A new report by Statistics Canada says total revenues reported by real estate agents, brokers, appraisers and other real estate industries increased sharply in 2004, reflecting the continued upward trend in residential real estate markets.
Total revenue for these industries surged 11.4 per cent to $8.9 billion in 2004.
Ontario continued to account for the bulk of the industry with 52 per cent [...]

Recent gains in average price are attracting a growing number of investors to major markets across the country, says a new report by Re/Max. It says one in six Canadians plans to buy an investment property in the next 12 to 24 months.
 
Based on on-line interviews conducted in December 2005 with 1,200 homeowners across [...]

RBC Royal Bank is providing refunds to approximately 23,000 residential mortgage customers who were assessed an incorrect mortgage prepayment charge.
The bank says the mortgage prepayment charge applies when a customer breaks, converts or early renews their mortgage before maturity. The refunds are for a portion of each client’s prepayment charge and relate to mortgage prepayments [...]

A survey released today by the Washington-based National Association of Realtors (NAR) says technology is transforming how Americans buy and sell homes in unexpected ways. Contrary to predictions, the number of For Sale By Owner properties being sold is at a record low.
 
NAR President Thomas M. Stevens of Vienna, Va., says the findings underscore the [...]

With even the most bullish housing cheerleaders in the U.S. warning of a slowdown in the housing market, brokers should be worried about 2006, right?
Not exactly. In an annual survey of readers, Real Estate Broker’s Insider says that fully half of brokers expect 2006 to be better than 2005 for their firms. Only 29 per [...]

Canada’s housing market showed “remarkable strength” in the traditionally slower fourth quarter as sales activity in most major markets stimulated “robust” year-over-year increases in average prices, says a fourth quarter report released today by Royal LePage Real Estate Services.
The highest average price appreciation occurred in detached bungalows, which rose to $269,810 (+9.1%), followed by standard [...]

Fans of actor Noah Wyle, a.k.a. Dr. John Carter on the television show ER, will enjoy seeing him in a new role as a real estate developer in the film The Californians. The movie, a twist on Henry James’ 1886 The Bostonians, pokes fun at any individual or group that clings too closely to its [...]

Across Canada, regulators and provincial associations are discussing the recommendations contained in the Agency Task Force Report issued by the Canadian Regulators Group. In provinces such as B.C. and Ontario, real estate councils, associations and boards are working to ensure that their members and the general public are aware of new real estate acts (already [...]

CREA president Gerry Thiessen has been a Realtor since 1977, first in the west coast port of Prince Rupert and then moving into B.C.’s interior community of Vanderhoof. Past-president of both the Cariboo Real Estate Board (now B.C. Northern REB) and the B.C. Real Estate Association, Thiessen was honoured as B.C. Northern’s Realtor of the [...]

 
By Heino Molls
 
When I was young I often thumbed my nose at authority. I made sport of people’s jobs. I ridiculed officious fops who walked around flaunting their fancy business cards with “vice-president of such and such” emblazoned on them.
As with so many other things in life, I mellowed on this when I got older. [...]