Real Estate

Ottawa and Surrounding Area Real Estate market discussion

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Deal Guru
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Jun 28, 2003
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You have to wonder if the Target closing will have any impact on the local market. I hope those folks land on their feet soon.

In other news, I just saw a CBC story about feeduck.com. Check it out if you have a chance, i hope it comes to Ottawa to give the consumers more choices.
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Feb 2, 2011
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canabiz wrote: You have to wonder if the Target closing will have any impact on the local market. I hope those folks land on their feet soon.

In other news, I just saw a CBC story about feeduck.com. Check it out if you have a chance, i hope it comes to Ottawa to give the consumers more choices.
feeduck is pretty cool. Not good for real estate agents though lol
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Jun 28, 2003
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amrak20 wrote: Was looking for a real estate lawyer and found this: "Tribunal finds ottawa lawyer guilty of professional misconduct in real estate deals"
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new ... tate-deals

Can someone recommend more or less honest lawyer for a real estate transaction? Thanks!
I have used Jacques Robert a number of times for new builds and there has been no issue. His rate is competitive and he has offices across the city (main office in Orleans).

I also used Bradley, Hiscock and McCracken (don't you just love the name ;) before when we sold our house and again no issue. Their office is on Greenbank Road in Barrhaven.
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Feb 2, 2011
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I've Robert Riopelle twice. He's in Orleans though.
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Louis Guertin in Orleans provided me with excellent advice on a joint tenancy that was royally screwed up by a Barrhaven real estate lawyer.
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Rumour is the Bank of Canada may cut interest rate tomorrow in response to the falling oil prices and other economic concerns. Let's see what happens to the mortgage rates. Ours is up for renewal in 3 months so it could be good timing ;)
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Jul 4, 2004
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canabiz wrote: Rumour is the Bank of Canada may cut interest rate tomorrow in response to the falling oil prices and other economic concerns. Let's see what happens to the mortgage rates. Ours is up for renewal in 3 months so it could be good timing ;)
Several banks / brokers have already cut rates this week. It's possible to get as low as 2.69% on a 5 year with conditions and 2.89% for 5 should be pretty easy to get.
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michelb wrote: Several banks / brokers have already cut rates this week. It's possible to get as low as 2.69% on a 5 year with conditions and 2.89% for 5 should be pretty easy to get.
This is what my friend just did, he renewed his mortgage for 2.69% for 5 year fixed through a Toronto broker.

I'll continue to shop around and see what's out there. Hopefully the low(er) interest rates will give the housing market a jolt. Spring will be here before we know it so that always helps.
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Dec 28, 2006
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I just can not understand why ottawa brokers can not offer the same rate as toronto brokers
canabiz wrote: This is what my friend just did, he renewed his mortgage for 2.69% for 5 year fixed through a Toronto broker.

I'll continue to shop around and see what's out there. Hopefully the low(er) interest rates will give the housing market a jolt. Spring will be here before we know it so that always helps.
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rivet wrote: I just can not understand why ottawa brokers can not offer the same rate as toronto brokers
Not sure what he did or did not do but that's what he told me. He was previously with a bank. He might have dealt with a Toronto-based broker who has operations in Ottawa.

I don't have all the details. The bottom line is he renewed his mortgage for 2.69% for 5 year fixed.
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Nov 26, 2004
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canabiz wrote: Hopefully the low(er) interest rates will give the housing market a jolt. Spring will be here before we know it so that always helps.
I think it is going to give a jolt to the housing market in Toronto and Vancouver. Though, I would be caution about Ottawa.

Unlike Toronto and Vancouver, Ottawa's housing market is closely tied to the economic fundamentals. After all, it seems like the Harper government is determined to delivered on their election promises, which is to balance the budget and deliver tax cuts. I don't think he would undo the income splitting and increase the child benefits promise last year, so he'll probably have to further cut program spendings in order to balance the budget. Therefore, I would not be surprise if he were to take another 5-10% from departments budget, further job laid off, or legislating zero percent on the next collective agreement in the next budget.
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canabiz wrote: Rumour is the Bank of Canada may cut interest rate tomorrow in response to the falling oil prices and other economic concerns.
Your prediction was right on the money (no pun intended!) Garth Turner was swearing up and down that the BoC would never lower the overnight rate, although a few people on his blog pointed out that recent bond yields indicated that something was afoot! 30 year US T-bills are in the basement...

I'm likely to go VRM next year if rates are still low - not sure if I'm staying or going, and I don't want to pay a ridiculous IRD if I do end up selling.
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William W wrote: I think it is going to give a jolt to the housing market in Toronto and Vancouver. Though, I would be caution about Ottawa.

