Weekly Toronto Mortgage, Finance And Other News – 24/4/2016

April 25, 2016

National Bank said Wednesday in a new report, six of 10 housing markets surveyed showed improvement in affordability, with the biggest improvements seen in Calgary, Montreal and Ottawa-Gatineau:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/house-affordability-national-1.3544721

______________________________________________________________________

A new first time buyer survey brought some interesting stats about the Toronto housing market. Apparently first-time buyers are concerned about rushing the process to avoid missing an opportunity (20%), being pushed out of the market (13%), as well as buying too fast in order to win a bidding war (18%).
http://canadaam.ctvnews.ca/finance/the-fear-of-missing-out-when-shopping-for-a-home-1.2868612

______________________________________________________________________

Q & A: Luxury Real Estate with Engel &Völkers’ owner Ron Amendola, discussing the state of Toronto’s luxury market and more intriguing sales projects; includes an update on the suites at Trump Residences Toronto.

http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2016/04/q-luxury-real-estate-engel-v%C3%B6lkers-ron-amendola

______________________________________________________________________

Auto insurance rates in Ontario have dropped about 10% on average in the past couple of years and the latest numbers from the Financial Services Commission of Ontario, for the first quarter of 2016, show that approved rates decreased on average by about three per cent.

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/auto-insurance-rates-down-but-still-not-at-province-s-target-1.2870837#

______________________________________________________________________

A new app – designed by a University Of Toronto professor – helps cyclists avoid pollution. The app is called the Clean Ride Mapper and is designed by Professor Marianne Hatzopoulou from the University of Toronto. The app provides both the shortest and lowest exposure routes along with an estimate of how much air pollution you would avoid by choosing the latter.

http://globalnews.ca/news/2657480/university-of-toronto-professor-designs-app-that-helps-cyclists-avoid-pollution/

______________________________________________________________________

Josh Donaldson homered and drove in four runs while Troy Tulowitzki slammed two solo shots in a 13-hit attack that snapped the Jays’ three-game losing streak before a sellout crowd of 46,334 at the Rogers Centre. It marked Toronto’s highest offensive output of the young season.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-bats-beat-athletics-1.3550279

______________________________________________________________________