Friday, March 16, 2018
Toronto's Housing Market Crash is Epic! - What You Need To Know
Josh Sigurdson talks with author and economic analyst John Sneisen about the alarming plunge of the Toronto real estate market as we've seen a plunge of about 17% in home value since April, 2017 when the market saw a 30% year over year average. That's less than a year!
While 41.2% less people are buying detached homes in Toronto, 10% more people are buying condos, cutting costs, likely because the massive dip in the market has hurt their wallets.
The demand is not there, but there's certainly a lot of building and the market saw the peaks and euphoria, but people are packing up. This is exactly what we predicted as the market saw all time highs. It was unnatural. It was euphoric. It was manipulated. People with no understanding of the market were using their homes as piggy banks, taking out mortgages and expecting everything to appreciate in value without limitations. This was of course naive and we've seen this kind of attitude before.
We are seeing the return of the collateralized debt obligations (now known as collateralized loan obligations) by banks like BMO, not to mention the return of the credit default swaps and mortgage backed securities. No surprises that you play such games, you will win the same terrible prizes.
We are seeing a similar housing bubble in Vancouver that will go the way of Toronto as well. Of course no one in the media is reporting on it which is why we do what we can to give people the information necessary for them as individuals to prepare. This is not going to be pretty and knowing this info could if applied correctly with good due dilligence prepare individuals and safeguard them from the collapse of the overall market.
There are housing bubbles popping up in Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, London UK, Sydney and Perth Australia, Oslo Norway and countless other places throughout the world. It's about time we stop repeating history over and over again and start understanding the causes of these problems rooted in the central banking system and stop perpetuating the problems with government and further central bank action. The free market shall prevail as long as individuals educate themselves accordingly.
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Toronto's Dwayne Anthony Vidal father of three, shot dead in Etobicoke on March 10, 2018
Dwayne Anthony Vidal, a young father of three children, was feeling happy about his new job and moving towards a better life when he left work at 5 p.m. on March 10.
About 40 minutes later, he was fatally shot in the chest steps away from his townhouse at 17 Mount Olive Dr., near Martin Grove and Albion Rds. in Etobicoke.
Police said the suspect fled the scene immediately in the passenger seat of a white vehicle.
Vidal’s children, two sons and a daughter, were waiting for their dad to get home.
Friends and family remember the 31-year-old chef at Villa Colombo, a long-term care facility in North York, as a hardworking, funny, loving man who adored his kids and made delicious fried rice.
“He talked a lot about the things he wanted to do in his life,” said Palma Clarke, a co-worker and a friend of Vidal, who was “more like a son than a friend.”
“He talked about how he wanted to buy a house with his brother. He had gone back to school to get his trucking license and recently got a job as a truck driver. He was working multiple jobs. He always remembered to take care of his kids. He always wanted to do something to excel in life for them,” Clarke told the Star over the phone.
“The last time I saw him, Dwayne made us fried rice and chicken at work,” Clarke said.
“The fried rice was his speciality and so tasty. The curry goat he also made was to die for. We just talked and goofed around. He was always cracking jokes.”
“I still call him,” Clarke added. “I called him today too hoping he would pick up.”
Originally from Jamaica, Vidal moved to Canada with his younger brother and father in 1997, according to his brother Troy Vidal.
“He was a great big brother,” Vidal said.
“His personality was awesome. He was fun, outgoing, living. It was always about his family and close friends for him. When he was not working hard, he was with family.”
“I remember the times we used to play soccer together when we were young. I remember being there for his first baby in the hospital. He was there when I had my first child,” Vidal said choking back tears.
According to Clarke and Dwayne’s brother, everyone was shocked to find out Vidal had been shot. Investigators said on Wednesday morning that Vidal was not known to police, and could not comment on whether or not the shooting was targeted.
It was interesting because Dwayne always worried about the neighbourhood he lived in, Clarke said.
“He was always worried about all the shootings. If he saw a shooting on the news, he always asked why people don’t put down the guns and the knives. He didn’t like the violence.”
Police have described the suspect of the shooting as a Black male, between 5’9” and 6’ tall, and wearing a black hood with a covering on his face.
Investigators said the suspect was captured on surveillance video walking around the townhouse complex seven to eight minutes before the shooting.
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Toronto Teen seriously injured in Flemingdon Park shooting Thursday March 15, 2018
A teenage boy is seriously injured after a shooting in Flemingdon Park Thursday night.
Toronto police were called around 11:10 p.m. in a townhouse complex near Rochefort Dr. and Deauville Ln., in the area of Don Mills and Eglinton.
