TORONTO, May 8, 2012 - On Saturday, May 12, more than 120 Royal LePage offices across Canada will host the National Garage Sale for Shelter, a one-day charity garage sale in support of the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation.

Royal LePage Shelter Foundation is Canada's largest public foundation dedicated exclusively to supporting women's shelters and ending family violence. Now in its fourth year, the event brings local residents together with Royal LePage REALTORS® to raise much-needed funds and awareness to help break the cycle of family violence. Since 2009, the National Garage Sale for Shelter has raised more than $850,000 to support women's shelters across the country and help fund long-term solutions to end violence in Canadian homes.

Please stop by your local Garage Sale for Shelter location on Saturday, May 12 to find some great bargains and help support a worthy cause.

Toronto, May 3, 2012 – Greater Toronto REALTORS® reported 10,350 transactions through the TorontoMLS System in April 2012. This level of sales was 18 per cent higher than the 8,778 firm deals reported in April 2011. The strongest sales growth was reported in the single-detached market segment, with transactions of this home type up by 22 per cent compared to a year ago.

“Interest in single-detached homes has been very high, both in the City of Toronto and surrounding regions. Growth in single-detached listings has not kept up with demand, which means competition between buyers in this market segment increased. With this in mind, it was no surprise that the strongest annual price increase was also experienced in the single-detached segment,” said Toronto Real Estate Board President, Richard Silver.

The average price for April 2012 transactions was $517,556 – up 8.5 per cent compared to April 2011. While price growth was strongest for single-detached homes, the better-supplied condominium apartment segment experienced a more moderate annual rate of price growth, at four per cent.

“Monthly mortgage payments remain affordable for home buyers in the Greater Toronto Area. While interest rates are generally expected to increase over the next two years, the extent and timing of rate hikes has been thrown into question by slower than expected economic growth in the first quarter of this year. On net, borrowing costs are expected to remain a positive factor influencing home sales through 2012,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis.

Source: Toronto Real Estate Board.

See full report

April 28, 2012 - Tom Chacko was one of the sponsors of the Play 'God's Masterpiece' produced by the St. Mathew's Mar Thoma Church. This was a Fundraiser for the newly built church on Hwy 25 few miles north of Hwy 401 in Milton(church building can be seen on the left side while driving north). Over thousand people watched the delightful play well organized and produced by the members.

Here are some photos taken at the Play God's Masterpiece (slide-show).

April 17, 2012 - The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 1 per cent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 1 1/4 per cent and the deposit rate is 3/4 per cent.
Read Overnight Rate

February 8, 2012 - Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and five other major real estate boards including Toronto Real Estate Board have developed a new index to measure the trend in house prices and inflation in the housing market. There are a number of indices under MLS® HPI indices. This is similar to Consumer Price Index (CPI) that is a measure of consumer price inflation.
Read more ...

November 30, 2011 -- Real gross domestic product (GDP) advanced 0.9% in the third quarter, after declining 0.1% in the second quarter. This is equivalent to an annual growth of 3.5%. Increased demand for exports led third quarter GDP growth.

Statistics Canada Report

October 18, 2011 - OpArt is realeasing Oakville's First Sophisticated Loft Condos to the public on a First Come First Served basis. They are offering a VIP pricing and Client Incentive program for a limited time. See OpArt Page for more details.