and some residents have been finding their lawns destroyed by telltale s-shaped tracks. Every year some suburban yards and parks fall victim to hungry voles, but this has been a banner season for the little suckers.

According to pest control experts, periodic chinooks usually melt the snow and disrupt the habitat, keeping populations under control, but since the snow stuck around for months at a time this past winter, the voles partied like it was 1999. Or, you know, however voles party.

The options for dealing with a vole infestation are varied: put out traps, use poison in the holes, get some cats. Nothing’s without consequences, though, especially when you have other pets or children using the yard, so your best bet is to consult with a pest control professional. Whatever you do, don’t start seeding your lawn before taking care of the vole problem: apparently voles really like grass seed.

To prevent the little critters from visiting your yard next winter, put commercially-available tree guards around the base of your trees, extending beneath the soll, and pick up any unharvested food sources from your garden. Use only rodent-proof bird seed feeders, and if you plan on putting mulch over strawberry plants or other annuals, wait until after the ground freezes.  Then keep your fingers crossed for a winter with more chinooks and less snow.

Have you or your neighbours had vole problems this year or in the past? Comment below.

As of May 1, CMHC – the Crown Corporation that insures homes purchased with less than a 20 percent down payment – will be raising its rates; a chart breaking down the new premiums is available here. This is a not-particularly surprising move, as the rising average home prices in Canada are increasing CMHC’s exposure to risk, which is not something an insurer likes to see happen.

And now a new announcement: self-employed workers without a means for third-party validation of their income will no longer be eligible for CMHC coverage.

While some first-time homebuyers, the group traditionally unable to come up with a 20 percent down-payment, may be discouraged by this news, it’s not at all a bad thing for the real estate market; indeed, it’s a step to help things stay healthy. As interest rates look to remain low for at least the next couple of years, it can be tempting for people to over-extend themselves financially with the hope that their property’s equity will grow fast enough to make the stretch worthwhile. CMHC’s job is to make sure mortgage lenders don’t end up on the hook for a bunch of homes their owners couldn’t actually afford, and it doesn’t have an endless pool of cash from which to draw to do this. Tightening up the rules a bit can help gently nudge potential homebuyers toward gaining a little more financial security prior to signing on the dotted line, which means a healthier market all around. Foreclosures aren’t good for anyone, and neither is CMHC having to drastically increase its premiums to cover a large amount of losses. Mild corrections like this one are just a way to keep people living relatively within their means, and I’m for it.

Just over a year ago I started giving clients the keychain pictured above, which has a “quarter” and a “loonie” that can be used in place of real currency in grocery shopping carts.  They have been quite the hit!  Yesterday I got a call from the Houston Airport to tell me that a set of keys was found there with my keychain on it.

Please give me a call or email if you think these lost keys may be yours!