Eagle Quest Properties

The Census Bureau today released the Report on Residential Vacancies and Homeownership. This data covered fourth quarter 2009.

From the release…

• National vacancy rates in the fourth quarter 2009 were 10.7 percent for rental housing and 2.7 percent for homeowner housing.
• The rental vacancy rate was higher than the fourth quarter 2008 rate 10.1 percent and not statistically different from the rate last quarter 11.1 percent.
• For homeowner vacancies, the current rate was not statistically different from the fourth quarter 2008 rate 2.9 percent or from the rate last quarter 2.6 percent.
• The homeownership rate at 67.2 percent for the current quarter was not statistically different from the fourth quarter 2008 rate 67.5 percent, but it was lower than last quarter’s rate 67.6 percent.

via Census Bureau: 130.6 Million Housing Units in the US; 18.9 Million are Vacant.

An 8-foot flat ceiling can make a home feel cramped and uniform these days, as higher ceilings, both flat and vaulted, take over the housing market. Forty-two percent of builders responding to a 2002 NAHB survey said their homes had 9-foot first-floor ceilings, and 15 percent claimed ceilings of more than 9 feet. In a June 2005 AIA survey, 51 percent of residential architects said they use increased ceiling heights, two-story entries and vaulted ceilings to add volume to their homes.

Creating a cathedral ceiling in a ranch or split level home is one of the easiest ways to break out of the box, architecturally speaking. Cathedral ceilings can open up a house, adding a more spacious feeling to just about any room.

On the other hand, rooms with cathedral ceilings can be difficult to heat and cool. Homeowners may love the appearance of their newly remodeled room, but find that it is uncomfortable to live in.

via Raising Ceilings Without Raising the Roof – 8/1/2005 – Professional Remodeler.

His decision was upheld by the Ontario Court of Appeal when the landlords challenged it eight months later. Undeterred, the landlords made an application to the Supreme Court for leave to appeal, at which point the Ontario Human Rights Commission became involved in the case, along with an affidavit from Ms. Hall outlining the arguments the Commission would make if allowed to intervene.

In its submission to the Court, the Commission said that the effect of the zoning bylaw was to restrict students' access to rental housing because of the nature of the students' relationships to one another. It argued such a restriction is inconsistent with the Ontario Planning Act, which states that a municipality does not have the authority to pass a bylaw that distinguishes between people who are related or unrelated with respect to the occupancy or use of a building, including the occupancy or use as a single housekeeping unit.

via Court slams door on student housing case.

The new congress center for the 4th World Solar Cities Conference, which takes place in September 2010, is now complete. Located in Dezhou of the Shandong Province, the 75,000 square meter (807,293 square feet) center includes exhibition centers, scientific research facilities, meeting and training facilities, and a hotel. It'll be a showcase of solar design, solar desalination, and, of course, about 50,000 square-feet of solar panels on the exterior.

With advanced roof and wall insulation, the conference center is supposed to be about 30% more efficient than China's national standard. And, notwithstanding its size, renewable energy will power 95% of the center's energy needs.

via Massive Solar Powered Sundial Building Now Complete in Dezhou, China.

Next summer (2010) the Ontario Government is set to  put into force its new harmonized GST/PST sales tax which will apply a 13%  sales tax to everything we purchase.

Things That Were Not Subject To The Current 8% PST will be now taxed.
As a result, things that were not previously taxed under the current Ontario Provincial Sales Tax (PST) will be taxed at 8%..

The new 13% tax will therefore apply to things like your electric bill, your gas bill, your water bill, condominium fees, insurance premiums, and every other good and service you purchase. There are almost no exemptions.

The current Ontario PST tax does not apply to services, nor does it apply to the purchase of certain goods. The new 13% tax will therefore extend the old 8% PST tax rate to the purchase of all goods and all services.

The New 13% Tax Will Apply To The Purchase of All New Homes. The new harmonized GST/PST will also apply to all purchases of all new homes. If a person were to purchase a new $1 million dollar home in Toronto , they would have to pay roughly $200,000 in taxes as a result of the Ontario land transfer tax, the new city of Toronto land transfer tax, and the new harmonized 13% GST/PST.

Think about that and what that would do to real estate values in the province .

It will cause property values to fall and kill the new home construction industry and the jobs it creates.

And it won’t be long before you’ll hear our elected representatives telling us that, because of the harm that has been inflicted to the new home construction industry by the new 13% tax, it would be “fair” to extend the new 13% tax to sales of existing homes.

The New 13% Tax Is An Assault On Your Primary Residence. Canadians have had two things that they have always been able to count on as being tax free – things that they could use to save money and accumulate wealth. They are your: (a) primary home; and (b)RRSP. That’s it.

The extension of the new 13% GST/PST to homes is simply a tax assault by the government on your primary home.. They want to tax your primary home and you will suffer because of it.
Why? Because if a purchaser has to pay almost $200,000 in taxes to buy your $1 million dollar home, the purchaser is going to pay less to you for your home. The purchaser will reduce the amount he or she is willing to pay to you in order to pay all the taxes.

