Real Estate - Fake News and False Stories

Donald Trump is right about “Fake News”.

There are fake news, and there are false stories.

It’s time we seek alternative news. alternative views.

Here are couple of “fake news”: –

CMHC insurance volumes plunged 41% after mortgage rules tightened

Canada’s housing agency saw a sharp decline in the number of home buyers who qualified for mortgage insurance under tougher rules implemented last fall… CBC.ca

This news insinuated “The sky is falling down” … And the one below is even more absurd: –

GTA home sales plunge as much as 61 per cent

John Pasalis of Realosophy, found that Toronto region ground-level home sales – detached, semi-detached and town houses – dropped 26 per cent overall between April 20 and May 20 – the period directly following the provincial Fair Housing plan … Toronto Star

Dropped 61%, Toronto Star says?

Apparently,

The flood of Toronto listings not all that it seems

Some agents are beginning to point out the a typical pattern that’s throwing the statistics out of whack.

David Fleming of Bosley Real Estate Ltd. calls it real estate’s new plague.

He and others say that the surge in new listings that has garnered so much attention recently overlooks the fact that many properties are not selling on the scheduled offer night. The same properties are then listed again through the Toronto Real Estate Board.

Basically, none of the bids satisfy the seller so the listing is terminated. And the same house comes out again with a new MLS number. Therefore, the number properties will be double and triple-counted in some cases for exactly the same property.

TREB statistics show that in the first half of May, new listings jumped 46.9 per cent compared to April, the increase was 33 per cent.

Bottomline: There is no glut in home for sales listings. The market demand remains as hot and as sexy as ever.

On a related note, Globe and Mail also reported a “fake news”-

It says the average house price in Canada for April 2017 is $597,496.

$500 grands? What kind of “house” is that?

Trust the number is real, except it’s a meaningless and misleading. Because as far we know, there is no such thing in Toronto. Letès face it,  you won’t even get an apartment for $500K these days. So, what good is having a figure like Canadian $597,496? You don’t lump together home prices of Yellowknife with sexy places like Toronto and Vancouver and take the median and call it Average Home Price – that’s unrealistic, meaningless, and misleading. Lest a potential immigrant think he or she actually can get a home for that kind of money. Well, no immigrant will head to Yellowknife as the #1 destination, right?

Why not just say Toronto Average Home Price is $2 millions, Average Apartment Price is $750,000 etc? And Vancouver is … Not that many places. At most just include Montreal and Calgary, that’s will basically give the whole picture what does it cost to get a home.

Here are couple of real houses offered for sales … One tasefully done, the other is a fixer upper … We are talking about $3 -$4 millions. Not “$597,496”: –

Anyway, hurry up before the newly listed babes are sntached up by more than motivated and more than enthusiatic buyers: –

For Sales

$2,925,000 – 375 Ellis Park Road – SWANSEA

This is a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom house on a 42.45 x 102.30 foot lot in Swansea (west of the sought after High Park area).

It is a house that looked like this before it was renovated in 2015…

As far as the renovation goes, it’s a good job. The wood ceiling in genius … It may be a nighmare to maintain, but who cares these days? It looks good, that’s all that matter. Who cares what comes next? If one does, one wouldn’t be buying a property today. Period.

The asking price is $2,925,000.

Even without a yard, I don’t see this sitting for long … It’s very tastefully renovated – An eye candy, so to speak.


Think $2,925,000 for such a nice house is too much? Think again.

____________________________

Here is a Fixer Upper in downtown Toronto …

For Sales

$3,900,000 – 29 Sussex Avenue – UNIVERSITY

4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house on a 25 x 107 foot lot with 3 parking spaces at 29 Sussex Avenue in the University area (downtown core).

Here is what it looks like in the streetview from the front…

And here it is from the side…

It was listed at $1,580,000 in 2016. It sold for $2,360,000

It’s one of the few privately owned properties in the Huron-Sussex neighbourhood. The University of Toronto owns over 85% of the houses, but not this one. 29 Sussex was recently designated a heritage property — along with 31 and 33 Sussex (collectively known as ‘The Three Sisters). It was only owned by 2 families since being built in the 1870s (both owned it for over 50 years) until 2016. At which point, it went through a few sales, but none of the sales closed. Likely this is due to the heritage designation, as the most recent buyer had plans to demolish it.

Well, that may pose a problem especially since the house needs a LOT of work.

With no work done to it and 10 months since the last sale…

This house is now listed at $3,900,000.

Isn’t Toronto sexy?

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