When police arrived, they found the boy with multiple gunshot wounds. Toronto paramedics said he was rushed to hospital in serious, but non-life-threatening condition.
No suspect information has been released. Police are investigating.
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Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Toronto Homicide #11 of 2018 Dwayne Anthony Vidal Toronto Police Services News Conference
On Wednesday, March 14, 2018, at 10:30 a.m., in the media gallery at headquarters, Homicide Detective Sergeant Mike Carbone updated the media on the investigation into Homicide #11/2018.
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Tuesday, March 6, 2018
Toronto area home prices down 12%, sales volume in February 2018 down 35% from 2017 record highs
There was a total of 5,175 residential transactions through the board's MLS system last month, down 34.9 per cent compared to the 7,955 sales in February 2017.
The region's average selling price, covering all types of residential re-sales, was down 12.4 per cent to $767,818 — still one of the most expensive in Canada.
Detached houses — the most expensive of the major categories tracked by TREB — showed the biggest declines in both the number sold and sales price compared with last year.
The detached category had also been the driving force behind a spike in prices in the early months of 2017 that prompted the Liberal provincial government to introduce a package of measures last April to cool the market.
That was followed by a financial stress test for buyers, which officially came into effect on Jan. 1 for federally regulated lenders, following an October announcement by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.
"When TREB released its outlook for 2018, the forecast anticipated a slow start to the year compared to the historically high sales count reported in the winter and early spring of 2017," TREB president Tim Syrianos said Tuesday.
"Prospective home buyers are still coming to terms with the psychological impact of the Fair Housing Plan, and some have also had to re-evaluate their plans due to the new OSFI-mandated mortgage stress test guidelines and generally higher borrowing costs."
Interest rates for mortgages have risen over the past year as a result of moves by the Bank of Canada and fluctuations in the bond markets.
However, higher borrowing costs and OSFI's stricter requirements didn't slow the Montreal market — which marked the 36th straight increase and the busiest month of February since 2012 for the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board.
The Montreal-area board reported Tuesday that home sales in Quebec's largest market — which hasn't seen a spike like Toronto's — grew five per cent year-over-year in February, and prices were up across all major categories of properties.
The median price of single-family homes across Greater Montreal was $310,000 last month, up six per cent year-over-year, while plexes reached $481,500, a one per cent increase. The median price for condominiums grew by five per cent last month, with half of all units selling for more than $250,000.
“The acceleration in price growth is a direct result of increasingly tighter market conditions, which can be explained by a decline in the supply of properties for sale," said Mathieu Cousineau, president of the GMREB board of directors.
The number of active residential listings in the board's Centris system was 26,252, down 17 per cent compared with last year.
In the Toronto area, the number of active listings in TREB’s MLS system totalled 13,362 and there were 10,520 new listings, below the 10-year average for the month of February.
Jason Mercer, TREB’s director of market analysis, said the supply of listings will likely remain below average in many neighbourhoods in the Greater Toronto Area and that could "further hamper affordability" over the long term.
In the coming months, however, Mercer said TREB expects to see a pickup in sales and selling prices relative to last year in the spring and summer — which had seen a drop-off after the provincial housing package was announced.
"Expect stronger price growth to continue in the comparatively more affordable townhouse and condominium apartment segments," Mercer said Tuesday.
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Toronto CTV News reporter Paul Bliss no longer with CTV following misconduct allegation
TORONTO -- A prominent CTV News reporter who was suspended after a woman made sexual misconduct allegations against him is no longer with the company, Bell Media said Tuesday.
A spokesman for the company confirmed the departure of Paul Bliss but refused to provide further details.
"We don't comment on the specifics of individual employee matters," Scott Henderson said in an email to The Canadian Press.
Bliss did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The allegations against him have not been verified by The Canadian Press.
The veteran reporter, who worked at CTV's bureau at the Ontario legislature, was suspended in late January hours after the publication of a blog post containing allegations by Bridget Brown, who describes herself as a Calgary-based entrepreneur and former CTV employee.
Henderson, Bell Media's vice president of communications, said at the time that Bliss had been suspended pending an investigation in light of the allegations.
In the blog post titled "MeToo in Canadian Broadcasting," Brown detailed an alleged sexual incident involving an unnamed CTV reporter in the spring of 2006. She said she had reached out to the reporter she had met at a party a few weeks earlier to ask if he wanted to get coffee with her.
The reporter "suggested instead I come to his office after his shift," Brown wrote, which she did.
