Abbotsford Real Estate

On July 1, 2010 HST - a combination of the 7% Provincial Sales Tax (“PST”) and the 5% federal Goods and Services Tax (“GST”) - will become effective. If you are thinking of buying or selling a home in British Columbia you are certainly concerned about the HST. Here is some basic information about how HST will apply to new ...

Someone called me last week and asked about properties being sold by City of Abbotsford because of tax deliquency. Here is some basic information for all of you who are curious about tax sales. The City is required by the Local Government Act to sell, at tax sale, all properties for which taxes have not been paid for three years. The Local ...

When you purchase real estate in British Columbia the amount of the Property Transfer Tax payable is 1% on the first $200,000 of the property's fair market value and 2% on the remaining fair market value. The tax is calculated on the selling price of a property but if the transaction does not reflect fair market value (IE: the transfer of ...

Govt. of Canada changed some mortgage rules today to make it a little harder to get a new mortgage or refinance an existing mortgage. There are 3 changes in rules aimed at home buyers, investors and borrowers who may be planning to refinance. Home buyers will need to meet qualifying criteria for a five-year fixed rate mortgage even if they opt ...

Last April it became mandatory for anyone offering house inspection services in BC to be licensed and this week a home inspector was ordered by a BC supreme court judge to pay nearly $200,000 in compensation to his client. The BC supreme court's decision will have long term implications for newly organized home inspection industry. The B.C. ...

Buyers moving in from Greater Vancouver and first-time buyers from all over the Lower Mainland taking advantage of competitive interest rates and lower prices in the Fraser Valley were the driving force behind strong home sales in October. Although Fraser Valley’s MLS® received 7 per cent more new listings in October than it did in ...

After a very hot July home sales in Fraser Valley set another record in August recording the second best August for home sales. Buyers powered by historically low interest rates and driven by the desire to move up the value chain drove the home sales to record levels. In Abbotsford single family home sales were 86% higher than August of last ...

Last month when BC govt. announced the plans to implement new tax system HST (harmonized sales tax) in 2010, I wrote a blog post about how it would affect the real estate industry and new home buyers. Just like me most other REALTORS® are concerned that home buyers and sellers, particularly buyers of new homes, will bear most of the burden ...

July was indeed the hottest month in Fraser Valley for both weather and real estate sales. The hot weather and home sales both broke the all time record for month of July. Fraser Valley saw the highest number of real estate transactions ever recorded for the month of July and mercury hit 38 degrees, beating the former all-time record of ...

The BC government announced on July 23, 2009 that effective July 1, 2010, BC will adopt the HST, combining BC's seven per cent PST with the five per cent federal GST for a single "harmonized sales tax" of 12 per cent. Starting next July, we'll be paying a combined 12 per cent on most purchases. The biggest problem with the ...