Bettianne Hedges

 Link to Article: Moneysense Magazine "If you’re shopping around for a mortgage, you probably already know that lenders ask for a ton of financial information before determining how much you can borrow. That list includes your household income, down payment amount and how much you owe—including credit card debt, car payments and unsecured personal." 

Article: RBC website   36% of non-homeowners under 40 have given up on the dream of owning a home 62% of Canadians say most people will be priced out of the housing market in the next decade 60% of Canadians likely to buy in the next two years are saving $789/month on average "When it comes to purchase intention, despite 54% of Canadians polled saying it is a sellers’ market (up from 41% last year, highest since 2009), there is a large increase in Canadians who are considering buying a home in the next two years (30%, up 8% from 2020). This rises to 49% for those respondents under 40 years of age and 66% for new Canadians who have been in the country less than five years. Many factors are on the minds of Canadians when thinking about whether to buy now or buy later. According to the poll results, interest rates and concerns that homes will become less affordable are key reasons why many Canadians are considering buying sooner. In fact, 41% of Canadians surveyed are thinking about

We are starting to hear that the big banks and other financial institutions are calling for government intervention in the very active Ontario real estate market. This last year has seen multiple offers and record pricing although under the rules of Covid no one is to engage in visiting listed properties unless a move is essential.  What is driving the activity? The most obvious reason is the low-interest rates but there is also a mass rethinking, driven by Covid, about how and where we want to live our lives.  And, also, activity drives activity - potential sellers see the price their neighbour got and they too jump into the market.   Does the market require an intervention?  I worry about affordability and I think of what an increase in mortgage rates will do to homeowners who stretched a bit too much to make that purchase.  I think a move to taxing capital gains on residential properties will only penalize seniors who have already been hurt by low-interest rates on their retirement

  Full Article: REM (Real Estate Magazine) “There is an energy to Hamilton and the city feels like it has made an intentional decision to reinvent itself but John is pessimistic about that. He hasn’t jumped on the bandwagon but insists there is nothing wrong with the old Hamilton. He worries about the impact of gentrification,” muses Kay Lange, a fictional character created by Bettianne Hedges, broker at Keller Williams Edge Realty, in her debut novel,  Practise of Her Profession .  

If you’ve ever considered throwing your safe and comfortable lifestyle over the cliff to begin anew, you will to relate to Kay Lange’s challenges in Practice of Her Profession.   With no home, no relationship, no apparent income, Kay leaves her long term employers, sells her beautiful Montreal home, and purchases a somewhat rundown building in a somewhat shady area of Hamilton, Ontario. Her motivation was independence, but more importantly, to reestablish a relationship with her estranged son.   Armed with a shaky business plan, Kay proceeds to find her way forward. I found myself rooting for her success as she faced a variety of obstacles and issues .  Anne Milne  Bettianne's ability to create a rich and authentic story, full of complex characters, is a glimpse into what it means to take a risk. At its core, there's a conversation about art and philosophy, but this novel speaks so much more to those of us who find home in a new city, the challenges that brings, and the rewards

" A perfectly fair way to make the housing market more affordable and equitable in the near term does not exist. There’s been a lot of talk about reducing or eliminating the capital gains tax exemption on the sale of a principal residence, which potentially hurts long-time owners like boomers the most. No doubt, a more intense stress test will cut some young people out of the herd of buyers, or force some into the hands of unregulated lenders where rates could be higher. Those young buyers will be well rewarded for their forbearance if the froth in house prices disappears. The worst possible outcome for these buyers would be that housing is left alone and prices soar for another year or two as the pandemic ends, immigration resumes and cash on the sidelines finds its way into more home down payments." Globe & Mail article

  Video: Bloomberg News Amid a scorching real estate market, the head of the Royal Bank of Canada warned that the country needs short-term policy changes to cool the stark supply and demand mismatch. “I do think we have a supply-demand imbalance that’s causing a very strong, heated marketplace,” RBC’s chief executive officer Dave McKay said in an interview. “I do believe… that we do need to start invoking some policy change in the short-term.”