Agriculture industry will rise to face changes

Agriculture industry will rise to face changes

Maddin turns attention to Svengali ballet

Maddin turns attention to Svengali ballet

Canadian housing market up in September, 9-month sales pass last year's levels

Canadian housing market up in September, 9-month sales pass last year's levels

FIGHTING FOR MANITOBA HOMEBUYERS!

With less than two weeks to go, WinnipegREALTORS® is urging its 1600 members and the public to ask candidates running in the October 4^th provincial election where they stand on the land transfer tax. 

President Ralph Fyfe is on the airwaves with the following message. 

Since it was first introduced in 1987, the land transfer tax has been a convenient source of additional income for the province... and an increasingly inconvenient cost for homebuyers!

Manitoba now has the highest land transfer tax rate in the country... the impact is ten times what it once was …and since the tax must be paid before a title is transferred, it’s become an increasingly unreasonable burden for people buying a home.

Ask your candidates where they stand on this tax grab.

Moreover, if you click on the image below it will take you to a number of comparables showing just how much more a homebuyer pays now in land transfer taxes for the same home purchased in 1987. One excellent example is a home built in 1904 in St. Boniface that sold for $75,500 in 1987 and $266,000 in 2010. The land transfer tax increased 1305 per cent from $227.50 in 1987 to $2648.00 in 2010. While at this site, check out some of the comments of the home buyers. Leaving the tax “as is”, is the furthest thing from their minds.

It is now quite evident that the land transfer tax needs to be adjusted so it is more revenue-neutral as originally intended. At minimum, WinnipegREALTORS® is asking the main political parties to commit to an examination and open public review of its original intent, purpose and impact as part of the 2012 budget process. 2012 will mark 25 years of no changes, aside from increasing the highest land transfer tax rate threshold of 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent in 2004 for any amount over $200,000. Manitoba home buyers deserve to have a say.

IT’S TIME FOR A CHANGE!

‘Winnipeg Destiny’ comes full circle with Jets’ return

ROY MACGREGOR
WINNIPEG
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

Workers prepare to move the 3,500-pound bronze Timothy Eaton statue to the second floor atrium area of the MTS Centre near the corner of Portage Ave and Donald St in Winnipeg, Wednesday, April 21, 2004. The statue will join two large bronze memorial plaques that commemorate the 315 Eaton's employees who died in the First World War and the 263 who died in the Second World War.

This city had all the luck it needed earlier this year when the NHL decided True North Sports & Entertainment could go ahead and purchase the Atlanta Thrashers and relocate the foundering team to Winnipeg as the reborn Jets.
The Jets left Canada 15 years ago in search of a better facility than the old Winnipeg Arena and will return to a much superior facility in the downtown MTS Centre, where the 1,360-kilogram statue to the founder of the once-great, now-defunct department store chain now sits in one of the rink’s corridors.
Winnipeg Jets unveil uniforms
The huge statue’s left toe shines as bright as brass where, over the decades, Winnipeggers have polished it with touches in hope of good fortune coming their way.
It was Timothy Eaton who revolutionized Canadian retail with his motto “Goods Satisfactory or Money Refunded” – something that will not likely come into play at the MTS Centre for some time to come.
Season tickets, it is said, sold out in a matter of seconds last June when they were offered to the general public – though it took nearly 20 minutes for the computers to process the transactions. The waiting list for future season tickets mushroomed so quickly True North had to cap it at 8,000.
It has been a case, CJOB sports director Bob Irving told listeners Tuesday, of unconditional “love” for a team that many believed had been lost forever 15 years ago. This total embrace by Manitoba fans suggests that there are neither high nor low expectations, but rather no expectations at all. It could be years, Irving thinks, before anyone will even think to criticize whatever the results are to be for this team of largely unknowns that will open training camp on Saturday.
Even despite the massive floods of this spring and summer, 2011 is going down as a year of triumph for this city once known as “The Bull’s Eye of the Dominion.” In recent decades, Winnipeg has seemed to be quickly overlooked compared to economic bull’s eyes farther to the west, Calgary in particular.
It is with sweet coincidence, perhaps, that the 2011-12 hockey season will fall on the centennial of Winnipeg’s previous great moment in the sun, 1912.
That glorious time, a mere two years before the First World War, is considered Winnipeg’s “High Noon” – a time when anything and everything seemed possible for this community built around the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers.
“All roads lead to Winnipeg,” claimed the Chicago Tribune of the day. And indeed it seemed they did. In merely 40 years, according to Winnipeg 1912 author Jim Blanchard, the community had grown from a mere village to Canada’s third-largest city. In the previous decade, the population had tripled to 170,000, with many believing it only a matter of time before it reached a million.
The place had a swagger that largely disappeared until the football Blue Bombers roared off to a 7-1 start to this season (a swagger somewhere diminished as they lost their next two matches). The city in 1912 was Canada’s most cosmopolitan as well as its youngest, with the great majority of its people under the age of 40. It was a city bustling with life and activity.
And the people believed in their community, erecting twin arches to the entrance that shouted out “prosperity” on one side, “progress” on the other. “We Canadians all believe,” said Dominion Magazine, “that 1912 will be the greatest year so far, in the history of the City of Winnipeg, of Western Canada and of this Dominion.” They called it “Winnipeg Destiny.”
But it wasn’t quite to be. War, shifting economies, changes in transportation and competition from other centres eventually meant “destiny” wasn’t going to be quite the way they envisioned it back in 1912.
But perhaps they were merely a century ahead of themselves.
Today’s Winnipeg is not the “Winterpeg” of snide Eastern jokes. Perhaps because so much of its commerce is underground its new prosperity has somewhat passed notice. Things, however, have been looking up lately – none so spectacularly as in the huge crane putting together that fascinating Rubik’s Cube of architecture that will become the Canadian Museum of Human Rights down by the shops and restaurants of the charming Forks.
There are new parks, new malls and construction about to begin on a huge new IKEA outlet – the middle-class’s ultimate measure of well-being. A new airport, a new football stadium and an improved convention centre are next on the list.
“When are Canadians going to realize that Winnipeg is more than floods, mosquitoes, homicides and winter winds?” Tom Ford asks in an op-ed piece in the Winnipeg Free Press.
Perhaps the hockey team will help.
There is, beyond doubt, a buzz in the city as the home opener – Oct. 9, versus the Montreal Canadiens – approaches. Even a meaningless victory this Monday by the Jets rookies in an exhibition match held in Penticton, B.C., gets front-page coverage. “Dream Debut,” lauds the Sun following the youngsters’ 4-0 win over a team of San Jose Sharks prospects.
“For several months now it’s been Jets, Jets, Jets,” says Rick Lefort, manager of Uptown Sports Cards & Collectibles in Portage Place Mall.
The official team jerseys will not even go on sale until early October and yet T-shirts and caps with the new team logo on are doing a brisk business.
“I’d give it a 9.5 out of 10 for excitement,” says Lefort. “But it’s going to be a lot higher once people are actually back in their seats.”
Timothy Eaton would be impressed.


