The REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) reported 913 sales of residential properties located within the RAHB market area were processed through the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) System in December 2020. Sales were down 26 per cent over last month, but up 41.6 per cent over December of last year. New listings were down 47.9 per cent over November 2020 and up 34 per cent over last December. The average price for residential properties was $729,853, which was up 1 per cent from last month and up 25.4 per cent from December 2019. The number of active listings available at the end of the month was 52.5 per cent lower compared to the previous year.
If you have not already paid, this is a friendly reminder that the deadline of December 31, 2020 for the first quarter dues remittance is approaching.
The RAHB quarterly dues were billed and e-mailed to you as part of your November monthly invoice.
Due to COVID-19 we are encouraging members to pay Online through Matrix http://my.rahb.ca or Online through your bank (CIBC/PC Financial, Royal Bank, Scotia Bank, TD Canada Trust).
Cheques may also be dropped off at the RAHB office (back door mail slot).
RAHB also offers the option of setting up Pre-Authorized Payment via credit card or banking.
Note: The Virtual Association office will be closed for the holiday season from noon on December 24, reopening Monday January, 4, 2021 at 8:30 a.m.
A reminder about notifying RAHB of terminations in your office
Brokerages are responsible for notifying RAHB when members in their office resign or otherwise leave. Notice must be received by RAHB within seven business days of the member leaving. If notice is delayed beyond the seven business days, the Brokerage will be assessed a penalty of $50 per incident. (RAHB Bylaw, Article 4, Section 1.02.)
Effective Thursday, April 8, the Realty Shoppe will only offer curbside pick-up.
With the government enacting a stay-at-home order and to adhere to the health and safety guidelines outlined by the province, the Realty Shoppe will be closed to all in-person shopping. Pre-arranged, curbside pick-up will be available 10 a.m. to noon and 1 – 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
To learn more about to how use our online realty shoppe, please click here.
Orders must be pre-paid, and payment must be on your credit card or your RAHB account. Payment by debit and/or cash is not available at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Pre-ordered supply orders will be available via curbside pick-up only, at the parking lot entry door for the RAHB offices. Entry into the RAHB building and in-person shopping is not be permitted at this time.
Curb-side pick-up: A pre-determined pick-up time will be coordinated by Realty Shoppe staff with each member. Upon arrival, the member must wait in their vehicle within the RAHB parking lot, and Shoppe staff will bring the order out of the building and place it on a designated table in order to adhere to social distancing measures.
No RAHB staff have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and RAHB staff working within the Realty Shoppe do not have COVID-19 symptoms.
As a result of a review of projected income and expenses for year-end 2020, the RAHB Board of Directors has waived the November and December Monthly MLS® Service Fee for members.
This credit will be reflected on your December invoice which will be sent in January.
The RAHB Board of Directors made the decision at their meeting on December 10th as part of an annual review, as required by policy, of the forecasted year-end surplus or deficit.
Mark your calendars! The Realty Shoppe will be closed on Wednesday, December 16, in order to conduct a full physical inventory count. No sales or orders can be made. We apologize for any inconvenience – your cooperation is greatly appreciated!
The Legacy version of CREA WEBForms® will be discontinued on December 17, 2020 and members will no longer have access to it. To learn how to migrate your transactions from the Legacy version of CREA WEBForms® please watch the below video.
On October 26, 2020, Federal Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland, announced that the CEBA would be available to businesses that have been operating out of a non-business account through their financial institution.
The CEBA program provides interest-free loans of up to $40,000 to small businesses that have experienced a loss in revenue due to COVID-19. Repaying the balance of the loan on or before December 31, 2022, will result in loan forgiveness of 25 per cent (up to $10,000).
Eligible businesses include those who had a total payroll between $20,000 and $1.5 million in 2019, as well as sole proprietors receiving business income directly and family-owned corporations remunerating in the form of dividends. Businesses must also have an active Canada Revenue Agency business number with an effective date of registration on or prior to March 1, 2020.
If you are currently operating a small real estate business through a personal account with your financial institution and meet the above outlined eligibility requirements, you may now open a business account with your financial institution.
Once you have successfully opened a business account, you can apply for CEBA by contacting your financial institution. The deadline to apply is December 31st, 2020.
If you are wondering if the CEBA program is right for your business, the Government has created a pre-screening tool to provide business owners with an indication of their eligibility.
The Government has also created a CEBA Call Centre, which can be reached at 1-888-324-4201 between Monday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
On December 1, the Government of Canada released their 2020 Fall Economic Statement which included some good news for Ontario home owners, buyers, sellers, and REALTORS®.
The First-Time Home Buyer Incentive
The government is expanding the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive to enhance eligibility in Toronto.
To help people in Toronto buy a house, the federal government is expanding the program to be available to eligible buyers to purchase a home up to 4.5 times their household income, an increase from the current limit of 4 times household income.
Additionally, the eligible buyer’s income threshold is being raised from $120,000 to $150,000 for Toronto. These changes will come into effect in the spring of 2021.
Home Energy Retrofits and Assessments
The government is proposing to provide $2.6 billion over 7 years, starting in 2020-21, to Natural Resources Canada to help homeowners improve their home energy efficiency by providing up to 700,000 grants of up to $5,000 to help homeowners make energy-efficient improvements to their homes.
Additional information on home energy efficiency grants will be provided in a future announcement, and eligibility for these grants will be retroactive to December 1, 2020.
The government also recognizes that homeowners and landlords need to be able to access simple and affordable financing to make deeper home energy retrofits. Over the coming months, the government will outline details of a low-cost loan program that integrates and builds on available energy audits and grants, and which can be easily accessed by Canadians.
