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Five housing hot spots in Toronto
Talk to real-estate agents, and most express disbelief at how the Toronto market keeps defying the doomsayers month after month.
What's fuelling it? Those bargain-basement mortgage rates keep affordability in line, even as prices have risen, says Toronto Real Estate Board analyst Jason Mercer.
Factor in the number of potential buyers per house, and you've got a recipe for price hikes. Mercer says recent sales totals projected annually could make 2012 the second-best year on record (after 2007), even as listings have lagged.
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Land transfer tax likely to stick around for now
Five members of the city's seven-member budget committee say Mayor Rob Ford's signature promise to cut the land transfer tax will not happen anytime soon.
A poll this week showed 60% of respondents want the tax eliminated, as the Mayor pledged during the election; the mayor said last year that at least some of the tax would be gone by the end of 2012.
"Realistically, the full elimination of the land transfer tax is impossible without slashing and burning the city to a point where it would be unrecognizable," Councillor Peter Milczyn, a member of the Mayor's executive and a budget committee member, said on Friday. Instead of repealing a portion of it, he argues that some of the money should be used to build infrastructure, such as subways. The land transfer tax raises about $300-million a year for city operations.
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Michelle Brienza
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Phone: (416) 410-5761
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Mortgage rates and interest rates have been in the news again: Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has hinted that interest rates could go up shortly, which will affect people who have a balance on their line of credit. 
