Discuss emergency funds and contingency plans. Emergency funds should cover between three and six months of living expenses.
Summer is here, and homeowners are busy cleaning up their yards and de-cluttering their homes. Many are also decorating their front lawns with for sale signs. That's right, it's real estate season for both new and repeat buyers.
Women (49%) are more likely than men (35%) to buy homes within the next two years, says an RBC Homeownership Poll.
Whether it is renewed confidence in the economy or their own personal financial situation, more and more Canadians are looking to get into the housing market for the first time.
Joint tenancy has always been a complex estate planning tool
It is now widely assumed that the Bank of Canada will put off raising interest rates until September, following this week's decision to stay the course. Yet a survey conducted by CIBC/Harris Decima suggests Canadians are split on what this might mean for their mortgages.
That dream home your clients thought was within reach has been pushed a little higher again. With the national economy turning a corner, the majority of Canadian markets experienced weakened home affordability in the first quarter of 2011, according to the latest Housing Trends and Affordability study by RBC Economics. Rising ownership cost and falling […]
Newbie homeowners are feeling good about their financial future.
The Home Buyers’ Plan (HBP) allows first-time home buyers to withdraw up to $25,000 from their RRSPs to assist them with the purchase of a home. The funds need to be paid back over a 15-year period. If payment is missed in a particular year, the amount not repaid must be included in the participant’s income for that year.
Clients saving for a new home purchase can breathe a sigh of relief—the cost of ownership eased for the second quarter in a row, according to RBC Economics’ Housing Trends and Affordability report. During the last quarter of 2010, the national reading of the RBC Housing Affordability Measure declined between 0.4% and 0.8% across the […]