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Homes close to transit also good investments, real estate experts say

Whether it’s a condo in the city or a detached home in the suburbs, homebuyers looking for the best bargains should turn their sights to the east and west, industry experts advise.

David and Gilma Simon recently sold a home in Port Hope and moved to Oshawa, which offers the least expensive homes in the GTA.

The average sales price in Oshawa last month was $221,464 – significantly lower than the average GTA price of $394,000 or the Toronto average of $432,000, according to figures from the Toronto Real Estate Board.

The Simon family only has one car and, between David’s trips to work at the Darlington nuclear plant and shuttling Gilma to classes at Durham Continuing Education three times a week, all that driving was getting costly. The couple also felt that job prospects might be better in the GTA for Gilma, who emigrated from Panama.

The couple looked in Ajax and Whitby, where all they could find in their price range were townhouses. In Oshawa, they could get a detached home for the same money.

“We wanted an old-growth neighbourhood with mature trees and a street that wasn’t too active for traffic, as well as access to amenities such as shopping and nature,” David explains. “Transit was another consideration. And Oshawa feels like it has its own identity and sense of community, instead of being just a bedroom community.”

The 1980, three-bedroom backsplit they purchased for $241,000 meets all those criteria: it’s close to three parks, a walking trail, a wealth of stores, a bus stop and good schools for Gilma’s 13-year-old son.

Although it does have the cheapest real estate, Oshawa also has the dubious honour of the highest property taxes in the GTA.

For example, for a home valued at $275,000, a homeowner will pay $4,157 in taxes this year. That’s mainly due to the city’s heavy investment in replacing aging infrastructure.

But Maureen O’Neill, president of the Toronto Real Estate Board, feels Oshawa is an area that is “really going to go, ” noting GO train service offers convenient commuting for downtown workers.

Bowmanville, just east of Oshawa, also offers good value, with an average price of $238,000.

On the other side of the GTA, Milton continues to boom as the fastest-growing community in Canada, according to Statistics Canada.

“It’s popular, not just because of affordability but it’s close to the country. People who buy there like land,” says O’Neill. The average house price there is about $347,000.

However, O’Neill suggests anyone considering a home in suburban areas should test their commute to work for five days before making a decision.

“Burlington’s not bad if you work downtown,” she says. The average price there is $323,000 and sales last month were up 18 per cent over March 2007. “You get a lot of house and good value and you have a GO station. Anywhere near the GO, like Clarkson and Port Credit, is a good bet, too.”

O’Neill is also optimistic about Mimico’s prospects: “It’s going to go and it’s by the lake. The houses are older and you can buy one for about $400,000.”

In the city itself, O’Neill says neighbourhoods such as Corktown, Parkdale and Roncesvalles have become very popular, “when you couldn’t give a house away there three or four years ago.” Areas such as the Beach and Riverdale continue to be hot, although prices there are steep.

For condo buyers, O’Neill says the Bloor Street corridor continues to be popular, as well as Queen and King Streets.

The lakeshore and Harbourfront are also showing “tremendous stats,” she says, as well as the St. Lawrence Market area. But downtown, it’s tough to find anything for less than $350 per square foot, and that would be for low-end, small units.

She says good condo buys can often be found along the city’s border with the 905 regions.

There are also many good condo projects in the downtown west market, according to Jane Renwick, editor and executive vice-president of Urbanation, a research firm that publishes a quarterly report tracking the GTA condo market.

She says first-time buyers might consider looking to Liberty Village, a former industrial area under revitalization, where there’s a mix of new construction and conversion projects.

“It’s perfect for first-time buyers, retail is picking up there and it’s an area with character that has an urban feel,” she says. To the east of downtown, several new projects are underway in Corktown, the Distillery District and Queen St. E.

“The thing about staying a little bit east or west of the downtown is the pricing is a little less,” she says. Just east of downtown, expect to pay about $436 per square foot for a new condo and $491 in downtown west, compared to $674 in the downtown core. (Based on figures from the end of 2007).

If money is no object, suites in the Bloor/Yorkville area are commanding $1,282 per square foot.

For investors, Renwick says the best bets are the downtown core or the North York city centre. “There are a lot of rentals in North York and it’s close to the transportation hub,” she explains.

Scarborough had few new launches in 2007, though it is “a great option from an affordability standpoint,” says Renwick, with new suites selling for an average of $332 per square foot.

Mississauga was also quiet in 2007, with only two new launches, but look for a flurry of activity this year, says Renwick.

