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| Peter Sigurdson
Sales Representative
Century 21 Heritage Group Ltd., Brokerage | |
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| Saturday, 27 February 2010, 10:52:33 PM | | Everyone wants to save money, and we all want to reduce the impact of our lifestyles on the environment. Making your home more energy efficient will save costs now and be a great plus come time to sell.
From the roof to the foundation, a number of innovative building practices often go into constructing today’s greenest homes.
Roof shingles for example, are now available in recycled materials. Environmentally friendly spray foam insulation, which can help prevent dampness, keep out pollutants and contribute to structural strength, is even partially made with recycled materials.
Roofs, walls and floors can be insulated as well with special structural panels that consist of two layers of board with insulating foam in between them. The forms that are used to mould a home’s poured concrete foundation can now also be found with insulating ability, and barriers that prevent dampness from rising into the foundation can be used at this stage of construction as well. Even exterior cladding is now insulated to offer greater energy efficiency.
If you prefer an older home though, there are many simple ways to make it more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
Start with an Energy Star programmable thermostat that will save on heating and cooling costs when you’re not home. You can take this approach a step further by investing in a new high efficiency furnace or air conditioner. Adding insulation to the attic of your home will offer reduced energy costs for years to come as well.
A tank-less water heater will also save on energy costs by providing only the amount of heated water that you need rather than maintaining it in a cylinder.
Even making minor changes can have an impact, like choosing energy efficient light bulbs - Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) are good and Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are even better. Replacing your traditional light bulbs with CFLs or LEDs is another simple way to reduce costs. Some homeowners are even turning to solar lighting, in which a panel that is installed on your roof feeds energy through a tube into the house.
If you’re planning to make cosmetic changes to your home you can do your part for the environment by choosing wood flooring, and even carpet, made with recycled content. Look for low VOC paints and stains as well, which reduce the number of unstable, carbon-containing compounds that enter the air and react with other elements.
In the bathroom, you can keep more money in your pocket by installing low-flow faucets, showerheads and toilets.
Replacing old windows with low-E argon-filled units that have the Energy Star symbol can make a dramatic difference to your home’s energy efficiency as well.
Changing your old appliances with new Energy Star machines is also a great way to reduce energy consumption while enhancing the overall appeal of your home.
Beyond enjoying the aesthetics, cost savings and fulfillment associated with helping the environment, you can also consider getting an energy audit to take full advantage of a number of government rebates for energy-saving home improvements. There are many cost-saving programs and rebates on everything from low-flow faucets and toilets to air conditioners and full-scale environmental audits.
Nothing can substitute for good-old fashioned conservation. Remember that the energy you save today may well be the energy that is needed tomorrow. Small steps like plugging electronics into a power bar that can be switched off when not in use will reduce the phantom load and your electricity bill. In the future, watch for rooms wired with a single “all-off” switch to serve the same purpose.
Rooftop solar panels can also be used for hot water and many swimming pool owners have discovered this innovative alternative. Tankless water heaters are another smart solution. They heat only the water you need instead of continuously warming an enormous cylinder.
Heating is a key factor in your home’s energy efficiency. Today’s high-efficiency gas furnaces are less expensive than their predecessors and one of the best investments you can make. For a nominal fee you can also have infrared photos taken of your house to show where heating and cooling losses are occurring. The power of a simple tube of caulking cannot be emphasized enough.
Other creative options include hanging insulating drapes on north and east exposures and keeping the blinds closed on south and west windows during summer. Even landscaping can make a difference. Deciduous trees should be planted on the south and west sides of your property to keep it cool in summer and well-lit in winter, while coniferous trees planted along north and east lines can serve as a wind barrier.
Call me to inquire about environmental fix-ups you wish to pursue. In future, this will add to the value of your property.
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| Posted on Fri, 26 Feb 2010, 09:10:19 AM in My services | | | | The Toronto real estate market just keeps going and going.
In the first part of 2009, things were bad and many thought the real estate market was in for some tough times going into 2010, but by June things began to rebound. After hitting a low in April/May, the Toronto real estate market continued to improve through June, July and August. By September, the real estate market was seeing record growth and had become so strong that the economy of Canada was being pushed up by Toronto and Vancouver, who had the strongest real estate markets in the country. Going into 2010, things continue to improve.
Sales for January in the Toronto area are up an excellent 87 percent from what they were in January 2009.
In all, 4,986 homes were sold in January, which is well above the 2,670 homes sales that happened the year before. Of course, these figures are a bit biased considering that the market has been improving for months and January 2009 had the lowest recorded home sales for that month, ever. So, naturally any increase in the real estate market is going to look good because when you hit bottom, there is no where to go but up.
As with every single month since June, the price of a home in Toronto is also up. In January 2009, the average home price was $343,632, but this year the average home price shot up by 19 percent to $409,058.
Even with the surging real estate market right now, most experts expect that by June, the housing market in Toronto and around the country will be slowing considerably. The reason for this is because the prime interest rate is expected to rise above its record low. Right now, the interest rate sits at .25 percent, and with the rise will come more expensive mortgages. | |
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| Posted on Tue, 23 Feb 2010, 12:07:57 PM in Marketing strategies | | A number of you have been asking me about whether to take seriously the currently good real estate climate, or whether it is really just a backlash of post recession pent-up demand and not likely to be sustainable for any length of time. Let's take a look at the background and find out what we can see.
A few notable economists (http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_99/mbutler120299c.html), around the beginning of the 20th century, have proposed the notion of 50-60 years supercycles. They suggested that these supercycles do not necessarily apply to each individual country but are present and influence the global economy. While the precise start and end of the supercycles as well as their duration has been open for debate, a number of economists identify 5 cycles since the Industrial Revolution.
Modern macroeconomics rejects the idea of supercycles, but it is interesting to note that the theory is the centre of the largest dissident group within economics, groups that includes prominent economists, and which is respected by respected business people.
Each cycle has four seasons: winter (depression), spring (growth), summer (acceleration) and fall (plateau).
Supporters of the theory indicate that the last cycle extended more than usual to 80 years and the fall phase occurred in the nineties and the start of the first decade of the new millennium. Consequently, what we experience now is the winter phase.
Regardless of other drops in real estate prices that occurred within the supercycle (e.g. early ‘80s), a winter phase always affects the value of the real estate.
How much longer will this winter last? According to the insiders, until 2016 – 2020.
Which begs the question: if the theory is correct, is it a bit early to see a sustainable growth in real estate prices?
CIBC has recently predicted a coming second dip in real estate prices in the United States of 5 – 10%. Almost 2 million mortgages are more than 90 days delinquent and according to history, most will end up foreclosing.
If that happens, it will validate the hypothesis that the winter of the supercycle will last a few more years. | |
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