Coming Soon to the heart of the Financial District from Lifetime Developments and Centrecourt Developments: INDX Condos . Register now for floor plans and pricing and your opportunity to purchase a suite before the public opening.

The location of INDX doesn’t get any more central than this. A direct connection to the PATH network would give residents underground access to

• 6 subway stations
• Union Station
• The Bus Terminal at Bay and Dundas
• Hundreds of shops, restaurants, & eateries
• The Eaton Centre
• City Hall & Metro Hall
• The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
• Ryerson Business School
• The Air Canada Centre
• Roy Thompson Hall
• The Metro Convention Centre
• The Ritz Carlton Hotel, Royal York Hotel, 1 King West Hotel, Sheraton Centre, Hilton Hotel
• Many more…

Wow. When you break down this list and see what being connected to the PATH in this area gives you it’s really quite incredible.

The development team is the same team that shocked the condo industry when they basically sold out a 46 storey tower in a matter of weeks back in November with KARMA. Lifetime and Centrecourt are two companies that really ‘get it’ when it comes to giving condo investors what they are looking for: a high quality product in a great location that has a high potential for some serious ROI. Prices for INDX will likely be quite similar to that of Karma which averaged about $680 per square foot according to Realnet.

As proposed the project will be 53 storeys and 784 units. I suspect that if sales are successful they will apply for several more floors. Several years ago Harry Stinson was trying to build a 90-storey tower on this exact site before his project failed, investors lost thousands and he sort of went off on a self-imposed exile to Hamilton where he is attempting to build some condos. This site has been the subject of many rumors ever since but now that we have two bonafide developers sitting on it and ready to repeat the success of Karma Condos, this site will surely be home to hundreds of people in about 4 years time.

Contact me now for INDX Condos VIP Sales.

The federal government has abruptly cancelled the extremely popular retrofit rebate program that gave homeowners across Canada rebates of up to $5,000 when they performed energy-efficient renovations such as replacing windows and insulating their walls.

The popular ecoEnergy retrofit rebate program has been cancelled.

The program was initially slated to end on March 31st, but was instead cancelled earlier this week after the program reached the limit of applicants.

Homeowners who participated in the program had to first undergo an energy audit, which would spell out all of the renovations that could be made in their home. Then after completing the renovations, a second audit would need to be conducted in order for homeowners to qualify for rebates.

Homeowners had until March 31st to apply initially, but now homeowners already in the program have to finish their renovations by that date and no new applications are being accepted. Homeowners in the program have until June 30th to have their second energy audit conducted.

Last time the Retrofit Rebate program was in place, it was also cancelled early for the same reasons. It’s a popular program that creates jobs for the construction industry, and gives homeowners a break when they want to update their home. One lesson homeowners should learn from the cancellation is that if it does come back: apply as soon as possible!

EcoEnergy Retrofit Rebate Program Cancelled Early is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

The VideoPress upgrade, which allows you to upload and embed your own videos on your blog, now comfortably handles videos from iPhones and iPads. You can shoot vertically or horizontally, and we’ll take care of rotating it for you so that your video looks great when it’s published on your site.

If you don’t already have VideoPress on your WordPress.com account, head on over to VideoPress.com, we’ll get you up and running in no time. And don’t forget to install the free WordPress App on your iPhone or iPad!

Duotone: Now Video-Friendly

If you’re a photoblogger, you’re probably familiar with the cool Duotone theme, which changes color to match the first image in every post and page. The big news is that Duotone now seamlessly supports VideoPress videos, so now you can engage visitors with photographs and videos!

Learn More about VideoPress

If you use VideoPress on your self-hosted WordPress site, keep an eye on the VideoPress Blog – we have some exciting annoucements coming out soon, just for you!

You can find more details about VideoPress by checking out the following resources:

• VideoPress.com
• WordPress Support: VideoPress

Designed by Andy Rutledge, Currents, is a responsive, minimal yet attractive premium theme from WooThemes.

Currents is perfect for news driven sites. The phrase, “less is more” couldn’t be more true. This clean and minimal design maximises your reader’s focus on the content. Having said that, the theme is packed with many customization options — a wide featured post slider, custom news areas, six alternative color styles, and more. Together, all of these features help you to control how to present current events you want to share with your readers.

Think your readers might check your site on a mobile device? No problem! Currents makes your site look great on an iPad, iPhone or any other mobile device.

This is not all about this great theme, Currents — so be sure to read about it on the Theme Showcase.

Next up is Debut – a beautifully designed theme by Luke McDonald of Press75.