After showing her around, they ended up in his office where, she said, he started kissing her and pushing on the top of her head. She said she told him she wasn't interested and that he then allegedly performed a sex act in front of her.
Brown wrote that she had kept silent about the alleged incident for 12 years but had finally decided to go public in light of the .MeToo movement of women coming forward with stories of sexual harassment and after reading about the resignation of Ontario's Progressive Conservative leader amid sexual-misconduct allegations against him.
Brown refused to discuss the situation on Tuesday.
"I don't think I have anything to say about it at this time," Brown said.
Bliss's biography on CTV's website had described him as a "veteran reporter ... and occasional anchor for CTV Toronto." It said he has won 13 awards for his reporting, including the Edward R. Murrow International Award for Best News Series.
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Sunday, March 4, 2018
University Of Toronto UOIT campus posters are sexist and racist against straight, white, Christian men?
Matthew Wigmore feels privileged to be attending the prestigious University of Ontario Institute of Technology.
He just isn’t so sure it’s white privilege.
Or man privilege. Or that he’s English speaking or Christian privilege either.
“I just enjoy going to this university and getting a high quality education,” said the 24-year-old political science student, who hopes to move on to law school and one day work with sports contracts. “This is an amazing school.”
That said, Wigmore was amazed by posters he saw on the walls of the Simcoe St. campus last week.
“Shocked” might be the better word.
A headline on one side of the poster reads: “Becoming aware of privilege should not be viewed as a burden or source of guilt but rather an opportunity to learn and be responsible so that we may work toward a more just and inclusive world.”
On the other side, under a subheading, “Privilege: Unearned access to social power based on membership in a dominant social group,” there is a checklist.
The eight boxes include:
– able-bodied/physically and mentally
– access to education
– christian
– cisgender
– heterosexual
– male
– native English speaker
– Canadian citizen at birth
– white
You read it right. This is no hoax, folks. This poster was on the walls of the campus that is shared by Durham College on Simcoe St. It even has the UOIT banner on the bottom with the kicker saying, “Student Engagement and Equity.”
So much for Dr. Martin Luther King’s edict to judge a person not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.
Wigmore couldn’t believe his eyes and was among the many who notified the Toronto Sun about the poster.
“I would have to check off each one since I fit each category,” he said. “Is it trying to say I am in this university because of all of these things? Or am I from Oshawa and I worked hard to get here?”
It’s crazy any student of any background could be asked such a question or be shamed for their skin colour or sexual preference. If the poster replaced any of the areas addressed with say Muslim or homosexual, Arabic speaking or black or brown, there would be people rightfully calling it inciting hate and calling for hate crime charges.
The UOIT has not returned a call for comment, but many students and alumni are upset about the posters.
“How could something like this be permitted?” asks Erika Humm. “It’s very offensive.”
Although he agrees with Humm’s position, Wigmore is not going to lay a complaint or worry about it for too long.
However, he does admit if the standard for such things were applied the same way they are for other races, religions and cultures, “these posters would be considered racist for sure.”
Wigmore is not racist and does not know anyone at the university or college who is racist.
In fact, when photographer Jack Boland and I found the poster, it was right behind three students — two of whom were black and the other appearing to have brown skin. All three rejected the notion being presented in the poster.
“It’s not right,” said one young man. “I don’t feel any racism around here.”
The two women he was with agreed — saying the poster is “ridiculous.”
They’re right. So are Matthew and Erika.
Yet the posters were there — with the school’s seal on them too.
Wigmore said if the idea is to make him feel guilt for the colour of the skin he was born in, he won’t be playing. If someone wants him to apologize for being raised Roman Catholic, that’s not going to happen either.
“I am not ashamed of who I am,” he said, adding his schoolmates are also not ashamed at being from whatever race or background they are from.
“Race or any of these issues are not an issue here,” he said. “There is a lot of diversity here and a lot of harmony. It’s not a problem here.”
In fact, in three of his classes, Wigmore is “a minority,” but he said his fellow students actually don’t look at race when interacting or keep count.
Instead, they are proud Canadians and, he said, feel privileged to be.
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Saturday, March 3, 2018
Shaun Kinghorn, 44, of Toronto, was gunned down at Shoreham dr. and Jane St. on Friday, March 2, 2018, becoming Toronto's ninth murder victim of the year.
Toronto Police responded to the area of Jane St. and Shoreham Dr., a block south of Steeles Ave. W., shortly before midnight.
When officers arrived at the scene, they found a man suffering from a gunshot wound.