Other hot condo markets will be the upscale neighbourhoods of Rosedale, Forest Hill and Summerhill, as empty nesters looking for less maintenance than their detached homes look for alternatives to stay in the area.

What you get for $380,000 in …

MILTON

Three-bedroom, 2- 1/2-bath, two-storey detached brick home with 9-foot ceilings, hardwood floors and 1,990 sq. ft. On a 36- by 80-foot lot directly across from a park.

MARKHAM

Five bedroom, three-level 2,500-square-foot brick and stucco semi-detached home in Cornell. Cathedral foyer, 9-foot ceilings, upgraded cabinetry, single-car garage.

DOWNTOWN

One bedroom plus den condo in the Waterclub, with a solarium, two baths and a walkout to a terrace. One parking spot included. Maintenance fees: $447/month.

OSHAWA

Three-bedroom, two-bath brick bungalow, with crown mouldings, hardwood flooring, double-car garage, formal dining room and interlocking patio on a 50- by 112-foot lot.

– by Tracy Hanes of the Toronto Star

The following post is by Mike Cluett. Please visit Mike Cluett’s Milton blog

I was able to take sometime tonight to attend a Milton Town Council meeting and as the old saying goes…

Breaking news!!!!

Milton CAO Mario Belvedere is making a presentation to council about the proposed education village in Milton. During his report he made official that Wilfred Laurier University has entered into a memorandum of uderstanding to work on bringing a campus to Milton.

The proposed site would be on Tremaine Road south of Derry Road and north of Brittania on the west side.

There’s still a lof of work to be done to get this rolling more but its the first step to bringing a university to our town…

To continue reading this column, go to Mike Cluett’s Milton Blog.

How much tax on a $380,000 house in the GTA? Location plays big part in your tax bill…

Homeowners who live in the aging industrial city of Oshawa pay the highest property taxes in the GTA, while those who live in Toronto and Milton – the country’s fastest-growing community – pay among the lowest municipal taxes, a Toronto Star survey has found.

As Toronto City Council begins final debate today on a budget that includes a proposed 3.75 per cent tax hike, we’re taking a comparative look at tax rates and what drives them in the 25 municipalities that make up Greater Toronto.

The large disparity in property tax rates across the GTA is an indication of the very different challenges faced by the 25 municipalities that make up the most densely populated region of Canada.

The survey showed, among other things:

Oshawa’s high taxes are a testament to the unique difficulties faced by a city best known for General Motors as it grapples with a confluence of aging infrastructure, low property values and increased capital costs.

Homeowners in Durham Region municipalities such as Ajax, Pickering, Whitby, Oshawa and Clarington continue to pay significantly higher taxes than those in Peel, York and Halton – regions that also seem better positioned to draw business and commercial taxes.

Toronto manages to have it both ways, charging both the GTA’s highest industrial-commercial taxes and the region’s lowest residential property taxes.

Many rural municipalities, such as Uxbridge, Scugog and Georgina, struggle with high taxes while facing the problem of a small assessment base (both residential and industrial-commercial) and little prospect for growth as a result of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan and the newly protected Greenbelt.

The survey also found that Toronto and Oshawa, which represent extremes on the tax spectrum, are grappling with the underlying issues in their own unique ways.

In Toronto, where the financial burden is borne more heavily by the commercial-industrial sector, a 15-year plan that began in 2005 is gradually shifting more of the tax responsibility onto homeowners.

Meanwhile, Oshawa has embarked on an ambitious infrastructure investment plan, especially in its downtown core, hoping to capitalize on growth from new business and families seeking modestly priced homes.

One reason city-by-city comparisons are difficult is that the same amount of money buys “less house” in Toronto than in a place like Oshawa. On the other hand, a home with equivalent assessed value draws a far bigger tax bill in Oshawa than Toronto.

So the Star compared property taxes in two ways: First, by comparing what’s considered an “average” home within each of the region’s 25 municipalities; second, on a single property value ($380,000) applied across all the municipalities.

Torontonians pay taxes to a single entity: the city. In other places, residents pay both a city and a regional tax. For the sake of comparison, we blended those taxes proportionately. (The education tax, which is uniform and set by the province, appears on the municipal tax bill but isn’t included in this comparison.)

Oshawa regards an “average” home there to be valued at $275,000. At that assessed value, the homeowner will pay $4,157.56 in taxes in 2008, the Star found. That is:

$1,350 more per year than for an average Mississauga home ($365,000)

$939.90 more than for an average home in Vaughan ($412,070), and

$1,901.31 more than for an average Toronto home ($369,300).

