Shorter mortgage is money in your pocket

CALGARY, AB – Now that the dust has settled a little on the new mortgage lending rules, it’s time to put them into perspective. This is not the first time mortgage amortizations have been limited to 25 years. Industry veterans know people still bought homes before the amortization rules were relaxed and their main goal was to […]

Finding the right home, with or without Mr. Right

ANGELA SELF | Columnist profile Globe and Mail Update I have a single friend sitting on the fence between buying and renting. She’s financially ready to make the leap into homeownership, but hesitant about doing it solo in case she meets someone soon. Waiting for Mr. Right can derail a number of women’s homeownership plans, according to […]

How to give up renting without going broke

DIANNE NICE Globe and Mail Blog No matter how many stories I read about housing price bubbles and rising interest rates, there’s no way I would go back to renting, and most Canadians feel the same way. For three long, miserable years, my husband and I rented a unit attached to our landlord’s sprawling house […]

First-time homebuyers helping to drive real estate sales But more potential buyers worried about growing costs

CALGARY — First-time homebuyers have accounted for about one in every two homes sold in Canada in the past two years, over more than a quarter of a million sales per year across the country, says a new report. A housing report by the Altus Group, an economic consulting firm, says the majority of first-time […]

Canadians under 35 most intent on buying homes: survey

Canadians ages 18 to 34 are the most keen to buy a house . . . next year, according to a new survey. The following are 8 investment-damaging flaws that buyers should investigate before purchasing a home, as compiled by MSN Money. Photograph by: Photos.com, Postmedia News Buying a home? Identify these 8 flaws that […]

From dream home to nightmare debt

Follow Dianne Nice on Twitter and Facebook Gail Vaz-Oxlade, host of the new HGTV show Til Debt Do Us Part: Home Edition, says one of the biggest challenges for home buyers is to go into the process with their eyes wide open. Too often they take on a mortgage that is too big and then can’t afford to […]

Bad reno decisions are money down the drain

When my husband and I bought our first home, it was obvious, even to our untrained eyes, that the previous owners had let a few things go. Actually, they had let pretty much everything go. But the price and location were right, and we were young, energetic and undaunted by the work that lay ahead. […]

« Previous Page