The mortally wounded man was rushed to a trauma centre with no vital signs and pronounced dead early Saturday.
The victim has been identified as Shaun Kinghorn, of Toronto. A post-mortem examination will be conducted on Sunday.
“Investigators would like to speak with anyone who had contact with the victim or may have video or dashcam images and have not already spoken to officers,” Homicide Det. Omar Khan said in a statement released Saturday.
Kinghorn becomes the ninth person to be murdered so far this year in the city.
Initial reports suggest the killer fled in a vehicle, but no suspect description has been released.
Anyone with information regarding the deadly shooting is urged to call the Homicide Unit at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
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11th Toronto Pedestrian Killed in 2018
Police were called to the scene of Daphne Road and Greencedar Circuit in the Markham Road and Lawrence Avenue East area at 7:31 p.m.
Paramedics rushed the man to a trauma centre, where he succumbed to his injuries. He is believed to have been in his 60s.
The driver of the vehicle remained on scene, police said. No other information about the circumstances of the collision was released by investigators.
The last several years have been especially dangerous for pedestrians in Toronto. A total of 36 were killed by drivers in 2017, while 43 were killed in 2016, the deadliest year for pedestrians in Toronto since 2002.
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Friday, March 2, 2018
Is Toronto TV Host Marci Ien Full of Shyt?
Toronto Police are pushing back at TV host Marci Ien’s “driving while black” claim and have challenged her to lay an official complaint.
Chief Mark Saunders has even offered to view the squad car tape and audio with her.
That tape, according to Staff-Supt. Mario Di Tommaso — Toronto Police’s fifth in command — shows a routine traffic stop, not an act of racism or profiling.
“I have viewed the video footage of your vehicle stop,” tweeted Di Tommaso. “You were stopped because of your driving behaviour. You failed to stop at a stop sign. It was dark. Your race was not visible on the video and only became apparent when you stepped out of the vehicle in your driveway.”
However, in a column in the Globe and Mail — with the headline “The double standard of driving while black – in Canada,” — award-winning Ien, a host on CTV’s The Social and former co-host of Canada AM, wrote “for the third time in eight months, I was being questioned by a police officer — and I had broken no law.” She added “that I co-host a national television show didn’t matter. That I have lived in the neighbourhood for 13 years didn’t matter. But being black mattered.”
Ien described pulling “into my driveway” where a “police cruiser was parked behind me — lights flashing.”
She wrote that after being told to “get back in your vehicle,” he said “you failed to stop at a stop sign back there. That’s dangerous, there’s a school there … lots of kids,” but decided “I’m going to give you a warning. Be careful driving out there.” But “upset,” Ien said all three stops “the initial questions had been the same: ‘Do you live around here? Is this your vehicle?’ In every case, I wasn’t issued a ticket.”
Ien, who does not identify the race of the officer, said while Canada is diverse, “racism permeates every aspect of our society.”
Toronto police refute racism charges.
Deputy Chief Shawna Coxon on Twitter wrote “we are accountable. The whole event (incl. the traffic infraction) is on camera. The ethnicity of the driver is not visible until after she was pulled over, when she exits the car. The Chief invited her last night on @CP24 to come in & view the video.”
Ien has not responded to Toronto Police tweets but told me she has “talked a lot over the last couple of days” with the CBC’s Dwight "douchebag" Drummond, who in 1995, was famously pulled over in a high-risk takedown by Toronto Police on Dundas St. E., after an early morning snack purchase at George’s BBQ. Drummond became a news anchor for the CBC.
The police and Drummond found a way to put it behind them and hopefully that will happen here, too.
While Marci may not be my favourite person on Canadian TV, what she describes is not racism but a cop cutting her a break. Marci’s entitled to have her own perception, but for suggestions of racial profiling and racism, there needs to be solid evidence. Remember, police officers are entitled to their safety perceptions when approaching vehicles, too.
“She made some very serious comments and I would invite her to lay a complaint to the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD),” said TPS spokesman Mark Pugash, who added the service “stands behind” the tweets by Di Tommaso and Coxon.
Marci told me she has not formally complained. This is a tough situation for a lot of reasons — not withstanding Marci Ien is a terrific professional, mother of two, and a national treasure. Her concerns should not be discounted but need to be verified.
Like with the Hijab Hoax, racism allegations must be fully vetted. An investigation could happen, but Ien, Saunders and the officer involved hugging it out — with lessons learned — would be my preference.
People react and have emotions but accusations of racism against cops should be backed up with proof.
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