We also compared taxes based on an across-the-board home value of $380,000, a figure chosen randomly by the Star.

On a home of that value in Oshawa, the owner’s municipal/regional taxes would be $5,744.86. That’s $2,822.01 more than on a similarly priced Mississauga home and $3,423.34 more than on a similarly priced Toronto home.

Chris Brown, Oshawa’s director of finance, acknowledges that residents in his city face significantly higher taxes than others, but says it’s caused by a confluence of events, including low property values and the fact that the city has made a long-term decision to invest heavily in infrastructure projects.

“We are in a major investment time frame right now,” says Brown. “There’s a cost to that, but we hope there’s a payoff down the road.”

The investments include a plan to revitalize the downtown core with the $45 million GM Centre, the $39 million Legend Centre, a provincial courthouse and a new fire hall.

Oshawa has even implemented special incentives to encourage companies to build residential and commercial buildings downtown – waiving lucrative development charges in hopes that benefits will come later.

“This type of investment attracts assessment,” says Brown. “If assessment increases, individual taxes could go down in the future.”

The situation is vastly different in other suburban municipalities, such as Milton, where booming development is helping to pay for new infrastructure. Its location along Highway 401 between Toronto and the U.S. border makes Milton attractive to business.

Milton’s population grew by 71.4 per cent in the previous five years, according to Statistics Canada figures released last year, making it the fastest-growing community in Canada, while Oshawa grew by a paltry 1.8 per cent, only slightly higher than built-out Toronto’s 0.9 per cent increase.

Companies like Magna, which established a stamping plant in Milton, and Whirlpool, which recently picked the area as its new distribution facility for the eastern seaboard, boost the community’s bottom line.

“We feel blessed,” says Milton Mayor Gordon Krantz. “We are well positioned geographically. We are three hours from the Windsor border.”

Ajax Mayor Steve Parish says one reason Durham Region’s suburban municipalities have higher taxes is that the region has not been as successful in attracting a healthy industrial-commercial tax base.

“In the case of places like Mississauga and Vaughan, one real driver that attracts industry is the proximity to the airport,” Parish adds. “It’s a big driver.”

Milton’s commercial business tax rate is just 2.32 per cent, the lowest in the GTA, while Vaughan’s is 2.39 per cent.

Oshawa’s commercial business tax rate stands at 3.58 per cent, much closer to Toronto’s 4.09 per cent.

– by Phinjo Gombu of the Toronto Star

University grads prefer Richmond Hill and Oakville, but Milton has gained the most between 2001 and 2006

The municipalities of Richmond Hill and Oakville have the highest percentages of residents with university degrees, diplomas or certificates in the Greater Toronto Area, according to data from the 2006 census released yesterday by Statistics Canada.

About 42 per cent of the residents in both towns hold university degrees at the bachelor’s level or above. Richmond Hill officials, including deputy mayor Brenda Hogg, expressed surprise at the numbers.

“York Region has always had a high percentage of well-educated residents. I did not realize that so many were situated in Richmond Hill!” Ms. Hogg wrote in an e-mail.

The two municipalities have a greater proportion of university grads than Toronto, where about 37 per cent have degrees. But the big city needn’t feel intellectually inferior - it leapfrogged over Markham for third place in the region.

All four municipalities rank well ahead of the national and provincial averages - only 23 per cent of Canadians hold university degrees, and only 31 per cent of Ontarians.

The booming town of Milton gained the most university grads between the census tallies of 2001 and 2006. About 28 per cent of Milton residents had university degrees in 2006, up from 23 per cent in 2001.

Where the scholars are:

Percentage of residents in 2006 with a university certificate, diploma or degree:

Richmond Hill 42%
Oakville 41.5%
Toronto 37.4%
Markham 36.8%
Aurora 35.8%
Mississauga 33.9%
Vaughan 30.8%
ONTARIO AVERAGE 30.7%
Burlington 30.3%
Milton 28.0%
Newmarket 26.3%
Whitby 24.5%
Pickering 23.7%
CANADIAN AVERAGE 23.0%
Ajax 22.3%
Brampton 21.4%
Caledon 21.3%
Oshawa 12.1%

– By Megan Grittani-Livingston of the Globe and Mail; Source: Statistics Canada

Patricia Eales will take a petition of 8,000 names to a GO Transit board meeting next week. She wants partial refunds when trains are 20 minutes late.

