Give your garden a good tune-up

Give the garden a good haircut - Start with the messiest looking plants: perennials and annuals with dry, blackened stems and leaves, and perennials that are overgrown. If you feel overwhelmed by the prospect of tackling a big garden cleanup, deal with one plant at a time to make the job more manageable. Deadhead any annuals in the garden, remove any discoloured or dry leaves. If the plants are beyond repair, pull them up and discard them. You can fill any empty spaces with fall blooming mums or ornamental kale.

Feed your plants - Repeat bloomers such as certain daylilies, echinacea, and catmint will appreciate a long drink of water laced with water-soluble fertilizer. Continue feeding annuals such as geraniums, salvia, snapdragons, marigolds, rudbeckia hirta, sunflowers and zinnias, which will continue to bloom well into the autumn.

Plant cool season edibles - If you are short of garden space, sow the baby salad greens in containers and grow them in a sunny spot on your deck, patio or balcony. Frilly green and red leaf lettuce looks pretty on its own, or use the plants as fillers in containers with flowers.

Water - Do not assume that rain will water your planters. Mature planters have large leaves that act as umbrellas redirecting the water to the ground around the container. To check if a container needs water, push your finger deeply into the soil, if the soil feels dry, the plant needs water. Water trees and shrubs deeply in the fall if there is not adequate rainfall. They will need this water to survive the long winter drought.

Replace stressed out annuals - Hot dry weather, summer holiday time away from home and undersized containers each put a strain on planter gardens. If your containers look sad, they may be beyond redemption. Do yourself a favour and tip them in the compost pile and treat yourself to a few new planters: a virtual rainbow of chrysanthemums, asters, purple fountain grass and ornamental kale & cabbage are ready for fall planting from your local garden centre.

Source: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2014/09/03/five-tips-for-a-good-garden-tune-up

Could targeted land transfer taxes cool Canada's hottest markets?

Ontario’s real estate association has launched an ad campaign to explain why they believe land transfer taxes hurt the economy. But in a hot housing market, could the tax be used to cool particular regions? There are still a wide range of things that could be done, including raising minimum down payments. 

A number of provinces and cities in Canada already have land transfer taxes, which are paid by real estate buyers. The land transfer tax is progressive in that it varies with the value of the property (0.5 per cent on the first $55,000, 1 per cent from $55,000 to $400,000 and 2 per cent over that). The Ontario Real Estate Association says that it amounts to about $4,000 for an average home.

The C.D. Howe Institute found that the land transfer tax slowed down the lower-priced portion of the market more than the higher end (presumably because people at the lower end of the market are more sensitive to the added cost of the tax) and it notes that “over the longer term, there are concerns that a land transfer tax would reduce mobility of people, which would have a negative unintended consequence on job markets and economic growth.”

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/housing/the-real-estate-beat/targeted-land-transfer-taxes-eyed-as-a-cooling-tool-for-hot-markets/article20780657/

Canadian Real Estate Among World's Most Overvalued

Overvalued real estate markets in Canada and elsewhere show an "unhappy resemblance" to the conditions that existed in America prior to the financial crisis, according to The Economist, showing that homes are at least 25 per cent overvalued in the Great White North and eight other countries.

One of the reasons was that low interest rates were driving up the housing market since the 2008 financial crisis. Consumers thus had an easier time borrowing money, which also contributed to rising household debt-to-income ratios.

Analysts have long predicted that Canada could be headed for a housing crash. Capital Economics in May predicted a 25 per cent drop in prices over the long term, having observed slowdowns in areas such as Halifax, Winnipeg and Victoria.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/09/04/canada-real-estate-overvalued-economist_n_5762286.html

Canadians’ real-estate exuberance may be fading

The share of Canadians who predict home prices will rise over the next six months fell to 38 percent this month, the lowest since April, according to Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index. The Nanos survey found 48.1 percent of respondents predict prices will remain unchanged, the most since February, and 11.5 percent forecast a drop, matching the average this year.

Home sales and prices had shown unexpected strength as the lowest mortgage rates in decades spur demand. Forecasts for housing starts were raised to the highest this year in monthly Bloomberg News surveys of analysts taken this month. 

The Canadian Real Estate Association said home sales rose 1.8 percent in August from July, the seventh straight monthly gain, led by sales in Toronto and Vancouver.

Source:  http://www.bnn.ca/News/2014/9/15/Canadians-real-estate-exuberance-may-be-fading-poll.aspx

Canadian home sales rose 0.8% from June to July

According to statistics released by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales activity increased almost one per cent in July 2014 from the previous month, marking the sixth consecutive monthly increase and the highest level for sales since March 2010.

For the year-to-date, sales activity is up 4.7 per cent compared to the first seven months of 2013 and in line with the 10-year average for the period.

Two-storey single family homes continued to post the biggest year-over-year price gains (+6.32 per cent), followed closely by one-storey single family homes (+5.47 per cent) and townhouse/row units (+5.33 per cent). Price growth for apartment units was comparatively more modest (+3.18 per cent). 

The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average price for homes sold in July 2014 was $401,585, up five per cent from the same month last year.

The national average price continues to be skewed upward by sales activity in Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto, which are among Canada's largest and most expensive housing markets. Excluding these two markets from the calculation, the average price is a relatively more modest $327,988 and the year-over-year increase shrinks to four per cent.

Source: http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1398626/canadian-home-sales-edge-higher-in-july