In Toronto, When A House Doesn't Sell, The Price Goes UP

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Bidding wars have become commonplace in the Toronto housing market, with many realtors saying they hit a fever pitch this spring.

Though “sellers love it,” largely because they drive up the price of houses, many observers argue it’s a sleazy practice, particularly when sellers low-ball the price of a house to get buyers excited — only to see the price inflated enormously by a crowd of bidders.

In perhaps the most egregious example yet, a five-bedroom house in the Yonge and Lawrence area listed for $699,000 this past April, well below the going rate for a standalone house in the area, where most these days are listed above $1 million.

The house attracted 72 offers and sold for nearly double the asking price — $1.36 million.

But as spring moved into summer, apparently the bidding wars slowed down, according to an article in the Globe and Mail. Which means that some buyers are putting their houses on the market at a lowballed price, and not getting the huge markup they had been expecting.

Their reaction? Take the house off the market, and relist at a higher price.

That tactic alienates a lot of buyers, the Globe cites real estate agents as saying — especially those buyers who put in bids for the house at a lower price.

And it’s a sign that Toronto’s housing market — or at least the single-family home segment — has been so hot, for so long, that sellers’ expectations are becoming very lofty.

But with buyers taking advantage of record-low mortgage rates, many are willing to meet those expectations, particularly for single-family homes in the 416, as very few of these are being built anymore.

By one measure, the average price of a single family house in Toronto hit the $1-million mark earlier this year, though the city’s real estate board pegs it closer to $865,000.

That’s still up 8.8 per cent from a year earlier, and sales volumes are up 18.5 per cent.

But new listings are also up, by about 9.7 per cent for all housing types, which may be one reason why bidding wars have slowed down recently.

Toronto Real Estate Board analyst Jason Mercer told the Globe it’s conceivable the supply of new listings will continue to grow in the second half of the year, in which case price growth could slow down in some parts of the market.

But with sellers so confident of the market that they raise prices when a house doesn’t attract enough bidders, even a mild slowdown in price growth could prove to be a shock.

Memphis Is About the Whole Hog

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Memphis doesn’t mess around when it comes to BBQ. They call their title BBQ contest the World Championship of BBQ and the most coveted prize is the Whole Hog. But there is a Grand Champion that enters multiple categories. Teams come from around the globe to be judged in the Memphis World Championship of BBQ. For 2014, the Grand Champion is Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q from Decatur, Alabama. The whole hog winner is Yazoo’s Delta Q from Hernando, Mississippi. But interestingly, second place in the whole hog competition went to British Bulldog BBQ from Farnham, Surrey, England.

What’s in a BBQ Title? For many, the Memphis World Championship of BBQ is considered the Super Bowl of Swine. First established in 1978 with only 26 teams competing, this year there were 244 teams competing for $110,000 in cash prizes. But it’s really about the bragging rights that come with a title much more than the money because entry fees can be as high as $5,000 depending on how much real estate you need to set up your BBQ operation. And that’s before you create your one-of-a-kind slow roaster (this year one was made from a 1954 Willys Jeep) and all of the other creative makings for your BBQ camp. The Memphis World Championship is one of the three biggest competitions in the nation (probably the world) and the only one to include the category of “Whole Hog”. The competition is spread out over four days. Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q didn’t just win the grand championship this year, they set a new record as the winningest team with their fourth championship and with a fourth win in the pork shoulder category.

What Goes in a Winning Recipe According to Big Bob, it’s mostly time, smoke, and fire. His process takes 20 hours to smolder the perfect piece of pork. He started Friday afternoon by injecting an apple-juice based brine into the pork and applying his secret rub before beginning the smoking over a 225 degree fire. It’s an all night endeavor in preparation for the judging on Saturday at 11 o’clock. He smokes the 20 pound piece of meat for 18 hours and lets’ it rest for an hour before judging. Resting is taking the meat off the smoke to allow the juices to redistribute themselves throughout the large piece of meat.