Debut is a mobile-ready theme custom tailored to present your content in a professional and eye-catching manner. Five beautifully designed post formats provide you the flexibility needed to display media of all types. Musicians may be specially interested in the audio post format which expands into a multi-track playlist. Highlighting specific content couldn’t be easier with Debut’s Home page template which includes an innovative, customizable content slider as well as a featured area that can display in both grid and list styles.

Read about its features in detail in the Theme Showcase!

Authenticate with Tumblr

To bring your tumblelog’s content to WordPress.com, head to Tools → Import in your WordPress.com dashboard and look for the Tumblr importer. If you don’t already have an account here on WordPress.com then head over and sign up first.

Click the link to get started and then enter the email address you used to sign up to Tumblr, your Tumblr password and click Connect to Tumblr.

Start the Import

The importer will then fetch a list of your blogs and let you pick which one to import. Click Import this blog to get going.

Once you have started, the import progress will be shown on the import page and you will be sent an email when the import is finished. We try super hard to make sure that all your Tumblr content, including your Videos, are imported into your WordPress.com blog. Videos you had uploaded to Tumblr are imported into VideoPress and other embeds are converted to use shortcodes. Sometimes the importer finds an embed it can’t convert and a list of these is included in the import completion email for you to check.

If your Tumblr site has a custom domain (like you.com instead of you.tumblr.com), then you’ll need to disable the custom domain temporarily while the import is processed. You can do this by going to your Tumblr Dashboard, clicking on the Settings button and then un-ticking the “Use a Custom Domain” checkbox:

Then you’ll want to set up Domain Mapping on your WordPress.com blog so that your readers can use the same domain to reach your site as before.

Style Your New Site

WordPress.com supports Post Formats which allow you to distinguish between the different types of content you post on your site. While you wait for your content to be imported why not customize the design of your site by picking one of our post-format-enabled, Tumblelog-ready themes.

If you have any trouble importing your blog  you’re welcome to contact support where one of our Happiness Engineers will be glad to help out. To learn all about WordPress.com’s features, we encourage you to check out our handy tutorial. We also provide comprehensive feature documentation at our support site.

Many people are uncertain as to whether now – of all times – would be a wise idea to buy a home in Toronto. Toronto real estate lawyer and writer Mark Weisleder pointed out in his most recent column that in his 28 years on the job, he hasn’t seen so many positive signs for housing before. Here’s why:

There's never been so many reasons to buy a home in Toronto.

Immigration

Canada is appealing to immigrants for many reasons, including a steady real estate market. Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area in particular are top destinations for immigrants to come and live, and when they do, they often buy homes, keeping the GTA and Toronto real estate markets strong.

We aren’t like the US

The housing market disaster we’ve seen in the United States simply can’t happen here. Foreclosures in the US are at an all-time high, with approximately 7 million homes underwater and the same number already foreclosed upon. As banks repossess these homes and put them back on the market, they drag down prices across the board.

In Canada, over 99 per cent of Canadians are paying their mortgages on time, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Historically-low mortgage rates

Mortgage rates across Canada are currently the lowest they’ve ever been.

You can read the full column here at the Moneyville website.

Mark Weisleder is a lawyer and author who frequently writes about the Toronto Real Estate industry. for the Toronto Star and the Star’s sister site, Moneyville. Visit his website here.

Why It’s A Good Time To Buy Toronto Real Estate is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

Toronto Home for Sale: 225 Victoria Park Avenue, Toronto Ontario

$394,800
Two bedroom, semi-detached home
2 Baths

This two-bedroom semi is located in the Upper Beaches neighbourhood, which is close to the water front, great shopping, restaurants and plenty of park spaces.

Enjoy your fully-fenced private backyard and the fragrant lilac trees that bloom along side the home every spring.

This home is bright and cozy, with a spa-like, four-piece bathroom. It’s up-to-date, with the new furnace installed in 2004 and brand-new central air installed in 2011. parking around back. The home also has central vacuuming.

Included: Stainless steel fridge and stove, dishwasher, washer, dryer, electric light fixtures and window coverings.

For more about this property, including floor plans, a video tour and more photos, visit this Toronto Real Estate Team Listing here.

Hot New Toronto Real Estate Listing In Upper Beaches is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

Fabrik Condos is launching this week in the heart of the Fashion District. Contact me now for floor plans and pricing for the VIP sales event.

Fabrik represents really the first new launch in what promises to be a very busy 2012 for the new condo market. The developer on this project is Menkes, which is considered a blue chip developer in Toronto. They have been building for decades and they are behind some very well known projects like Gibson Square and Savvy up at Yonge and Sheppard, 770 Bay (Lumiere) and The Four Seasons downtown. Of course what they are really going to be known for when 2012 is all said and done is 1 York / 90 Harbour which promises to be one of the largest projects ever attempted in Toronto. Rest assured when you buy from Menkes you are working with one of the best.