The New 13% Tax Will Effectively Raise Your Income Taxes. Currently, the combined Federal/Ontario income tax rates are roughly 25% on the first $20,000 of taxable income, 42% on the next $40,000 of taxable income, and 46.5% on each dollar of taxable income over $60,000.
On top of that you have to add the “Fair Share Health Tax” of up to $1,000 each of us has to pay.

If the Ontario Government gets away with implementing their new harmonized GST/PST sales tax of 13%, the top effective income tax rates in Ontario will be as follows (since you can’t spend any of your tax paid dollars without paying the new harmonized 13% GST/PST tax):

38% on the first $20,000
53% on the next $40,000
59.5% on every dollar over $60,000

On top of that, you have to pay your Ontario Fair Share Health Tax, your city realty taxes, your city garbage fees, your city water fees, your city street parking permit fees, your annual Ontario vehicle license plate fees, your Ontario land transfer tax, your gasoline taxes, your liquor taxes, your air departure taxes, your entertainment taxes, and so on..

OF ALL THE MONEY YOU WORKED HARD TO EARN, WHAT PERCENTAGE
ARE YOU REALLY KEEPING FOR YOUR OWN USE?  25%? 20%? 10%? ENOUGH IS ENOUGH – FIGHT BACK THIS HAS GOT TO STOP HERE OR WE WILL ALL SOON BE WORKING FULL TIME FOR THE VARIOUS LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT IN ONTARIO .
YOU CAN ALREADY SEE HOW ARE LIFESTYLES ARE DECLINING BECAUSE OF THE ENORMOUS TAX LOAD WE BEAR.. AS A RESULT, I URGE YOU TO TAKE THIS ISSUE SERIOUSLY AND TO FILL IN AND SIGN THE PETITION AT  www.unfairtaxgrab.com AGAINST THE NEW HARMONIZED GST/PST TAX.

I WOULD ALSO ASK YOU TO SEND THIS E-MAIL ON TO OTHERS THAT YOU KNOW AND ASK THEM TO DO THE SAME. IF WE DON’T WORK TOGETHER ON THIS ISSUE THE NEW HARMONIZED 13% SALES TAX WILL BECOME A REALITY NEXT SUMMER.

THANK YOU.

to sign a petition go to  www.unfairtaxgrab.com

Thousands say “no” to the HST

Dalton McGuinty claims “no one is complaining” about his unfair tax grab. You proved him wrong this week. On Wednesday we sent out a request asking you to send a message to the McGuinty Government about the HST. Almost instantly our email box began to fill. By the end of the day we’d received nearly 2,000 messages.New Democrat Members of Provincial Parliament did their best to read them into the record in the Legislature, but they simply ran out of time. The good news is: there are more debates to come and we’ll be sending you details about how to keep up the fight against this unfair tax grab. In the meantime, you can read a transcript of the debate here .

Together we can stop the HST.

A surge in office construction in Toronto’s downtown may push the city’s vacancy rate higher than New York and Boston after developers added space during the first recession in 17 years.

The proportion of empty space in Toronto’s office market, lower than the 12 largest U.S. business districts last year, will more than triple by 2011 to 13.6 percent, according to Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Brookfield Properties Corp., Cadillac Fairview Corp. and Menkes Developments Ltd. each added a glass skyscraper to the downtown of Canada’s most populous city in the last five months.

via Toronto Office Vacancies May Top Boston, Manhattan (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.

Workers on the twin tunnel component of a water treatment facility in North Vancouver have voted to certify a new union, after construction on the stalled project restarted this fall.

“It’s the first time in North America where there were two different general contractors on the same project whose workers voted to displace the same incumbent union,” said Mark Olsen, Business Manager for the Construction and Specialized Workers’ Union Local 1611.

“There were issues such as shifting, the ratification of an extension of the existing agreement and in general members realized they would be better represented by three traditional unions.”

About 130 union members who are working on the Seymour-Capilano Filtration Plant twin tunnel project recently participated in a Labour Relations Board-supervised vote.

via North Vancouver twin tunnel workers vote to certify new union – Journal of Commerce.

Canadian commercial real estate may be a profitable investment in coming years, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Prem Watsa said.

“Commercial real estate is interesting, because of course it’s got the refinancing risk that’s coming in, particularly in the United States,” Watsa said today at a private-equity conference sponsored by ACG Toronto. “In the next few years, we think that might be an area that you might want to invest in.

”Watsa, 59, said there are fewer investment opportunities now than there were a year ago, when stock markets had dropped by about 50 percent and there were “many, many opportunities.” The head of Toronto-based Fairfax since 1985, Watsa has patterned his company after Warren Buffett’s model of value investing.

“Value investing means trying to figure out what a company’s worth, and buying it significantly at a discount,” Watsa said.

via Canada Real Estate May Be Good Investment, Watsa Says Update2 – Bloomberg.com.