Judging Hogs Judging at the Memphis BBQ World Championship is a slightly complicated process. There are three rounds of judging. First, there are four judges that have to take an eight-hour class on judging BBQ that then are presented with six “blind” boxes of meat from each category. They are only allowed to give a perfect score to one box per category. Next comes the controversial on-site judging by expert BBQ chefs. This is the judging where the contestants serve up their best cuts of meat. It’s controversial because the cooks are allowed to put up a white tablecloth with arrangements (such as flowers) and B.S. with the judges to improve their scores.

After the first two judging rounds, the scores are announced. The top three teams from each category (ribs, shoulder, and whole hog) are given two hours to prepare for the final judging. The final judging is a lightening round visit by four judges all at once. Presentation is just as important as taste because the difference in final scores is often no more than a few hundredths of a point.

That hundreds of a point win gives the BBQ chef bragging rights as the winner of the Memphis BBQ World Championship. What follows is a two block long line of high paying customers outside of your restaurant back home and several TV appearances. In the case of the 2013 winner, it became a TV series on the Food Network. It’s all about the championship title.

Enhance Your Environment With These Home Improvement Ideas

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The mere thought of DIY home improvement may have you shaking in your boots. Rest assured that there are many easy projects that even a novice can master. Read this article to learn more about the many projects you can get started on to improve the value of your home.

Choosing to use wooden flooring instead of carpeting can save you a lot of hassle in the long run. Carpet can contain allergens and cleaning it is sometimes out of the question. The cost of ripping up and replacing your carpet can almost be as costly as just putting down wooden flooring. Wooden floors can be refinished and repainted as needed; also providing a more rural and cottage style environment.

Make sure that you keep an eye out for all types of contractors. You want to make sure that you get a contractor with a good reputation, as well as, an affordable price before you have them improve your home. You don't want to be stuck with paying a bill that you can't afford or a project that's half finished because the contractor decided to stop coming, half-way through the project.

Patch the holes in your walls with toothpaste! Yes, this is definitely a temporary cover up but it works to hide an ugly hole until you can come up with the materials for a more permanent fix. Use white toothpaste and trowel it into the hole with a butter knife.

A great thing about home decor is that oftentimes it doesn't have to match. You can buy a great dining room table and mix and match chairs. This is great for cottage and country-styled homes. Buying a table second hand and adding chairs from different places actually creates a great design element, as well as a sense of accomplishment. Give those used chairs a chance to shine!

Anyone can improve their home. Hopefully, you now have more confidence in your ability to tackle home improvement projects. It will make you feel proud at the end of the day, seeing your very own handiwork.

The Things You Should Know About Home Mortgages

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Home ownership is the American dream, but obtaining a mortgage loan in the current state of the economy can be difficult. There are multiple home mortgage options, and it is important that you choose the right one. This article contains some valuable tips to help you get a mortgage for the home you finally found. Understand your credit score and how that affects your chances for a mortgage loan. Most lenders require a certain credit level, and if you fall below, you are going to have a tougher time getting a mortgage loan with reasonable rates. A good idea is for you to try to improve your credit before you apply for mortgage loan. Before beginning any home buying negotiation, get pre-approved for your home mortgage. That pre-approval will give you a lot better position in terms of the negotiation. It's a sign to the seller that you can afford the house and that the bank is already behind you in terms of the buy. It can make a serious difference. Have at least 20 percent of the purchase price saved. Lenders will want to verify that you have not borrowed the money, so it is important that you save the money and show deposits into your checking or savings account. Down payments cannot be borrowed; thus it is important to show a paper trail of deposits. Before applying for a mortgage, pay down your debts. Lenders use a debt to income ratio to verify that you are able to afford a mortgage. A general rule of thumb is 36 percent of your gross income should be available to pay all of your monthly expenses, including your mortgage payment. Now that you are armed with the valuable information found in this article, you have a better chance of getting the financing you need. Your best option may be a short term loan that you can convert later, or a 30 year mortgage. Follow the advice in this article to find the loan that works best for you.

Five-year mortgages holding firm, but just wait

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Five-year fixed mortgage rates tend to roughly track the yields on five-year government of Canada bonds, because those influence the cost of the funds that the banks obtain to lend out. Yields on five-year government of Canada bonds have fallen. They ended last year at 1.95 per cent, and this week were below 1.50 per cent.

