House prices in Kitchener and Waterloo jumped almost 13 per cent in January due to a buying spree by move-up buyers.
The average sale price hit $315,932 last month, up 12.9 per cent from $279,957 a year earlier. The average price for detached homes increased 14.5 per cent, to $361,470.
The Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors said the increased activity by move-up buyers put upward pressure on the average sale price.
Patrick Carroll beamed under the beams he helped raise.
This new home on Gravel Ridge Trail has the finger prints of the Cambridge teen in a red Dr Pepper T-shirt and a dozen other St. Benedict high school students all over it.
It’s the completed class project in Community Home Building 101.
“This is definitely better than sitting in class” said the Grade 12 student.
“How many kids get to say they built a house?”
Well, 13 boys can say so this year.
It’s the elephant in the room when agents, landlords and developers talk about the commercial and industrial real estate markets in Waterloo Region.
What’s going to happen with Research In Motion, and what kind of impact will it have on the market?
The potential decline of the mobile communications giant will have an “enormous” impact, but the region’s economy is diverse enough to weather the storm, agents with the commercial real estate firm Colliers International said Wednesday.
Plans for hundreds of residential units and commercial space on King Street East may hinge on whether the developer qualifies for millions in incentives provided to other builders in the core.
And Coun. Frank Etherington, who represents that part of the city, supports the call by Fusion Homes to include its property in the zone where fees are waived by the city and region in a bid to attract new development.
The Bank of Canada is keeping its benchmark overnight rate at one per cent for a little while longer.
The bank says Canada’s economy is performing slightly better than expected at the moment, but that will soon change.
Citing a deeper than predicted recession in Europe, spillover effects from a weaker U.S. economy and slowing growth in China, the central bank says Canada is facing considerable headwinds from beyond its borders.
The bank says Canada’s gross domestic output will be weakened by these factors going forward.
Residents have a new vision for a troubled student neighbourhood. Now they have to figure out how to make it happen by 2029.
The neighbourhood is called Northdale, north of Wilfrid Laurier University. The new vision, drafted by a civic committee and endorsed Monday, calls for more people, more and better buildings and green space.
“Everybody’s really excited about the picture that has been painted,” said Chris Peace, chair of the council-appointed committee that’s leading the neighbourhood review.
Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney signalled strongly Wednesday that he intends to keep interest rates at super-low levels for an extended period — perhaps into 2013 — despite a recent spate of good economic news.
He gave no indication, however, whether his next move might be to actually reduce the trendsetting overnight rate from the current one per cent, as at least two major economists have urged.
The vast majority of Canadian homeowners are in position to withstand an increase in interest rates, but it may present difficulties for a “sizable minority,” an industry group for mortgage lenders says.
The Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals said about 12 per cent of those surveyed — representing about 650,000 households — would come under stress if their mortgage rates rose by as little as one per cent.
The report, however, points out that many will have time to improve their finances before mortgage rates actually do rise.
The contentious 700-home Limerick Subdivision twisted city councillors in political knots again Monday — and changed nothing.
Sept. 12, council approved the subdivision over the objections of residents of homes along the country road. Council did, however, amend its motion to include a gate across the road to stop traffic from the new homes using the old road.
Housing starts in Waterloo Region rose slightly in October due to increased construction of apartment units and townhouses.
Builders started 305 housing units in the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo census metropolitan area last month, up from 281 in October 2010, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Tuesday.
Three apartment buildings, all in Kitchener and Waterloo and all targeted to renters, boosted apartment starts to 171, up from 155 a year ago.