Edmonton Real Estate Blog

Making your Edmonton home as warm and comfortable as possible is one of the most important activities you should do this winter season.

We at Team Leading Edge have gathered the a few great ways to make that magic happen.

Read on and enjoy.

1. COLORS: We start with the easiest. Shades that compliment flesh tones gives off a comforting effect and it makes those who are around look and feel good. Cover your sofa with slipcovers that are warmed toned, paint your walls with gold and use warm shades for your throw blanket and pillows. These will quickly make any room feel cozier and brighter.
2. PLANTS AND FLOWERS: Bring in the outdoors, simple put your favorite flowers and plants inside your home, this would offset the mundane and bleak landscape outside your window.
3. RUG IT UP: An area rug is the fastest way to warm any bare floor. Sunburst tones provide an awe inspiriting visual warmth. You will love it!
4. CANDLES: Step up the warming game with some lighted candles. These little flickering flames will work with all your décor. Hurricane lamps made of amber-toned glass will provide an added visual warmth and design cachet.
5. SCENTS: Saving the best for last, alter your senses with some wonderful scents. Enliven your rooms with a pleasant aroma or create a vibrant focal point on a coffee by using colorful, multi-textured potpourri. These are mixtures of scented nuts, fruit slices, leaves and pineconse.

Easy, quick and reliable ways of making your Edmonton home warmer this season. What are you waiting for? Carpe Diem!

Visit our Edmonton MLS listings to view available warm homes for sale on the market. Updated daily for you.

In case you missed it, theglobeandmail.com published an interesting report last 11 November written by Michael Babad entitled “Why we shouldn’t fear a crash in Canada’s three hottest housing markets”.

Here’s the breakdown of it.

In the housing and demographics side, senior economist Robert Kavcic found in his research that while the residential construction starts are at record levels, still grew 4% year over year.

Toronto is experiencing a 4 1/2 –year low in constructions starts due to the cooling down of population growth.

Mr. Kavcic further said that there is no meltdown in the horizon since the constructions happening in Toronto were mostly started in 2012 and 2013, which means there is no real overbuilding.

As what we have discussed in our previous posts, housing starts have declined in October reaching a low of 183,600, surpassing projections by economists.

“The focus in Canada is on Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto, where prices are running hot. Most recently, the Bank of Canada has said other markets are showing signs of a soft landing.” the report said.

Gluskin Sheff + Associates chief economist David Rosenberg suggests that the downside surprise in data is a welcoming point for policy makers, where homebuilding is staying consistent with the Canadian household formation trend.

This trend is well above the requirement to match the growth in population as noted by Brian DePratto, Toronto-Dominion Bank economist.

He further adds that “A gradual rise in interest rates, along with the moderate level of overbuilding will help moderate housing activity.”

All this point to a rosy real estate industry in Edmonton. The music still continue to play and so is the need to dance to it. Buy now. Check out the latest available homes for sale in Edmonton and nearby areas on our high-speed Edmonton MLS.

Read complete report here.

This past few weeks, we at Team Leading Edge have harping the good news about Edmonton’s real estate industry, today, we’ll try to touch base on the issue of declining oil prices and what it means to the real estate sector.

This topic strikes close to heart since one of Alberta’s main source of income is oil money.

In the past 4 months, oil prices have plunged to a low of 25%, although this is nothing compared to the 80% drop during the Great Recession, some business leaders still foresee a negative effect to the real estate side.

This is not to say that there is another major crisis. Canada’s southern neighbor is currently enjoying a faster than average economic growth.

The declining in oil prices might cost Alberta’s provincial treasury CDN $215 million, if oil prices drop down a notch below the $92 per barrel mark.

David Sanche, co-CEO of Westrich Pacific, said that if oil prices stay low until spring time, condominiums that are entering the pre-marketing phase might face delays, including their project at the Windemere area and corner of 102^nd street and 102^nd avenue.

On the other hand, the decline may prove to be a good thing for the construction industry as it might shift the demand for construction workers from the oilsands to Edmonton’s real estate.

You read it right, everything is looking good for the housing market in the city of Edmonton. Just last October 30, The Wallstreet Journal Canada released an article entitled “Canada’s Housing Market Defies Doomsayers” written by Nirmal Menon, emphasizing that “Canada’s housing market keeps on going, defying long-standing predictions of a slowdown.”

Like what we have written on our Halloween article “Edmonton Housing Market, Surviving Zombiepocalypse”, The Wallstreet Journal Canada reports that forecasts for starts and prices have been raised again by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

A point to ponder in the report is the reason why Canada’s housing marketing did not experience a bust similar to its southern neighbor, the U.S. Unlike its neighbor, Canada put in place practices that are more conservative.

“The government has tightened mortgage insurance rules four times between 2008 and 2012 to cool the market and rein in household debt that Canadians have built up by using cheap borrowing costs to buy homes.” the report said.

BMO Capital Markets chief economist Douglas Porter have played down the gloom and doom scenarios as some observers have been worried that a housing bubble might burst, this is on the back of the International Monetary Fund’s recent inclusion of Canada as one of the countries with over-valued home prices.

Mr. Porter is positive that under most scenarios, like if the global economy stumbles or Bank of Canada makes big rate hikes, the Canadian housing market would keep plowing ahead.

This solidifies our earlier announcements at Team Leading Edge that it is the right time to buy a real estate property in Edmonton. Check all the latest homes for sale in our Edmonton MLS.

Read complete report here.

Taxes aren’t the most pleasant of expenses to pay, but then again, in its essence, it’s necessary to keep things going especially in a prestigious place like Edmonton.

Last 31 October, CBC News published an article entitled “City admin says tax increase needed for growing population”. This apparently was not received well, with one reader commenting, “City council should get rid of the suits and go to their job in jeans and a T shirt for a while… Maybe it would help them come back to reality…”

According to the report, the 5.3% tax increase is for one, due to the rapidly growing population of the city. As of last Friday, the city administrators have released details of the 2015 proposed operating and capital budgets. This would mean an added $9.17/ month or $182 / year for a total of $2,184 to the ordinary Edmonton home.

Lorna Rosen, Edmonton’s Chief Financial Officer wrote in a release that “The proposed 2013 Operating Budget allows us to expand services to a population that has grown by 60,000 people in the last two years,”

Of the $2.3B operating budget, 15% would go to police services, 14% to the transit sector while the third largest expense would be towards parks and community services.

A small fraction of the billion dollar budget would be spent towards infrastructure projects.

“Council will hold a public hearing on the budget Nov 24. Councillors will then begin deliberations, where they will finalize the budget, on Nov. 26” the report said.

View complete report here.

Let us know what you think about this in our comment section below.