You have chosen to view real estate information on one of Canada's fastest growing cities - Barrie, Ontario.
Barrie and surrounding area offers many lifestyle amenities such as a variety of affordable housing from starter homes to dream waterfront residences to picturesque rural properties; a new Royal Victoria Hospital and library; beautiful Kempenfelt Bay with it's beaches, fishing, boating; Ontario's largest ski hills and resorts at your doorstep; an abundance of challenging golf courses; walking/biking/hiking and snowmobile trails.
Barrie is also a regional shopping center mecca with a bustling downtown, three enclosed major malls and several growing power centers; cultural attractions include The Barrie Molson Centre which is a state of the art facility for sports and entertainment, the new MacLaren Art Centre, Gryphon Theatre and Huronia Symphony to mention a few all within a short 45 minutes drive of Toronto. Experience the lifestyle in "Beautiful Barrie".
If you are looking for real estate in residential homes, commercial or industrial properties in Barrie, or in the surrounding Townships of Essa, Innisfil, Oro-Medonte, or Springwater, ... I trust that you will find this web site very informative. Thank you for visiting my web site and please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions, comments or require additional information.
"Sincere Service ...Nothing Less"
Changes to the Rules for Government Insured Mortgages
SinceOctober 2009, the Government of Canada has been systematically tightening mortgage financing regulations for all federally regulated lenders. The changes have been made in order to ensure that Canadians are prepared for higher interest rates in the future by not taking on too much debt, which will improve the stability of Canada's housing market.
On January 17, 2011, Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced additional changes to the rules for government insured mortgages.
We want to be sure you understand the changes and how they might affect your clients' home financing options. Three new measures that have been announced are as follows:
New Guidelines – Effective March 18th 2011
1) Lowering the maximum amount consumers can borrow when refinancing their home
This change will lower the maximum mortgage amount for refinances to 85% of the appraised value of the property from the current 90%. This change will help to promote savings in homeownership and ensure that homeowners don’t become overextended by using all the equity they have built up in their home when refinancing.
2) Reducing the maximum amortization period for new government insured (default insured) mortgages
The maximum amortization for all new default insured mortgages will be reduced to 30 years from the current 35 years. This change will help reduce total borrowing costs for consumers, helping them to build up equity more quickly.
As an example, a $300,000 mortgage with a 4.5% interest rate and an amortization of 35 years has a monthly payment of $1412.05 and total interest cost of $293,059.17 over the life of the mortgage. The same mortgage with a 30 year amortization has a monthly payment of $1512.65 but total interest cost reduces to $244,551.49. The difference of roughly $100 a month in monthly payment reduces the interest cost by almost $50,000 over the life of the mortgage.
New Guideline - Effective April 18th 2011
3) Withdrawing government insurance backing on lines of credit secured by homes
Home equity lines of credit generally offer a variable interest rate and often have no repayment terms associated with them, which exposes borrowers to an increase in interest costs should interest rates as expected. Due to an increase in the household debt associated with these loans, the federal government wants to limit the amount of equity for which these loans can be granted
Loans that have repayment terms associated with them will still be eligible for default insurance.
We're here to help your clients get the right advice
Getting pre approved for a mortgage is a great first step in the home buying process, but reviewing that pre approval as a result of these changes is very important. I am here to help to ensure your clients are still on track in achieving their goals of home ownership.
Thanks to low interest rates, and the knowledge that they can’t stay there forever, 2010 ended well for Canadian Real Estate, and more of the same is expected for 2011, according to the Royal LePage House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released today.
"Trends in the housing market continue to be driven by the lingering after-effects of the recession," said Phil Soper, president and chief executive of Royal LePage Real Estate Services. "Canadians realize that interest rates are unsustainably low and that homes will become effectively more expensive when mortgage rates return to normal levels. We will likely see more price appreciation early in 2011 as some buyers complete transactions in advance of anticipated higher borrowing costs."
Soper believes that this is the main impetus pushing people towards purchase sooner, rather than later. “There is anticipation that money is going to become more expensive.”
“Our outlook is skewed now to the positive, and we expect the momentum that the industry carried through 2010 to carry on through 2011. Unit volumes were forecast originally to be very negative for 2011 as recently as October, but in November things began to change.” With a boost to close out the year in Q4, average home prices nationally, rose between 3.9 and 4.6 % year-to –year, shedding memories of an unimpressive Q3- and were able to return to healthy growth.
Similarly, home values expected to carry on climbing steadily across the country through 2011, with most of the sales activity to take place in the first half of the year. Soper says, “Typically, in a northern climate, a strong spring will carry the year.” The introduction of the HST can also take credit for a spike in activity in the early part of 2010.
“2011 is expected to unfold much like 2010, when close to 60 per cent of sales volume occurred in the first half of the year in anticipation of interest rate increases that never materialized. However, housing market activity in the first half of 2011 will be modestly closer to the norm, as last year's phenomenon was exacerbated by mid-year tightening of mortgage accessibility and the introduction of HST in Ontario and British Columbia."
The front runners for growth are most likely situated in Alberta- where some of the only price decreases were seen in 2010. Calgary, in particular, suffered after a sharp correction after years of huge gains, and after sinking oil and gas prices, the regionally heavy sector is expected to start hiring again—which will certainly contributed to the economic health of the city.
Nationally, the average home price is expected to rise 3 % throughout 2011 to $348,600; the actual number of transactions is expected to slide 2%.
In Q4, most of the country saw either increases or stability in price. In terms of cities specifically, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal and St. John's topped the list for the most significant increases. Nationally, the price of detached bungalows went up 4.6%; prices for two –storey homes went up 4.4%; prices for condominiums went up 3.9%.
"Sincere Service ...Nothing less"
Walter Doret
Broker Royal LePage First Contact Realty, Brokerage Independently Owned & Operated 299 Lakeshore Dr. Barrie, Ontario L4N 7Y9
Welcome!
Barrie and surrounding area offers many lifestyle amenities such as a variety of affordable housing from starter homes to dream waterfront residences to picturesque rural properties; a new Royal Victoria Hospital and library; beautiful Kempenfelt Bay with it's beaches, fishing, boating; Ontario's largest ski hills and resorts at your doorstep; an abundance of challenging golf courses; walking/biking/hiking and snowmobile trails. 
Barrie is also a regional shopping center mecca with a bustling downtown, three enclosed major malls and several growing power centers; cultural attractions include The Barrie Molson Centre which is a state of the art facility for sports and entertainment, the new MacLaren Art Centre, Gryphon Theatre and Huronia Symphony to mention a few all within a short 45 minutes drive of Toronto. Experience the lifestyle in "Beautiful Barrie".