GTA Mortgage Pros Newsletter – June 2016

Welcome to our June 2016 GTA Mortgage Pros monthly newsletter.  This month we are going to focus on 3 key topics

1.  Tax Time!
2.  Foreign Investment In The Canadian Housing Market
3.  Economic And Housing Market Update

Hold On – Wait A Minute!

Tax time in June – surely not??

Well for home-owners in the GTA, June 2016 is a very important tax time – everyone is being issued with an updated MPAC (Property Tax) assessment for their home.

So let’s start there…

June 2016 – An Unusual Tax Time

As we noted above, June 2016 is when you receive your revised property tax (MPAC) assessment.  This is very important as it only happens once every four years.

Your new assessment – which is as of 1^st January 2016 – will set your property taxes for 2017-2020.

This is, of course, just the MPAC assessed value.

If you want to dispute the value – or if this has got you interested in selling your home and you want a more realistic valuation, then I suggest you get in touch with a top GTA Realtor through our sister site at: http://www.GTARealEstatePros.ca

Foreign Investment In The Canadian Housing Market

Market conditions in China and the currency devaluation have resulted in a recent surge in money leaving the country.  A lot of it is landing in North America – boosting housing markets across Canada and the U.S.

The Chinese Government is ramping up efforts to stop this – rules already exist but there are ways around them.  So whether or not this continues remains to be seen – with analysts arguing either way.

This has, of course, contributed to growing house prices in the GTA and raises questions about its impact on housing affordability for local residents.

So far, despite media and industry pressures, the Government hasn’t taken any definitive steps.  But we will keep you posted if anything changes regarding this.

Economic And Housing Market Update

There was big news coming out of May, as the U.S. jobs report came in and it was very bad news – much, much worse than anyone had anticipated.

Immediately, this took a FED rate hike in June off the table and a July rate hike is unlikely now as well.  This would, of course, only impact U.S. mortgage rates – Canada is much further behind in it’s economic recovery and a rate hike for the rest of 2016 in Canada is pretty unlikely – especially with oil prices where they are.

This did, however, impact the Canadian dollar which gained upon the news.  This might sound like good news but it isn’t really – 77% of Canadian exports go to the U.S. – so the dollar increasing is driven by poor news from the U.S. (which will ultimately impact Canada) rather than strong Canadian economic news.

In the housing markets, May showed it’s ‘usual’ massive housing market move with GTA house prices up a whopping 10.6% year-over-year – a new record.  This was driven by many fewer listings (down 6.4%) – when supply is lower, prices go up as people ‘fight’ for what remaining supply there is.

The average price of a detached home in the 416 area is now $1.3m compared to $892k for the 90 area.  Condominium prices are considerably cheaper at an average price of $443k in Toronto and $347k in the suburbs – still beyond the reach of many first-time homebuyers.

As has been the case for years now, many people are calling for the market to slow down and yet it continues to heat up…

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About Our Toronto Mortgage Broker Service

We specialise in helping home owners with their mortgages in the Greater Toronto Area.

We live in, work in and breathe the GTA.

Being located here – the financial services centre of Canada – gives us close relations with almost all the top Canadian financial lenders.

Check out our free Toronto mortgage broker service

If you have any questions about how any of this works, feel free to reach out to us at: contact@gtamortgagepros.com

Or call and instantly speak to an agent 24/7, Monday through Sunday at 647-691-5553.

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