Bill Jones - Realtor® Airdrie & Calgary Area Homes and Condos

Home Buyers Tax Credit in Canada (HBTC)

The Federal Government hasintroduce a new non-refundable tax credit for Home Buyers, based on an amount of $5,000, for certain home buyers that acquire a qualifying home after January 27, 2009.   A home buyer has to qualify for the HBTC in hte following ways;

They acquire a qualifying home; and neither the individual nor the individual's spouse or common-law partner owned and lived in another home in the year of purchase or any of the four preceding years. ( Basically you need to be a First time Home Buyer) - Except if you are a person with a disability or are buying a house for a related person with a disability, you do not have to be a first time home buyer.  However, the home must be acquired to enable the person with a disability to live in a more accessible dwelling or in an environment better suited to the personal needs and care of that person.  You or the related person with a disability must intend to occupy the home as a principal place of residence no later than one year after buying it.

Qualifying Home? 
A qualifying home is a housing unit located in Canada. This includes existing homes and those being constructed. Single-family homes, semi-detached homes, townhouses, mobile homes, condominium units, and apartments in duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, or apartment buildings, all qualify. A share in a co-operative housing corporation that entitles you to possess and gives you an equity interest in a housing unit located in Canada also qualifies. However, a share that only provides you with a right to tenancy in the housing unit does not qualify.

For more Information on the HBTC - Follow this Link: MORE INFO: HOME BUYERS TAX CREDIT  

The City of Airdrie is pleased to announce participation in the One Million Acts of Green program, accepting Okotok’s challenge. Mayor Bruce was excited to accept the challenge on behalf of the enVision Airdrie Citizen’s Advisory Group.

"This challenge is a great opportunity to show how our citizens can ban together to make a difference and demonstrate all the green acts we are already doing as a community and as individuals every day and to challenge us to do more," says Mayor Linda Bruce. "We have always been the environmental leaders in the region and we’re not going to give up our title now."

One Million Acts of Green is the environmental awareness program initiated by CBC’s ‘The Hour’ with George Stroumboulopoulos and Cisco Systems Inc. The objective is to get Canadians to complete One Million Acts of Green. An act can be as simple as switching to CFL light bulbs, starting a recycling program, or walking to work. The idea behind the campaign is that one small act can make a big difference.

Residents of all ages can get involved in the challenge by visiting www.onemillionactsofgreen.com. Residents can post their green act by:

1. Visiting www.onemillionactsofgreen.com.
2. Under HOME, click "create an account."
3. Enter your e-mail address, choose a password, enter your province, and click "Create Account."
4. Under GROUPS AND CHALLENGES, click on "Find Groups."
5. Search for CITY OF AIRDRIE. Click "Join" on the right hand side of the screen.
7. Click on "ALL ACTS OF GREEN" from the top menu. Pick an item from the list of Acts.
Click on it, and you'll be taken to a page for that act. In the middle of that page click the "Add This
Act Now" button. Go and add more acts.

Residents have until the end of March 2009 to post their acts of green. Residents must join the Airdrie group on the www.onemillionactsofgreen.com web site in order for the act to count towards the overall total. The individual with the most acts of green from the Airdrie group will win a $500 gift certificate from Home Depot.

AIRDRIE & CALGARY REAL ESTATE FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER: C21Bill

Everyone Is wondering what their Home is Worth TODAY!

How about you? If you have ever considered selling your home or maybe you are just curious what your home is worth in todays economic climate.

Well, I believe in the Pay it Forward system, so if you are just CURIOUS, ready to market your home yourself or through a Realtor. I would be happy to do a FREE , No Obligation Home Evaluation for you.

I will also LEND you a VIDEO on How to Sell your Home, I loan the DVD's out for one week, as there is a big demand to see this video and I only have a limited number of them to go around.

Call me or Email me at the contact info below if you would like to take advantage of my FREE, No Obligation Home Evaluation Service.

Best Regards,

Bill

W.A. (Bill) Jones

Century 21, Castlewood Agencies

(403) 701-1739 ( 9:00 am to 9:00 pm )

http://www.my-realty.ca/

www.Century21.ca/bill.jones

Email: Bill.Jones@century21.ca

BLOG: www.activerain.com/c21billjones

Viva Las Vegas - Loosely Translated to English 'Las Vegas Lives'. I just spent a most enjoyable week in Las Vegas with my lovely wife of 34 Years. We were totally amazed at the number of people down there, when what we really expected was much less , since according to all the NEWS sources the USA is having a recession.

What we found was nothing had changed from 4 years ago judging by the traffic both pedestrian and vehicular. The Slot machines were non-stop and all the tables seemed busy at night, although, they were slow during the morning and early afternoon but I do believe that was due to the high incidence of hang-overs in the city that never sleeps.

We stayed in a timeshare Condo just off the Strip called the Summer Bay Resort, it's a very nice complex, however outside the guarded gates the area seemed a bit seedy, the residential homes in this particular area are mostly apartment style and all look run down. It was a surprise to see two different worlds only 2 blocks apart.

The Las Vegas Strip seems to be a fallacy of what real life is for the every day man/woman in Las Vegas, all struggling to make a living and trying to stay on top of their bills.

Forbes Magazine reported that Las Vegas edged Detroit for the title of America's most abandoned city. Las Vegas and Detroit are among the worst for housing and rental vacancies -- Sin City has rates of 16 percent for rentals and 4.7 percent for homes, while the Motor City sports vacancy rates of 19.9 percent for rentals and 4 percent for homes, Forbes said.

While driving around Vegas I found an amazingly low number of For Sale signs based on the above Forbes comments I would have expected a much higher number. Even though Laurence Hallier a Vegas Developer stated, " It's a mess,Right now things are just frozen, everybody's scared." I found numerous Las Vegas Condominium and single family homes under construction with Construction crews hard at work.

Despite the report from Forbes, Las Vegas still has 2 million people, doesn't sound like abandonment to me. There seems to be lots of Help Wanted signs up even in some of the communities away from the action. Anyone thinking of moving to the Las Vegas area should do their research but will likely find that there are still lots of opportunities and nice neighborhoods in Sin City.

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER: @C21BILL CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE: MY-REALTOR