Canadian Capitalist

Fellow blogger Ben Jones writes a blog dedicated to the housing mania sweeping the globe. For Exhibit A, check out this LA Times story and Ben’s comments on it. I can’t believe that someone would cash in their retirement funds to buy a piece of land that produces no income solely based on the “greater [...]

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Everyone seems to be bullish about real estate these days (Check out this New York Times article on real estate investing that sounds suspiciously like day-trading). I don’t know if real estate is a bubble waiting to burst. But, I do know that here in Ottawa, long-term returns for real-estate based on a 49 year [...]

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In her recent Money Matters column on Yahoo! Finance, Suze Orman argues that paying down the mortgage faster is the key to a stress-free retirement. It is doubly so for Canadians, who unlike our friends south of the border, don’t have tax deductibility on mortgage interest. Therefore, for most of us, pre-paying the mortgage is [...]

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Next to taxes, housing is probably the biggest expense for most people. How much house to buy is an intensely personal decision, based on how many people live in a house, how much houses cost in an area etc. Most experts recommend buying a house that costs 2-3 times annual income. This article in MSN [...]

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Royal LePage has forecast that the average house price in Canada to rise by 4.5% in 2005. RE/MAX issued a similar forecast, predicting average house price to rise by a more bullish 6%. Here is a comparison of the forecasts for various cities:

City
Royal LePage
RE/MAX

Halifax
1.7%
8.0%

Montreal
5.0%
6.0%

Ottawa
4.5%
6.0%

Toronto
2.5%
3.5%

Winnipeg
6.0%
3.0%

Regina
5.0%
4.5%

Calgary
6.2%
5.0%

Edmonton
7.0%
12.0%

Vancouver
3.0%
8.0%

Increasing home prices might make us feel a little bit [...]

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Most mortgages come with pre-payment previleges (e.g. upto 20% of the principal in any 12 month period). Since mortgage interest is not tax deductible in Canada, making a pre-payment is a very smart move, especially in the early years of a mortgage. When a pre-payment is made, it immediately reduces the principal balance on the [...]

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When we bought our home, we first went to our local bank to arrange a mortgage. The bank offered us 1% off their posted rates for being “valuable clients”. However, Invis, a mortgage-broker who can arrange a mortgage from many sources, was able to offer a mortgage 25 basis points less than the “best rate” [...]

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