604homesblog

This morning my broker emailed me an article from a Scotia Bank newsletter. The title of the article is "Canada's Mortgage Market is NOT like the U.S." and I found it very interesting to see the fundamental differences in our Canadian mortgage market vs. the U.S. They authors break down the differences into four categories which ...

Canada has a new real estate search site and honestly I am not sure if we need one. Canada is VERY lucky to have a place in mls.ca (soon/eventually to disappear) and realtor.ca where you can find virtually every property for sale on the MLS in Canada. There is no equivalent in the U.S. and possibley not any where else in the world. In this US ...

The day started off with some pretty good new in my inbox with an email from RBC letting me know that housing starts were up in August. As I have mentioned before I don't think monthly housing starts are too useful anyways, but up is always better news than down, well not always, but in this case... As we all know the Vancouver real estate ...

As I mentionned a few months ago Vancouver was is the running to make it onto board of Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition. As it turns out Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto all made it onto the board. Vancouver goes in the orange group, Montreal goes where you would expect to find Boardwalk, and Toronto goes into the magenta group. ...

Vancouver real estate agent, blogger and friend of mine Larry Yatkowsky was mentionned in the Globe and Mail's Report on Business yesterday.Congratulations Larry! Larry is a great writer, go and check out his blog here. Matthew Collinge: Vancouver REALTOR®

  The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA), the Canadian Home Builders’ Association of BC (CHBA BC) and the Urban Development Institute (UDI) today announed the new "Presale Cross Reference List" to help consumers with understanding the risks, and opportunities, involved in buying real estate at pre-sale."Over ...

Mountain View  Vancouver is a city of neighbourhoods they say. I am not sure who "they" are, but "they" are right. One of the nicest and most under appreciated is the Mountain View neighbourhood. Mountain View is a loosely defined area either side of Fraser St from about King Edward Ave. up to E. 41st. The name ...

I was pretty busy last week and didn't get the posts out about the big news that the 40 year mortgages and 0% down option will be eliminated on October 15th, 2008. I don't have too much to add to the discou rse on this. I have not worked with many buyers using either of these options. I am sure it will keep some  buyers out of the ...

The following is a letter to the editor by Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver president Dave Watt that was published in the Vancouver Sun today:Letter to the Editor:   We’re deeply concerned that The Vancouver Sun’s view, expressed in the June 25 editorial ‘Rising real estate fraud makes title insurance essential’, ...

No time to write much about it (I'll update this later), but realtor.ca is now live. Go check it out!   Matthew Collinge: Vancouver REALTOR®