Extending the Application Deadline for CEBA
The government is extending the application deadline for the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) to March 31, 2021.
CEBA provides an interest-free loan to small businesses of up to $40,000, with up to $10,000 being forgivable if the loan is paid back by December 31, 2022. The CEBA program will also soon be expanded, allowing eligible businesses to access an additional interest-free $20,000 loan where it is needed.
To read the full Fall Economic Statement, please click the button below:
The REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) reported 1,233 sales of residential properties located within the RAHB market area were processed through the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) System in November 2020. Sales were down 24.12 per cent over last month, but up 17 per cent over November of last year. New listings were down 28.98 per cent over October 2020 and up 16.3 per cent over last November. The average price for residential properties was $722,317, which was up 0.11 per cent from last month and up 21.2 per cent from November 2019. The number of active listings available at the end of the month was 40.8 per cent lower compared to the previous year.
Scholarships in Memory of Karan Barker are presented each year to students who are children or grandchildren of RAHB members or RAHB staff. All recipients are attending or will be attending university, college or trade school. These young people have demonstrated academic excellence and a high level of involvement in their school or the community – often both.
We are awarding four scholarships of $1,500 each, totaling $6,000 for this year. We began awarding these scholarships in 2001, and with this year’s awards, we have helped 82 students with $118,500 in total scholarship money.
Please see below some information on each of our recipients.
Our first recipient is SOPHIE HUGHES, daughter of Honor Hughes from Homelife Professionals Realty. She is a graduate of Ancaster High School and is currently enrolled at the University of Guelph, majoring in Theatre Studies.
Sophie has received several awards for drama, including the 2020 Theatre Ancaster Drama Award, the 2019 Ancaster High School Musical Theatre Award, and the 2017 Ancaster High School Drama Award. So, I believe it is safe to say that Sophie is in a very appropriate program at Guelph.
Our second recipient is TARA LEWYCKYJ, daughter of Ron Lewyckyj from Re/Max Escarpment Realty. She is a graduate of Bishop Tonnos Catholic Secondary School and is currently enrolled at Brock University in the Bachelor of Kinesiology program.
Among the many things discovered through her studies in the Kinesiology program, Tarahas learned about different concepts of the human body and understands how the body works during different day-to-day activities. She has also played, as well as coached, soccer and this has made her realize her passion for helping others through physical activity
Our third recipient is MARK MADDOX, son of Andrea Harley-Maddox from Re/Max Escarpment Realty. Mark is a graduate of Sir Allan MacNab Secondary School and is currently enrolled at Trent University completing a Bachelor of Science in Health – Biology.
Mark has many educational experiences working with wildlife, including: collecting terrestrial and wetland plants throughout Ontario; assisting a project investigating the breeding ecology of Canvasbacks in Southwestern Manitoba; live-trapping and handling Striped skunks, Red foxes, Raccoons, and Virginia opossums with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry; and working within the Aquatic Toxicology Unit for the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.
Our fourth and final recipient is JACK PHIBBS, son of Tanya Clark and grandson of Bruce MacDonald both from Royal LePage G. Bruce MacDonald. He is a graduate of Cayuga High School and is currently enrolled at the University of Waterloo in the Applied Health Sciences program.
Jack played in the Ontario Hockey League with the Flint FireBirds Hockey Club, and while there participated in many community events – such as helping serve food at a homeless shelter, engaging with children living at a local foster care facility, and meeting with fans of allages at local hospitals. This donation of his time and the impact he made in the greater-Flint community made him the mostdeserving player of Humanitarian of the Year for the 2018-19 season for the Flint Firebirds team.
Congratulations to all of our very deserving recipients.
As part of Teranet’s mandate to continuously provide solutions that meet the needs of the industry, they are excited to announce a new partnership they have entered into with Protect Your Boundaries (PYB). This partnership will allow members to purchase PYB’s Buyer’s Reports, Seller’s Reports and Easement Reports in the GeoWarehouse e-Store. Additionally, through the input of our Teranet Insighters community members, they have identified the need for two additional Property Insights Reports that will be available in the e-Store.
Effective, Saturday December 5, 2020, GeoWarehouse users will have access to:
An Easement Indicator that will alert you to the presence and number of easements on a property’s title
The Property Insights Report which provides a trusted valuation when making listing/bidding price decisions and authoritative title check data that will alert you to potential fraud and encumbrances on title
The Enhanced Comparable Report which contains all AVM and title check data included in the Property Insights Report, in addition to mapping, address, sales and area data for up to six automatically generated comparable properties
And more enhancements to the GeoWarehouse platform!
To help you become more familiar with the new Teranet reports offered in the GeoWarehouse e-Store we’ve created sample reports. Click on the links below to access these brochures:
These new reports were developed after we received feedback from our Teranet Insighters community members. This online customer insight community allows members to provide regular feedback through monthly activities. As a member you’ll have the opportunity to weigh in on enhancements that will impact your business – like the new reports we’re offering! If this sounds like something you’d like to be a part of click here to complete a brief recruitment survey, and become a member today!
The enhancements will take place during a scheduled downtime from Friday, December 4, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. EST. During this window, GeoWarehouse will be unavailable, but all platform functionality will resume immediately after.
If you have any questions about these enhancements, please do not hesitate to contact the GeoWarehouse Customer Experience team at 1.866.237.5937 or via email at geowarehousefeedback@teranet.ca.
Our first recipient is SOPHIE HUGHES, daughter of Honor Hughes from Homelife Professionals Realty. She is a graduate of Ancaster High School and is currently enrolled at the University of Guelph, majoring in Theatre Studies.