Fabrik is going to be a nice boutique project right on Richmond, just west of Spadina. Popular resale buildings nearby include 477 Richmond (live-work lofts, formerly an office building), 438 Richmond (The Morgan by Great Gulf), 388 Richmond (District Lofts by Context). Nearby pre-construction projects that could be considered direct competitors would be Brant Park (Brad Lamb), 32 Camden (Sorbara), and Lofts 399 (Cresford). In general, prices in the resale market for this pocket west of Spadina are lower than those east of Spadina, so I’m hoping that prices at Fabrik will reflect this reality i.e. they will be priced lower than the likes of King-Charlotte, Tableau, Peter Street, The Bond etc.

Please contact me today for your chance to buy at Fabrik before the public opening! Continue reading for a marketing video on the project put out by the developer.

As usual, Europe is still a big concern, and Greece is again the focus. The end game for a Greek debt plan is fast approaching, and may occur this week. Germany tried to push through a measure which would allow the ECU to take control of how Greece taxed and spent money, which understandably didn’t go over well with the Greek government or people. Without those controls, there is nothing backing the debt obligations, but it is hard to imagine any sovereign nation giving up that power. The results of the Greek debt talks will either come to an agreement, which in effect will kick the can down the road a little further as no one really expects that they will be able to live up to the terms of the agreement, or will break down, causing new concerns. Regardless of what happens, there are other countries lined up with similar issues which will need to be addressed. The question is whether the problem can be solved at all through forced austerity, or whether they will need to do something to force more growth (which means more inflation).

The reports released here were within the range, but a little less optimistic than what has come out over the last few months. GDP came in a little softer than expected, and inventory build up was a big part of the number. If this inventory isn’t absorbed by the end users, we could see more contraction in the coming months. Unemployment claims also came in a little higher last week, bucking the trend of late. This week could be a blip, but over the last months the trend has been that the economy has steadily improved, though is still too slow to make a real dent in the employment picture. In his State of the Union speech, President Obama talked about a new program that would help any homeowner who is currently paying their mortgage. This is different than the expansion of the HARP refinance program which will kick in im March, and no one knows if this will ever materialize, or what the details will be. If you are in the market to buy a new home, or refinance your current mortgage, mortgage rates are at all time lows. These low rates mean that home buyers can afford more of a home payment than they could when rates were higher, and current home owners have the potential to save a lot.

Here are the current Chicago Illinois Home mortgage rates for an A+ (740 Fico or above), full doc single family home purchase or rate/term refinance on a 45 day rate lock, with 0 points, and no origination fee, best FHA rates assume a 640 Fico score, but loans are available with credit scores as low as 580. Mortgage rates in other states may be slightly different, give me a call and I will give you an accurate quote for your particular situation. The conventional and FHA rates are based on the highest conforming loan amounts, which give the best pricing. Again, there are many factors which affect mortgage rates and your ability to be approved for a loan, including credit scores, property type, amount of down payment and a number of other factors. These rates may not fit your situation and this is just a sample of the programs that are out there. If you would like a quote for your personal situation, or to get pre-approved for a mortgage, give me a call or contact me (Illinois mortgage company) and I will take the time to find the rate and program that is best for you:

Conventional loans up to $417,000

For Jumbo loans over $417,000

*(Another option is to break your Jumbo loan into 2 parts a conventional to the limit of $417,000 and a HELOC or fixed second mortgage for the rest. The blended rate is usually much better than a single loan would be.)

** 5-5 ARM is fixed for first 5 years, with 2/6 caps it can’t go more than 2% above the start rate for the next 5 years. 2% cap for next 5 years – so a blended rate over 10 years is no more than 1% over the start rate. Super Jumbos available.

FHA LOANS 3.5% down payment FHA Maximum varies by County

FHA APR reflects 3.5% down payment and the effect of mortgage insurance on the loan. Call for information on no-cost FHA streamlined Refinances

FHA 203K Rehab Loans – Call for Current Quote – FHA 203k Rehab and Renovation loans are now available as 30 year fixed or 5-1 ARMs.

VA Veterans Administration 0 Down Loans

These are just a few of the mortgage programs and mortgage rates available. Which option is best for you depends on your own specific goals and needs. If you have any questions or want to go over your situation in depth, let me know how I can help.

Free Home Buyers Guide

You can trust in us to get the job done.

Peter Thompson 630-479-6424

Illinois Mortgage Rates                   First time home buyer loans

Chicago Mortgage Company            Chicago FHA Mortgages

Add the new WordPress.com extension for Chrome and as soon as you get a new follower or a new like on one of your posts, a notification will appear in your browser:

Simply click the icon to view your latest WordPress.com notifications:

Start following new blogs without visiting WordPress.com

The Chrome extension also makes it easy to follow sites from your WordPress.com account by displaying a Follow button whenever you’re browsing a site that has an RSS feed.

