By Leon d’Ancona   Please don’t shoot this messenger. I just report the figures, I don’t make them.   Yes, there is a bright side to the real estate downturn gripping many areas in the U.S., which is also permeating most of Canada, where even the bastion of rising prices and low days on market [...]

With several years as a licensed agent and an extensive business background prior to that, I have come to understand one thing about real estate agents in general. We are lumped at about the same level as used car salesmen, lawyers and politicians when it comes to respect from the general public.
In the article titled [...]

Century 21 Altitude in Sherbrooke, Que. is the newest member of the Century 21 System. Co-owners Vittoria Tassone and Michael Gilbert are already familiar with the company: Tassone owns three Century 21 Action offices, and Gilbert owns Century 21 Accès.

“I am very exited to grow with the Century 21 family,” says Tassone. “Michael and [...]

In the photo: Toronto’s largest residential raft slab was poured by 120 cement trucks for Four Seasons Hotel & Residences. (Photo: Paul Casselman)   Toronto’s Yorkville neighbourhood was abuzz during the busy holiday shopping season, when 120 cement trucks convened at six different pouring locations at the site of the new Four Seasons Hotel & [...]

The Ontario Real Estate Association recently held its annual Political Affairs Conference, a mix of business presentations and meetings with MPPs.   In meetings with MPPs, Realtors discussed the funding of municipalities. OREA’s members emphasized that the province must upload more of the costs of social and health services to ease the property tax burden. [...]

In the photo: Bryson McQuirter (left) presents the George Marshall Award to Wayne Cowdery’s wife Anne, step-son Dave Sibley and his wife Laurene.

The Southern Georgian Bay Real Estate Association recently awarded its highest honour posthumously to Wayne Cowdery, a member of the board for almost 30 years. Cowdery, 65, died Oct. 15.   Cowdery [...]

By Kathy Bevan   Ask a real estate broker about retirement, and you typically receive one of two responses:  “I’m too young to think about it” or, even before the current economic difficulties, “I can’t afford to retire.”   Succession planning doesn’t appear to be on the radar screens for many of Canada’s real estate [...]

There are huge changes coming to the labour market as the baby-boom generation moves to retirement age. A labour force shortage looms as the size of the working population drops, and the attitudes of young people entering the workforce is considerably different than it was even a few years ago.
 
This month in REM’s annual forecast [...]

If you don’t think we need property rights enshrined in our constitution, think again. Ontario’s proposed Bill 101, the Home Energy Rating Act, will materially affect the rights of property owners to sell their property in the most direct and unencumbered way possible.   This legislation is going to directly affect homeowners throughout the province [...]

While the U.S. real estate market is bottoming out, according to the annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2009 report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Canadian real estate industry players are approaching 2009 with caution, but are somewhat more positive.   “U.S. housing woes haven’t extended to Canada, where banks [...]