Abbotsford Real Estate

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 ...

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 ...

Abbotsford neighbourhoods scored #8 on the list of hottest neighborhoods in lower mainland in a recent study. This study conducted for real estate firm Century 21 Canada was focused on finding the 21 hottest neighborhoods in Canada for realizing real estate price increases in the past year. Abbotsford neighborhoods that showed real estate price ...

The federal budget released for 2009 contains a few items of interest to homeowners and people who are thinking about buying a home. Here are some highlights: RRSP Home Buyers' Plan: Starting from January 28, 2009, first-time home buyers can withdraw $25,000 from a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) to purchase or build a home, ...

A Vancouver developer has started suing buyers in its development for attempting to back out of their purchase contracts. The Vancouver Sun reports that the developer is suing at least 7 buyers in the surrey development. Buyers could end up paying the difference between their purchase price and what the developer eventually sells the house/condo ...

I received a few inquiries in the last 2 weeks from potential buyers of homes in foreclosure. All callers had one thing in common, they were expecting to save a truckload (or a car-load at least) of money in the transaction. Yes, the economy is bad, yes, there are more homes in foreclosure than previous years; but no, lenders can not sell a home ...