“If you went back to the start of the year, there was an absolute consensus that bond yields were going to head higher,” explains Toronto-Dominion Bank chief economist Craig Alexander. “Not dramatically, but there was an absolute consensus that bond yields would be increasing through the course of 2014. So, one of the big surprises this year has been the drop in bond yields.”

Canadian bond yields tend to mirror those in the U.S. because the market views the securities as alternatives to one another.

“One of the things that happened at the start of this year was, initially, there were some concerns about emerging markets and the angst over the slowdown in China,” Mr. Alexander adds. “But then we started to get very weak economic data out of the United States, and there was news that the U.S. economy outright contracted, and you saw broad-based scaling back of expectations about global growth. So, while some of the fears about emerging markets diminished, it happened at the same time that people found something new to worry about.”

So, a more negative outlook for economic growth in the U.S. and elsewhere turned into good news for Canadian home buyers.

But Mr. Alexander thinks the U.S. economy is on pace to grow faster than most other advanced countries in the second half of this year. “As a consequence, I think that the rally in bonds that we’ve had since the start of the year is likely to be reversed, from an economic fundamentals point of view it’s only a matter of time. The thing that economists are notoriously bad at is timing.”

In other words, economists are still expecting five-year fixed mortgage rates to creep up, they just don’t know exactly when. Mr. Alexander now expects five-year bond yields to creep back up to about 1.95 – where they were at the end of 2013 – by the end of this year. He then sees them rising by about 90 basis points next year, largely during the second half of the year.

Incorporate These Unique Ideas For Your Next Home Improvement Project

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Home improvement projects can add an incredible amount of comfort and value to your property. They are an ideal way to make your living space more functional and appropriate for your family's needs. This article will give you all the information you need to start working on your home today.

When working with a contractor to do a home renovation, decide on the whole project at the beginning and stick to that plan. Constantly changing the plan can slow down the renovation process and scare off your contractor from doing anything independently. Also, constantly changing renovations often end up looking piecemeal, since they weren't created with a clear vision in mind.

Keep tabs on how much you spend on your home improvements. It is really easy to nickel and dime yourself with small details and not realize how much you have totaled. A simple spreadsheet or budgeting tool will help you keep track of all this information. It will be much easier at tax time too, to be able to get all of the deductions you deserve.

Choosing the right paint color for a room is essential. Color can affect how you feel when you are in the room. A cool color will calm you, whereas a warm tone can energize you. If you are painting a small space, use a cool color as it will make the room look larger. If the space is imposing, use a warm color to make it feel more cozy.

Use carpet samples to carpet a whole room! Retail stores often throw away their samples. Cut each sample up into smaller pieces and tack or glue them into place for free floor covering. Cut them in identically sized pieces for a tile effect or cut them in irregular geometric shapes for an abstract look.

No matter what project you decide to start with, home improvement tasks are a way to adjust the look and feel of your property to meet your changing needs. The information in this article can be used as a starting point to help you plan and complete your next project.

Fix A Messy Credit Report With These Tips

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Your credit is a way for companies and lending institutions to gauge how likely it is that you will repay your debt to them and do it on time. If you have had a troubled credit past, cleaning up your act and repairing your score is important to your financial future. Use this article to get ideas on how you can make that happen.

Be careful about which collection accounts you pay off. With the current way the credit reporting system is structured, paying off a collection agency may actually lower your score because the date of last activity will be reset. A paid collection has no less of an impact on your score than an open collection. This resetting of the date of last activity also means the seven year reporting clock will restart. If you can wait out a collection agency, do it. If you have negative items on your credit report, you have the right to challenge them at any time.

Even if you don't think an item is disputable, there is a chance you can have it removed if the credit bureau doesn't investigate your challenge in a timely manner. For items that are two years old or more, the credit bureau may have trouble finding information to verify its accuracy, in which case they will have to delete it from your report. When trying to repair your credit, avoid falling for scams that tell you that you can easily create a new credit file. Do not go through with this. It is called credit fraud and is highly illegal. It can cause you to get arrested or face other harsh legal repercussions. Cleaning up your credit isn't going to happen overnight. It takes time for the changes that you make to show up and take effect. If you follow the advice from this article though, you can make steps in the right direction towards having a better score and getting better quality credit in the future.