Oakville rider who began online petition criticizing rail service has become a powerful voice for change

They’re late for work and late coming home to pick up the kids from daycare.

Now GO riders are going to be charged more for what many are calling “atrocious” and “abysmal” service, says an Oakville woman who has become the voice of frustrated commuters across the region.

Pat Eales will take an 8,000-name online petition to the March 14 meeting of the GO board of directors. She plans to ask the board to postpone the fare increase planned for March 15 until GO can run its trains on time.

“Most of the people I rode the trains with, we felt our complaints were being dropped into a bottomless bucket. Now at least people think there’s a collective voice,” said Eales yesterday.

The petition asks GO to refund 50 per cent of fares when trains are late by 20 minutes or more, and to provide better notification of delays.

“We don’t mind paying a good fare for a good service. Just give us good service,” she said.

Eales started the petition Feb. 11, after train delays made her late arriving to work five days in a row, at a job she’d only started in November.

A busy single mother, Eales says an earlier train would put her at the office more than an hour ahead of her start time, but she wouldn’t be able to leave early.

Driving doesn’t make sense because by the time she learns of delays, she’s usually on the train platform, having paid her fare.

“There are obviously people who agree with her,” said GO spokesperson Stephanie Sorensen. “GO and the board are taking her concerns very seriously.”

The transit agency reported that 83 per cent of its trains ran on time last year, down from about 90 per cent in 2006.

Although it’s adding 27 faster locomotives that can pull an extra two cars, that won’t have an impact until later this year, after crews are trained and platforms lengthened throughout the system.

The only new locomotive running so far is temporarily assigned to the Lakeshore line.

Twelve-car trains that can accommodate an additional 300 people each won’t be in service until the summer and will be brought onto the Milton line first, Sorensen said.

Eales’s petition has helped “because now people are paying attention to the situation,” said Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn, who has persuaded Queen’s Park to appoint a customer service expert to a vacancy on the GO board.

“We need somebody who knows how to deal with people. We need somebody at the decision-making level looking at this through a customer service lens,” he said.

“You can’t have an economy the size of Toronto’s and not have a good train system. It doesn’t make any sense.

“If you look at any other jurisdiction around the world, it’s just not optional,” said Flynn.

– By Tess Kalinowski, Transportation Reporter for the Toronto Star

UPDATE: GO SAYS NO 11,000 TIMES

Board refuses to grant fare rebates for delayed trains despite petition from dissatisfied riders

They listened, but Pat Eales isn’t convinced GO Transit’s board of directors heard the deafening hue and cry of frustrated commuters demanding better service and a refund when trains are late.

“They just kept bringing up the same old excuses – the weather, the switches – and that it wasn’t their fault,” the Oakville mother of two said after tabling copies of an online petition at yesterday’s board meeting, supported by almost 11,000 dissatisfied riders.

The petition called for a 50 per cent refund on fares when trains are delayed 20 minutes or more. Eales also asked the board to freeze fare hikes until trains run as scheduled.

But her requests fell on deaf ears. A 15-cent-per-ride fare increase on a single adult ticket goes into effect today. Board chair Peter Smith confirmed there will be no refunds, something he said would spell disaster for the system in the throes of a major expansion.

GO Transit relies on the fare box for operating funds, so essentially riders themselves would be picking up the cost of the refunds.

Eales, however, did walk away with assurances that an advisory board will be established to handle service and reliability issues.

Smith later invited Eales to join that committee. She hasn’t yet decided if she will.

A plan for an improved communication system to advise riders of cancellations and delays was also approved.

During her presentation, Eales called on the board to fix glitches, even those that are out of its control. Tracks, switches and crews are under the jurisdiction of CN and CP, which own the rails GO uses.

“Stop thanking us for our patience and apologizing for any inconvenience you may have caused us. `Sorry’ doesn’t help when we are late for work or late home at night.”

Eales, a single mother of two teens who lives in Bronte, told the Star her patience with the transit system ran out in February after GO problems made her late five days in a row for her new job as an executive assistant at a not-for-profit academic research centre. She had tried emailing GO Transit authorities to complain about the system but got the run-around. She filled out a ridership survey but no one contacted her.

Unless the system becomes more reliable, she warned the board, transit users will get back into their cars.

Eales urged riders to take advantage of the “silent rebate” available at the customer service kiosk at Union Station. Staff offer vouchers when riders complain about late or cancelled trains.

