Today, before I go over the Milton and Georgetown stats, I'd like to talk about the new CMHC rules. They just came out a few days ago and it's going to affect some buyers - but not a lot. People are always asking me "what the heck does it mean?"  CMHC basically applies to purchasers - purchasers that are putting a maximum of 20% down on a home - so 5, 10, 15, 20% down. Basically, they have to get mortgage insurance. And one of the insurers is the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). There's also a couple of others, but that's the big one. That's the one that everybody kinda knows about. They passed new rules that apply as of July 1st.  Before you could basically buy a house, you could borrow money for your down payment - through a line of credit or even a credit card (if you're crazy enough!). Now that is being completely wiped out. You have to have secure funds as your down payment and they have increased the credit score as well. You can't buy a house with a 600 credit score minimum anymore - it has to be 680 now. So, you should go to Equifax or go to a credit site and check out your credit score before you buy, so you know where you are and where you stand.  There are also a couple of things called the GDS and the TDS. The GDS is the Gross Debt to Service ratio, and the TDS is your Total Debt to Service ratio. The GDS is basically what you can afford, including your mortgage and your taxes. The ratio used to be 39%.  Basically 39% of your income would go towards your taxes and your house payments. Now they've lowered that down to 35%.  So in other words, you can't afford as much. And your TDS ratio used to be 44, and now it's down to 42. So, in a nutshell, if you make about $60k a year and you're putting about 5% down on a property, you're looking at your buying power to be decreased by about 10 or 11%.  So, instead of looking at the $600k range, you're looking at the $540k/$550k max range. So it's going to affect some people, but not everybody, and I don't think it's going to be a huge effect. One thing it's going to do is drive business away from CMHC, onto other insurers, like Genworth (for now), but they might follow suit -we don't know. That kicks in July 1st, so if you are a first time buyer and you have a minimal down payment, get on your bike - it's time to get out there and buy soon before these new rules kick in and you're buying power decreases. 

And now for my usual weekly update for Milton and Georgetown: Milton May 31st to June 6th - we've got some great news. Things have picked up a lot in the past week or so.  In 2019, we had 45 sales and in 2020 we had 30. So we passed the 50% threshold, we're not down by anywhere near as much as we were, we're down by approximately 25% or so. So it's not a lot, it's starting to tick up. Prices are coming up a little bit, but not much. We had 19 sales of detached homes - 8 sales of townhouses and three semis. The detached on average sold for $890k and on average, 13 days on the market. Townhouses sold on average were $731k and on average, six days in the market. Semis - there were 3 of them sold for $725k on average, 8 days on the market. So, if you look at the days on the market, things are moving, they're moving pretty good. And as long as your price is right, you're okay. One thing to note on the weekend, I had a client looking for a $1.3 million property in Milton. We found a really nice one, we were about to put an offer in but there were 7 offers on it already. So, they declined the offer, but that just goes to show if there's that demand for a big $1.3 million property just imagine the demand right now for a townhouse 737, 50 townhouse. So keep that in mind, that's that's, that's impressive things have come up. And compared to last week, you know, 25 sales, the week before 30 sales, so it's getting busier and you know traditionally it doesn't work that way. In real estate we start to get slower as the summer comes along. So that's a good sign. People are getting more COVID savvy, I think and getting out there. So, on to Georgetown/Glenn Williams, because I always include the two.  So, May 31st to June 6th, 2019, there was 22 sales and in 2020, 9 sales, which is the same as the week before. Things haven't changed, but the days in the market are ticking down. For detached, the average days on the market were 10 and average sale price $949k. And there was one sale of a townhouse with 14 days on the market. So, prices aren't necessarily going up, but things are selling faster and there's more supply. We're getting more buyers definitely coming out for sure.  Sometimes I'll show a house and I see business cards sitting there on the counter - I might see 15 of them, and I know since there aren't any open houses right now that those going through for showings are legit buyers. They're not agents coming in from an agent open house where they just toss their card around like candy. So when I see that, I see that things are positive. 

So any questions, let me know. Stay healthy and stay safe!