Blog entries will be posted in the language in which they were written.

Archive for March, 2010


March 31st, 2010

Forecasting Mortgage Interest Rates

Posted by Joan McGuigan

Sacha Peter of The Divestor provides this article, Canadian Interest Rate Projections, in which he makes some predictions about mortgage rates over the next year. This could prove to be some important information for those readers currently wondering what type of mortgage they should consider.

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March 25th, 2010

Win a $25,000 down payment from Centris!

Posted by Joan McGuigan

We received the following notice from the GMREB this morning. If you visit Centris, you can enter to win a $25,000 down payment! Contest starts April 7th.

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March 25th, 2010

Montréal’s Incentives for First-Time Home Buyers

Posted by Joan McGuigan

The City of Montréal has announced special incentives for first-time home buyers, in an effort to keep young families from moving out of the city core.  The CBC has more information:

The City of Montreal has sweetened its home ownership incentives to encourage families to choose the island over suburban living.

The incentives target couples with children who want to buy new property with at least three bedrooms.

First-time buyers with families are now entitled to a $12,500 subsidy if they buy a three-bedroom home under $295,000.

The older subsidy is capped at $10,000 for homes worth a maximum of $265,000, bought by families with at least one child.

Childless households are eligible for a one-time grant of $4,500 to buy homes worth a maximum of $235,000.

All subsidies remain limited to first-time homebuyers.

Mayor Gérald Tremblay said the subsidies should tempt people to stay in Montreal.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/03/22/montreal-subsidies-for-first-time-family-homebuyers.html?ref=rss#ixzz0jD2scAzt

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March 22nd, 2010

Brian Williams’ thank-you note to Canada

Posted by Joan McGuigan

Brian Williams, the anchor of NBC Nightly News, posted a lovely post-Olympics thank-you note to Canada on his blog:

After tonight’s broadcast and after looting our hotel mini-bars, we’re going to try to brave the blizzard and fly east to home and hearth, and to do laundry well into next week.  Before we leave this thoroughly polite country, the polite thing to do is leave behind a thank-you note.

Thank you, Canada:

For being such good hosts.

For your unfailing courtesy.

For your (mostly) beautiful weather.

For scheduling no more than 60 percent of your float plane departures at the exact moment when I was trying to say something on television.

For not seeming to mind the occasional (or constant) good-natured mimicry of your accents.

For your unique TV commercials — for companies like Tim Hortons — which made us laugh and cry.

For securing this massive event without choking security, and without publicly displaying a single automatic weapon.

For having the best garment design and logo-wear of the games — you’ve made wearing your name a cool thing to do.

For the sportsmanship we saw most of your athletes display.

For not honking your horns. I didn’t hear one car horn in 15 days — which also means none of my fellow New Yorkers rented cars while visiting.

For making us aware of how many of you have been watching NBC all these years.

For having the good taste to have an anchorman named Brian Williams on your CTV network, who turns out to be such a nice guy.

For the body scans at the airport which make pat-downs and cavity searches unnecessary.

For designing those really cool LED Olympic rings in the harbor, which turned to gold when your athletes won one.

For always saying nice things about the United States…when you know we’re listening.

For sharing Joannie Rochette with us.

For reminding some of us we used to be a more civil society.

Mostly, for welcoming the world with such ease and making lasting friends with all of us.

Source

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March 12th, 2010

Great article: When to sell?

Posted by Joan McGuigan

We recently read a wonderful article by Anna Vozza for the Windsor Star, about how to decide when to sell your home:

Homeowners face a double dilemma when dealing with the prospect of selling their homes. How do you make sure the decision to sell is the right one? When is the right time to sell?

Traditionally, the four major reasons why and when people sell their homes are financial and market conditions, employment changes, family matters and lifestyle changes. However, the current issue of low interest rates and a large selection of homes also has a great bearing. These reasons not only affect your decision to sell, they can greatly impact your options about when to sell.

– Financial and market conditions: Almost every aspect to real estate involves market conditions and financial issues. For the seller they are of the utmost importance because it’s the seller who’s putting property, equity and maybe years of hard work on the line.

With so much at stake, it’s really beneficial that sellers contact a realtor who has the experience and knowledge of the real estate industry.


Read more here.

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March 3rd, 2010

Great mortgage offer from BMO

Posted by Joan McGuigan
We just received word of this excellent mortgage offer from BMO! Here are three great reasons to contact Lesley Wright at BMO for a pre-approval or to finalize your mortgage.
1) BMO mortgage rates are very low:

* 5 year fixed rate at 3.75% guaranteed until July 15th;
* 5 year variable rate at 2.05% (prime – 0.2%)

2) Mortgages for non-residents – no income confirmation necessary, 35% down-payment, all countries.

3) New immigrants – min. down-payment of 10%

You can e-mail Lesley at lesley.wright@bmo.com, or call at (514) 808-3661.

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