The following question was submitted through our Contact Form and we thought the Question and Answer may help other strata condo owners.
Q: How do I get on my strata council?
A: Every owner is eligible to sit on council as long as you are the registered owner and are in good standing (have no fees owing). Council members are elected at the Annual General Meeting...
To read full article, visit www.TalkStrata.com
Q: What resources do we have as owners for help with Strata councils that pick and choose what gets done and won't follow the rules?
A: There are a couple of answers to that question. Because we do not know the exact situation here are a couple of broad statements and ideas:
Write and submit a notice to the strata council or the strata property manager, outlining your concern and that you would like to appear before them at the next meeting to discuss the matter. Your correspondence and the strata’s response will likely be published in the next minutes that are sent out to all owners. This may help you to get new people voted in at your next AGM if the problems persist...
See FULL STORY at www.TALKSTRATA.com
When you purchase a brand new property, things may be far from perfect. You may find that there are many finishing problems that you spot over time. While it may be annoying to have so many problems, especially when you pay big bucks to live in a new property, the good news is that there are some remedies available to you.
Depending on the home warranty company your builder has contracted with there are established guidelines as to what is acceptable and what your builder will need to fix. The best way to find out these guidelines is to call your home warranty company or browse their website...
See Full Story at: www.TALKSTRATA.com
Visit Talkstrata.com - Your resource for Strata Living
A blog posting by Vancouver Home Mortgage:
It was reported in The Financial Post on Sept 01,2007 in an article "Ultra-low Fed rates stoked housing boom: Taylor"
The bursting of the tech bubble and September 11/2001 terrorist attack on World Trade Center has resulted in Greenspan aggressively cutting interest rates and holding them too low for too long. The asset inflation had resulted in the US housing boom built with too much liquidity and un-regulated mortgage lending. With the collapse of the housing market, US home owners lost billions of dollars in their property asset values all over the US. And, the bottom is not in sight yet!
The recent injection of liquidity by the US and the likely reduction in interest rates will not solve the current problem on US housing deflation. The correction in house prices will take many years to unwind until consumer confidence returns to the market.
The housing problem in the US was explained superbly by the blog posting by Dr. Housing Bubble on the housing and real estate problem in Los Angeles.
As I see it by Vancouver home Mortgage:
Published: Saturday, August 11, 2007 by Paul Vieira, Financial Post
The International Monetary Fund said the global financial market turmoil and related credit crunch should be "manageable."
In recent days rates on the overnight market had climbed well above targets set by central banks.
The widespread credit crunch is the result of mounting defaults in the U.S. subprime mortgage market, where individuals with higher-risk credit ratings are able to obtain financing for home purchases. This spilled over to banks and investment funds, which had exposure to this market.
Click here to read the full report.
There are great concerns by the world financial markets that the credit sqeeze and lack of liquidity as a result of mounting U.S. subprime mortgage defaults may result in widespread economic slowdown.
The market is concerned that the U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown will spread to the general economy. As reported by Newsweek Business article A Widening Credit Squeeze? is spilling over to America’s credit-card debt.
My Real Place is a newly launched community website focused on the Real Estate market.
We created My Real Place to provide consumers with access to real estate information and to have a degree of control in the realty process.
I was frustrated with what was out there to help me buy my own place and thought we could do better. I wanted to bring all aspects of the real estate market together - listings, realtors, mortgage brokers, contractors etc and do it in a novel, intuitive and easy to use way. To be able to ask questions on my own terms and in my own time, to find out easily who's selling what and where.
It's early days yet but we seem to be getting a lot of interest from people who seem to like it. We think it's awesome but I guess we would say that.
We currently have over 15,000 property listings, over 4,000 realtors and other realty professionals. We're getting over 2,000 people a day on the site so I guess we must be doing something right. We hope to roll out across Canada in the next few months so it's exciting times.
If you get chance, check it out and let us know what you think. Stop by and say hi.