Unlike Toronto and Vancouver, Ottawa's housing market is closely tied to the economic fundamentals. After all, it seems like the Harper government is determined to delivered on their election promises, which is to balance the budget and deliver tax cuts. I don't think he would undo the income splitting and increase the child benefits promise last year, so he'll probably have to further cut program spendings in order to balance the budget. Therefore, I would not be surprise if he were to take another 5-10% from departments budget, further job laid off, or legislating zero percent on the next collective agreement in the next budget.
I agree with this completely. Ottawa RE is very closely tied to government employment (even non-gov jobs are often tied to government (e.g. private company that gets most of it's business serving government or private company who's clients are mostly government employees)).
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William W wrote: I think it is going to give a jolt to the housing market in Toronto and Vancouver. Though, I would be caution about Ottawa.

Unlike Toronto and Vancouver, Ottawa's housing market is closely tied to the economic fundamentals. After all, it seems like the Harper government is determined to delivered on their election promises, which is to balance the budget and deliver tax cuts. I don't think he would undo the income splitting and increase the child benefits promise last year, so he'll probably have to further cut program spendings in order to balance the budget. Therefore, I would not be surprise if he were to take another 5-10% from departments budget, further job laid off, or legislating zero percent on the next collective agreement in the next budget.
Actually I don't mind the slow and steady approach for Ottawa. Toronto and Vancouver are getting out of control and the good times don't last forever, just like gold and oil (recently).

I don't know how many more layoffs Harper government can implement. Hiring freeze has been in effect for the past number of years. The work is not going away plus there will be more Baby Boomers retiring in the next few years.

Will see how it goes after the election.
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Nov 26, 2004
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canabiz wrote: Actually I don't mind the slow and steady approach for Ottawa. Toronto and Vancouver are getting out of control and the good times don't last forever, just like gold and oil (recently).

I don't know how many more layoffs Harper government can implement. Hiring freeze has been in effect for the past number of years. The work is not going away plus there will be more Baby Boomers retiring in the next few years.

Will see how it goes after the election.
I agree, with your assessment on how much further can they reduce the public service head counts. However, beside decrease in programming spending, it will be interesting to see how Harper will be able to balance the budget.

The rumour is Treasury Board has ask departments to do a Horizontal Review. Following the Shared Service Canada model, they are looking to centralizing the finance / invoice processing function if they win the next election. With the ultimate end goal of looking at "private partnership" and set up these "Super Processing Centres" where they will process invoices for all departments in a particular region. They are hoping the decrease in head counts in the public service is will ultimately lead to "cost savings" to pay for Harper's election promises.
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Interesting to hear they may extend SSC model to other areas, Will. From what I gather, there has been a tremendous amount of growing pains in SSC and it is to be expected because it is a new department with a new mandate and budget.

Don't forget similar models failed miserably in Australia and B.C. I believe. I don't think SSC will be scrapped but crazier things have certainly happened.

On another note, TD is predicting another rate cut in March and IBM is preparing to lay off a bunch. I hope there's no Ottawa impact because a few of my friends work for IBM (formerly Cognos) on Riverside.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bank-of ... -1.2931859

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ibm-say ... -1.2931612
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Feb 2, 2011
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William W wrote: I agree, with your assessment on how much further can they reduce the public service head counts. However, beside decrease in programming spending, it will be interesting to see how Harper will be able to balance the budget.

The rumour is Treasury Board has ask departments to do a Horizontal Review. Following the Shared Service Canada model, they are looking to centralizing the finance / invoice processing function if they win the next election. With the ultimate end goal of looking at "private partnership" and set up these "Super Processing Centres" where they will process invoices for all departments in a particular region. They are hoping the decrease in head counts in the public service is will ultimately lead to "cost savings" to pay for Harper's election promises.
canabiz wrote: Interesting to hear they may extend SSC model to other areas, Will. From what I gather, there has been a tremendous amount of growing pains in SSC and it is to be expected because it is a new department with a new mandate and budget.

Don't forget similar models failed miserably in Australia and B.C. I believe. I don't think SSC will be scrapped but crazier things have certainly happened.

On another note, TD is predicting another rate cut in March and IBM is preparing to lay off a bunch. I hope there's no Ottawa impact because a few of my friends work for IBM (formerly Cognos) on Riverside.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bank-of ... -1.2931859

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ibm-say ... -1.2931612
Modeling something after SSC? OH GOD PLEASE DON'T. I'm not part of SSC but I work intimately with them and the last thing anyone wants is more SSC-like branches. I honestly hope that this will fall through.

The cost-savings would be there in an ideal world but this isn't ideal by a long shot.
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downd wrote: Modeling something after SSC? OH GOD PLEASE DON'T. I'm not part of SSC but I work intimately with them and the last thing anyone wants is more SSC-like branches. I honestly hope that this will fall through.

The cost-savings would be there in an ideal world but this isn't ideal by a long shot.
Agreed 100%. Consolidated services (SSC, Pay Centre, etc.) in the federal gov't is a massive fail.

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