With ridership increasing by 10,000 a day over last year, “we’re the victims of our own success,” Smith said in response, noting that improvements are on the horizon to ease the crunch.

About 170,000 people ride the trains on a typical weekday. “We don’t have the capacity on our trains or lines,” he said. “We’re building that capacity, but it takes a long time.”

Frances Chung, GO’s director of financial services, reported on major work underway to improve the aging signal and switching system. A 33-kilometre third track is being built on the Lakeshore corridor from Hamilton to Oshawa to increase capacity and reduce delays. New locomotives capable of pulling 12 cars are coming on board, as are new bi-level coaches. Crew staffing is also being increased.

Eales’ petition is to go to the Ontario Legislature next week.

– by Leslie Ferenc of the Toronto Star

The following post is by Mike Cluett. Please visit Mike Cluett’s Milton blog site here:

A couple of days ago, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty released his third budget. This is something unheard of for a minority government being able to have this many budgets without being defeated. In many cases, they’re doing a good job and while most Canadians don’t want an election, they seem comfortable with our MP’s in this minority situation.

Here are a couple of items that I pulled from the budget. All in all, it is a pretty sound plan for the coming years. Some of the big highlights for towns and cities are as follows:

To continue reading this column, go to Mike Cluett’s Milton Blog.

The following post is by Mike Cluett. Please visit Mike Cluett’s Milton blog site here:

At this point, Milton doesn’t have all day GO Train service to Toronto with only a few trains in the morning and a few in the evening. Many of the commuters that use the Milton station come from outside the area in Cambridge, Guelph and northern parts of Oakville and Burlington. The provincial government recently announced a large investment in GO Train services of $100 million dollars.

Unfortunately none of those dollars have made it to Milton…

To continue reading this column, go to Mike Cluett’s Milton Blog.

Competition is fierce in real estate so as part of his branding, Mississauga broker Parwesh K. (PK) Sabharwal wears a snappy hat with his business attire.

New Realtor Realities: Many in the GTA go above and beyond to earn loyalty because competition for clients has become so stiff

One agent packs up and stores a client’s massive shoe collection to minimize clutter. Another puts up a mother and her kids in her basement or provides amateur marriage counselling. And many more now deliver seemingly unusual services in an attempt to stand out in the fierce GTA real estate market.

“A real estate agent cannot afford to have an ego,” Mississauga broker Parwesh (PK for short) Sabharwal says. “In this cutthroat competitive market, one must meet all kinds of demands, even if they seem funny or weird.

“I even sat and packed up 100 pairs of shoes for one client and carried those big boxes all the way to her tiny basement,” recalls Sabharwal of one such extra service.

“Packing shoes isn’t part of my job description,” he says with a laugh. “But since the shoes were an eyesore – in the entrance of the house, and the lady wasn’t getting that – I offered to help out.”

Helping out is now often taken for granted, increasingly, by demanding clients, says this ReMax broker. Another factor is the number of agents in the game.

Phil Soper, president and CEO at Royal LePage, says the lure of real estate has caught on even with the younger set. The company now recruits many graduates from universities during their campus recruitment drives in Toronto.

And in such a market, there’s no dearth of unusual requests, agents say.

“A client who had daughters asked me to find out if the adjoining house to the one that they liked housed young boys. And if there were boys next door, then they wouldn’t buy that house,” Sabharwal says. “Awkwardly, I did comply by knocking on the next-door house, and casually inquiring about their family composition.”

Agents say the business is one that’s heavily based on referrals and clients will remember agents who go the extra mile even years after their house sells.

“Good service is being increasingly used by brokers as a way to distinguish them from the competition,” Soper says. His company coaches its agents on good practices.

Sabharwal says in the world of fancy packaging, branding is important. So he dons a matching hat with his business suit.

When he meets a client, he gives them a big docket of marketing material, which contains a huge photograph in that attire– smiling in a standing pose with his fancy P. initial engraved alongside each page describing the services he provides.

He gives clients a two-pack tutorial CD and testimonials from other clients he’s served. In addition he provides a colourful, two page-newsletter called Sabharwal’s Neighbourhood News.

To be an agent also means to be blessed with tons of patience, says Susan Taylor, a 20-year veteran, who jokingly admits she could easily fill in as a “marriage counsellor.”

In some cases marriages have broken up and couples have decided to sell a house. Taylor recalls one such incident where she spent more than two months coaxing, cajoling and counselling the husband to get him to sign papers, so that she could sell the house.