Cheers
Jonathan
Co-Founder
A blog posting by Vancouver Home Mortgage :
With the Bank of Canada raising interest rates and Canadian Banks offering more attractive saving rates to consumers, investors will be tempted to move their real estate investments to safer savings account and GIC investments.
The Bank of Nova Scotia is advertising a 4.85%* on a 24-month GIC. The offer is only available until August 04. There are minimum deposit of $1,000 required and the GIC is non-redeemable.
ICICI Bank offers a more flexible deal, offering 4.5% on C$ deposits and 5.0% on US$ deposits on the bank’s HiSAVE Savings Account. There is no minimum deposit required and interest is calculated the daily balance and paid monthly!
The Canadian housing market is faced with:
* Rising Interest Rates
* Severe affordability problem
* Rising dollar impacting the manufacturing and resource sectors
* Softening in oil and gas prices
* Increasing new and resale home inventory
* Distinct possibility of US recession
These are negative forces that could topple the unrealistic real estate markets in Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley of BC, Calgary and Edmonton.
What are your thoughts?
A blog posting by Vancouver Home Mortgage :
The U.S. housing market has been on a downward slide for the past 1.5 years. More troubles on sub-prime mortgage problems and foreclosures are being reported every month. Each month, there are more bad news that home builders are slashing prices to unload their inventories. The housing problem in the U.S. as reported by many economists is nowhere near to hitting the bottom yet!
On the contrary, Canada real estate across all the provinces are reported to continue their upward march to new record house prices. House prices are now double what they were 5 years ago!
Why Canada so different from the U.S.? Is there a danger that the real estate prices in Canada will fall like the US?
Many people are wondering whether we are at the top or near the top of the housing market. What are your thoughts? You are welcome to post your comments here.
An article by Vancouver Home Mortgage:
In addition to CMHC 40-year mortgage, Genworth Financial has a similar program for home buyers in Canada. Sky-high house prices are making home ownership less affordable to cash-strapped home buyers. Some economists and housing analysts are arguing that longer amortization is bad for home owners.
The danger in stretching a 25-year mortgage to the CMHC 40-year mortgage is that it will hurt home buyers who in the first place cannot afford to buy their own homes. The program is a two-edged sword. Yes, the lower monthly mortgage payment enable home owners in buying their homes, but it will also likely become a huge financial burden to the home owners. Generally, home ownership under this program will hurt rather than help these home owners.
Here are the reasons and adverse consequences of a CMHC 40-year mortgage:
1) By stretching a 25-year loan to 35 or 40 years, financially weak and cash-strapped home buyers are added to the pool of existing home buyers, causing further house price escalation.
2) A home owner buying a home for example at $342,500 with 10% down payment, has to pay $6,345 (2% mortgage insurance) on a traditional 25 year loan. But, he or she has to pay $8,248.50(2.6% as an extra 0.2% is to be paid for every 5 years over 25 years), $1.903.50 more on the insurance premium required for a 40-year loan.
An article by Vancouver home mortgage:
Vancouver home mortgage is reporting a slower Canadian economic growth for the second half of 2007.
TAVIA GRANT from The Globe and Mail reported on June 29, 2007 a slow down in wholesale trade for March, 2007. The lower growth number at 0.3% is the first time in 10 months, and economists are projecting a lower growth number for April to be at 0.2%.
Inspite of the slower growth in Canada's economy, no one is expecting the long expect interest rate hike by the Bank of Canada to be post-phoned. "Rates may rise by a quarter percentage point on July 10, but the outlook for borrowing costs is fuzzy after that, an economist said".
JULIAN BELTRAME of Canada East Online reported on Thursday June 28th, 2007 "High-flying Canadian dollar helping bring down inflation". With the Canadian dollar at 30 year high at around Cdn $94.00 against the US dollar, economists are projecting a slowing down in Canada's economic growth. Eastern Canada's manufacturing companies are already reporting higher costs and projecting lower revenues from exports to the U.S.A. and overseas due to the high Canadian dollar.
