Finance Ministers and Toronto Mayor to Meet Quarterly as Housing Issue Heats Up.

Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

From Andrea James, CBC News.

The federal and Ontario finance ministers have promised to meet every quarter with the mayor of Canada's largest city to try to rein in the hot real estate activity in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond.

Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced that Ottawa will dedicate resources within the Canada Revenue Agency to ensure that those in the GTA housing market follow real estate tax laws.

Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa.

And he agreed with his provincial counterpart, Charles Sousa, and Toronto Mayor John Tory that the federal government needs to ensure that banks and other mortgage lenders ‘are operating prudently’ to make sure the economy remains stable.

The trio met Tuesday afternoon to discuss the challenges of rapidly rising housing costs and to see what the three levels of government can do.

Toronto Mayor John Tory.

Sousa remained tight-lipped about the province's plans, but said to expect measures in the upcoming provincial budget — something the government has been foreshadowing for weeks.

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Home sales hit record high.

Zach Neal photo. Norman Street, Sarnia.

OTTAWA - Home sales across the country hit a record high last month, propped up by transactions in the fiercely hot market of Toronto, further fuelling concerns about the city’s real estate sector.

The Canadian Real Estate Association said Tuesday home sales over its Multiple Listings Service system increased by 1.1 per cent in March to top the previous monthly record set in April 2016. On a seasonally adjusted basis, sales totalled 46,353, up from 45,856 in February.

Bank of Montreal chief economist Doug Porter said where you stand on the issue of Canada’s housing market depends on where you live.

“Almost the entire province of Ontario’s housing market is now on fire, while most of the rest of the country wonders what all the fuss is about,” Porter wrote in a research note.

Link to the rest here.

Reflected Heat Warms Smaller Centres.

From Dave Dentinger, Blackburn News.

Smaller markets like Sarnia-Lambton are reaping some benefit from Toronto’s red hot housing market.

The president of the local real estate board, Steve Park, made the comment on CHOK’s The Talk Show with Sue Storr Tuesday morning.

“For 25 years, as long as I’ve been in real estate, every time someone listed their house they said ‘Well, we just want that Toronto buyer to come,’ and they never did because it was like there was a wall in London,” says Park. “That has changed in the last five to seven years and yes, they are retiring in Sarnia. They’re not doing that in droves, but they are doing that a lot more than they were, five to seven years ago.”

Park says the local market is doing very well but the average sale price has increased by only about five percent. He thinks, in part, expensive pricing in Toronto is driving people to smaller population centres.

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