Great News for Homeowners: Exploring How the Latest Rate Cut Could Benefit You
Posted by Liv Real Estate on
Have you heard the latest buzz from the Bank of Canada? They've recently lowered their key policy rate by 50 basis points to 3.75 percent. While we're still on the lookout for new rates from the banks, this drop might just bring some delightful savings your way if the banks decide to follow suit. Let’s crunch some numbers to see what this could mean for you.
Say, you have a mortgage of $400,000 for example: Under the old rate of 4.44%, on a 25-year mortgage with a 5-year term, you stood to pay approximately $2,200 in principal interest. If banks adjust their rates down to 3.94%, your principal interest would potentially decrease to about $2,091. This means not only less monthly expenditure but also a decrease in your final mortgage balance, allowing…
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A friend of mine recently moved to a Vancouver suburb and I was shocked to hear how much it really costs to buy a home there. I think everyone has an idea how expensive homes are in and around Vancouver and Toronto right now, but many people aren't aware of the additional closing costs buyers face across the country. With so many people working remotely, we're starting to see people moving based on housing affordability, so I wanted to share what it actually costs to buy a typical single-family home in major Canadian cities, including the extra expenses buyers pay at closing that are not included in their mortgage.
Since averages and medians can be misleading, I'm going to base these calculations on the MLS® Home Price Index. The HPI basically…
Here is our update on the Edmonton real estate market. (Previous week’s numbers are in brackets). For the past 7 days:
New Listings: 437 (360, 101, 178)
# Sales: 213 (161, 102, 204)
Ratio: 49% (45%, 101%, 115%)
# Price Changes: 170 (154, 95, 84)
Expired/Off-Market Listings: 143 (530, 511, 189)
Net loss/gain in listings this week: 81 (-331, -512, -225)
Active single-family home listings: 2135 (2095, 2087, 2371)
Active condo listings: 1838 (1784, 1730, 1950)
Homes 4-week running average: $430k ($412k, $404k, $415k)
Condos 4-week running average: $209 ($212k, $219k, $222k)
In the past, I've mentioned that Alberta's net migration was negative in Q2 2020 for the first time since the 80's, and it looks like Q3 was still negative but started heading in the…
The spring market clearly had a delayed peak due to COVID-19 this year. Our weekly stats have shown a downward trend for the past few weeks, so I expect that July was the peak of the real estate market in Edmonton this year. We have clients moving for all kinds of reasons at the moment, upsizing, downsizing, relocating, first time buyers, and everything in between; we're all spending a lot more time at home, and for some, our priorities and needs have shifted.
I will update this post when the REALTORS@reg; Association of Edmonton releases its monthly report on the real estate market in Edmonton.
"There have been improvements relative to the lowest sales levels caused by COVID-19, but it is too early to say things are shifting back to pre-pandemic…
We missed the Edmonton forecast this year, so we came to Calgary to see what's expected to happen to the real estate market in Calgary at the #CREB2018 Economic and Housing Forecast. I'll be updating this post as information is shared.
The forecast was provided by CREB Economist: Ann-Marie Lurie, here is a summary of her remarks:
Calgary was on a path of recovery in 2017, which is expected to continue in 2018 (more of the same) with so new challenges. Alberta has the strongest growth in GDP in the country, but we're not back to where we once were. Energy prices are far better than what we've seen over the past couple of years, but challenges still exist. Modest gains are expected in the energy sector in Alberta.
"Housing market conditions are expected…