Goods satisfactory – and not even yet delivered.

Prairie wheat crop worth $5.8 billion

Prairie wheat crop worth $5.8 billion

July Real Estate Market

Spectacular weather in July which kept ice cream and beer vendors busy did not deter sellers and buyers from remaining engaged in the market after an exceptional June of over 1,500 MLS® sales. While not as active given Winnipeggers’ penchant for taking advantage of a plethora of summer festivals and frequent trips to Manitoba’s diverse cottage country, sales of close to 1,250 were on par with the third best July on record in 2007.  July 2008 is by far the best July ever at over 1,400 sales with the 10-year average for July sitting at 1,200 sales. New listings were ahead of last July too with over 1,700 added in July 2011.

To no ones surprise, given a strong sales performance for this month and higher average sale prices in each successive year, dollar volume once again set a new record for month of July. It still however fell short of the $300 million monthly mark that was substantially eclipsed each of the two previous months. The average selling price in July for a residential-detached home was $254,486 – up nearly 7% compared to the July 2010 average of $238,441.

July MLS® unit sales increased 4% (1,246/1,195) while dollar volume went up 10% ($288.1 million/$261.3 million) in comparison to the same month last year. Year-to-date MLS® sales are up 3% (7,906/7,647) while dollar volume is ahead by just under 8% ($1.84 billion/$1.71 billion) in comparison to the same period last year. The 7% increase in new listings this month over the same month last year translated into an overall 1% increase in year-to-date listings from 2010. As of the end of July, 11, 767 listings have been entered on the MLS® system this year.

“An improvement in new listings in July helped keep prices in check as the monthly average home price of over $254,000 is still under the year-to-date average of $256,000 and there were less above list priced sales too so buyers had a little more breathing room,” said Ralph Fyfe, president of Winnipeg REALTORS®. “However, inventory still remains tight overall, especially in a number of Winnipeg neighbourhoods. So depending on the price range and neighbourhood you are interested in, multiple offers may well be in play. As a result, your best recourse regardless of potential competition for a home you want to buy is to call a REALTOR® to advise you accordingly on your own situation.”

What is really starting to emerge this year and was no more apparent than in July is what was referred in WinnipegREALTORS® 2011 January forecast speech as a ‘flight to affordability’.

“The Winnipeg Jets may be taking off too but in the real estate market the alternative flight path and clearly more affordable offerings of condominiums and single-attached homes in contrast to residential or single-family –detached is as real as a Goog at the BDI,” said Fyfe.

In July, condominium sales were up 23% while single-attached residential properties rose an astounding 76%. Year-to-date numbers are impressive as well. The former are outpacing last year’s sales at this time by 10% while the latter or single-attached are up 16%. Residential-detached property sales have increased less than 3% for the year and just over 1% for July.

The spread between the year-to-date residential-detached average sale price of $256,000 and the average sale price of condominiums and single –attached is $54,000 and $63,000 respectively. Not only are these two alternative property types more affordable, the highest land transfer tax in the country at 2% over $200,000 does not apply at all or very minimally if you were to pay the average price. For every $50,000 in value above $200,000, the provincial government collects $1,000 from the home buyer before they can take title to their new property.

For buyers of residential-detached homes in the southwest and southeast quadrants of Winnipeg where the average sale price this year is above $300,000, this means they are paying at least $2,000 more in land transfer taxes as a result of the 2% land transfer tax rate.

WinnipegREALTORS® is calling on Manitobans at 2muchltt.com to tell the provincial government they need to reduce the unfair burden of the Manitoba land transfer tax on property buyers. Based on what you would have paid for an average priced home in 1987 when this tax was introduced and what you would pay now if you buy an average priced home, land transfer taxes have gone up tenfold.

As has been stated before, the impact of the land transfer tax is more acute with first-time buyers where every after tax dollar they save is critical to going towards the required down payment and closing costs (includes the Manitoba land transfer tax).

For residential-detached sales in July, the most active price range was from $200,000 to $249,999 at 24% of total sales. Second busiest was from $250,000 to $299,999 at 19%. For condominium sales, the most active price range was from $150,000 to $199,999 at 42% with the $100,000 to $149,999 range well back at 22%.

Average days-on-market for residential-detached sales in July was 26 days, 3 days slower than June and 2 days faster than July 2010. For condominiums, the average days-on-market was 27 days, 5 days off the pace set in June and 4 days quicker than July 2010.