Taylor, a Royal LePage agent, says the dynamics of the real estate game have changed. Twenty years ago it was more of a nine-to-five job.

“The Internet and the advent of TV home improvement shows have raised awareness levels and it’s almost as if they (buyers) want houses to be perfect,” she says.

It all means that agents need to work extra hard to make sure the house is good to sell.

Taylor says if that means pouring in some extra bleach in (the clients’) dirty kitchen sink then that’s fine. She draws the line, however, when it comes to cleaning toilets. Instead, she has called cleaning services and paid for the services.

Taylor isn’t alone in that regard. Jillinda Greene, a longtime ReMax Hallmark agent in the Beach area says staging a house is very important. She has paid the bills for a florist or even rented paintings which cost her between $500 and $1,800, depending on the size of the house.

But Betty Durocher gives a whole new meaning to the term open house. In July 2002, this Royal LePage agent from Newmarket moved some of her clients – a mother and two children – into her own basement for two months. The trio shared Durocher’s kitchen and other facilities upstairs.

“The mother had bought a townhome but could not afford a place in the interim period, and not many rentals were available for such a short time and I just knew she couldn’t afford it,” says Durocher.

The agent’s retired husband at times also cooks dinner for clients, or babysits children while she takes the parents out.

Extra services don’t surprise Soper, who says consumers have a right to expect good services as they pay a considerable fee in commissions.

Agents say that commissions are under pressure and many in the market work for less than 5 per cent.

Not surprisingly, Internet sites that allow people to list their homes and eliminate the agent completely are growing steadily. Gabi Fish is vice-president of the Canadian online home-selling site, propertysold.ca. Fish says many home sellers don’t want to pay costly commissions. The website – barely two years old – garnered 1.81 million unique visits (12.5 million page loads) last year, higher than what it got when it started in 2006 (1.1 million unique visitors).

It sold 394 properties last year compared to 119 in 2006. Fish says listings in Toronto, the website’s largest market, have increased with the GTA area getting 340 listings this year, compared to 152 in 2006.

But agents say the Internet cannot replace the human element of being able to service clients in unique circumstances.

Linda Morgan, a Niagara Region real estate agent for Royal LePage, tells the story of a single mom with multiple sclerosis who was living on a disability pension that she helped — first to sell her house, and then buy a new one.

The house where this mom and her son were living was in danger of being lost for nonpayment of municipal taxes. Morgan called in the help of her husband and his friends who repaired it so that it could be put up for sale. After selling the house and finding a condo that fit her client’s needs, Morgan found out the lady wasn’t qualifying for a mortgage, so she worked with her own bank to see that through.

Morgan says she also paid her own money for the remodelling of the bathrooms because the owner couldn’t and then, with countless trips to the local MPP’s office, and the March of Dimes, the owner was able to get a grant finally approved that repaid this money back.

CROWDED FIELD

Despite the increased competition in the market, more and more people want to become licensed real estate agents.

» The Real Estate Council of Ontario, or RECO, the regulating body for agents in Ontario, says there has been a 20 per cent overall increase in the number of registrants in Ontario since 2005, with the agency processing more than 400 applications for new registrations each month. In 2003, there were about 300 new applications per month processed by the agency.

In 2005, Ontario had 40,665 registrants with 11,675 of those coming from Toronto (M postal codes) and 26,792, which included Toronto and Brampton, Durham, Mississauga, Oakville, Milton, Orangeville, and York. In 2007, Ontario had 49,429 registrants with 12,472 of those coming from Toronto (M postal codes) and 29,222, which included Toronto and Brampton, Durham, Mississauga, Oakville, Milton, Orangeville, and York.

As of Feb. 1, 50,000 agents were registered with RECO in Ontario.

» An increase can also been seen (in the past three years) in memberships with the Toronto Real Estate Board: 2005 – 22,953; 2006 – 24,894; 2007-26,861; 2008 – a further 185, taking the total number close to 27,046.

» ReMax says it has 8,540 agents in Ontario and Atlantic Canada. (nationally 17,600).

In 2007, of the 751 agents it added to its roster, 445 were in the Ontario-Atlantic region, which was the largest growth for ReMax globally last year. As well, in 2006, of the 1,200 new agents, 650 were from the Ontario-Atlantic area. This region has been growing by 400 to 600 agents on average per year, with growth ranging from 5 per cent to 10 per cent over 10 years.

Sources: Real Estate Council of Ontario, Toronto Real Estate Board, ReMax

– by Rakshande Italia of the Toronto Star