Clicking the Follow button will add new posts from the website to your reader, and send you an email each time an update is published. (You can change your default email settings if you like.)

When you visit a WordPress.com site, you’ll notice that the extension icon will turn blue, but keep in mind that you can follow blogs on Blogger, Tumblr, and other services, too.

Quickly post cool stuff you find while browsing the web

Press This is a lightning-fast way to publish content on your blog without ever visiting WordPress.com. Click the WordPress.com extension, then select Press This whenever you find something on the web that you’d like to share on your blog, and a pop-up editor will appear:

Select the blog you’d like to post to, then hit publish to share a link to the site. Your blog will be updated, and you can continue browsing the web from wherever you left off.

If you’d like to publish an excerpt of text along with the link to the site, simply highlight the material with your cursor before clicking Press This:

And it will appear in the editor for you to publish along with the link:

We hope this makes it easier for you to share cool stuff on your blog quickly! If there’s anything you’d like to see in future versions of the extension, be sure to let us know.

[Renters are lining up to pay $2700/month for a view like this.]

Landlords and would-be landlords take note: the sky is not falling and it is not a bad time to be a landlord in this city. I’ve been watching the rental market more closely than ever these past few months and I’ve noticed some very surprising trends. Rents are going up, and going up much faster than anyone in the mainstream media (those who are trumpeting an impending market crash) would like to admit.

Here are two recent case studies that illustrate the current rental market environment:

1. Some clients of mine who are currently living and working in the U.K. but want to move back to Toronto in a year bought a 2 bedroom semi in Cabbagetown for around $600K. Their plan is to keep their foot in the Toronto real estate market and when they move back, renovate and move into the property. When they took possession of the property, they inherited the tenants who were paying $1900/month. The tenants are set to move out next month. They advertised the property for rent and after the first two showings they had two offers to rent from highly qualified and professional tenants. They ended up taking slightly less than they could have in order to get the tenants they wanted. The property will be rented at $2450/month with the tenant paying the gas and hydro bills. That’s an increase of 28% in rent from the previous tenant! The owners are enjoying break even cash flow with just 20% down.
2. New condo buildings are especially interesting. They are commanding rents never imagined just a year ago. For example, at M5V (375 King), you can get a great example of how rents have been creeping up significantly over just the last few months! If you take the example of a 852 sq ft 2 bedroom unit with parking, they were renting out for $2500 in October, $2600 in November, and $2700 in December! An astonishing increase of 8% in less than 3 months. $2700/month works out to $3.16 per square foot. The $3PSF barrier was until recently usually reserved for Yorkville properties and a few other select buildings downtown only. A studio just rented out at M5V for $1500/month and it was only on the market for 2 days! Prime downtown studios were fetching a max of about $1300/month just a year ago.

The point of this post is to illustrate anecdotally that rents are going up and going up fast for downtown properties, especially condos in brand new buildings on high floors. This is food for thought to the crowd that says the prices like $650-$700 per square foot for pre-construction condos are completely unsustainable because they will never carry themselves with 20-25% down. Three or four years from now do you think rents will be higher or lower than they are today?

If you are ready to take the plunge and become a landlord, or if you are a landlord but would like to learn about how you can maximize your returns in the current market, please contact me.

From the builder:

The rumble of the TTC, the steely chime of streetcars. Cool jazz drifting out from The Reservoir Lounge. That fresh apple smell at the St. Lawrence Market, when you know it’s really fall. Curtain call at the Sony Centre, rush hour on Bay Street. It’s what makes downtown Toronto, well, Toronto – the most exciting, dynamic place you’ll ever live. Ever.

Here, at the downtown core, connect to a true original, conceived from the very essence of what makes Toronto one of the world’s great cities. A magnificent tower fashioned from limestone, glass, concrete and steel, soars from its heritage base to a monumental presence in the cityscape. Spectacular views by day and by night. A pivotal location where the Financial District meets the St. Lawrence neighbourhood. With total access to everything downtown. To the arts, to the sports you love, to work, to food from far away places. To the high life, the vibrant street life and the best kind of everyday life.

It’s Toronto to the core. It doesn’t just surround you, it’s inside of you. In your heart. Because living here defines you, drives you, inspires you.

This condo is launching in early 2012. Contact me for floor plans and pricing and your chance to buy before the public launch!

This condo is launching in 2012. Contact me for floor plans and pricing and your chance to buy before the public launch!

This condo is launching in early 2012. Contact me for floor plans and pricing and your chance to buy before the public launch!

This condo is launching in 2012. Contact me for floor plans and pricing and your chance to buy before the public launch!