Raj Khurana Realtor Link to Calgary Homes

This home in Tuscany (Calgary NW) is original owner owned is no pet/no smoking & boasts 1740 sq ft + an unspoilt basement. It's freshly painted with neutral colours and has new hardwood & tiles floors. The main level has gleaming Maple hardwood floors, a spacious kitchen with raised island having brand new granite counter tops and a corner pantry. The Dining area leads onto a sunny South deck & a huge backyard. The living room is open to the kitchen & has a cozy corner gas fireplace. The main floor also has a half bath & a separate laundry room. 2nd floor features a large Bonus room which is wired for a central in-ceiling speaker system. The master bedroom has a huge 4 piece ensuite having a standing shower plus a Jacuzzi and a spacious walk-in closet. The other two bedrooms are quite spacious and have a shared bathroom. Double attached garage is over sized. This home is in a fantastic location and is steps away from schools, public transit as well as Tuscany market. Call today for a private viewing!

For more information on this home in the beautiful community of Tuscany & for other homes in Calgary NW, click on the following links

Detail View (Tuscany Home)

Calgary Homes (Single Family Homes for sale in Calgary)

Calgary Condos (Condos for sale in Calgary)

It seems that that the home buyers in Calgary have now got used to the new mortgage rules which were implemented almost 2 months ago now. A lot of home buyers and sellers are still wondering how the new mortgage guidelines have affected them. Out of the 3 changes, one which probably has affected the first time home buyers the most is the change in mortgage amortization to 30 years from 35 years. Buyers always wonder how much their monthly instalment will go up because of the reduced amortization . The second question which gets raised by some of the buyers is whether they’ll now qualify for a mortgage to buy the home they had been waiting to buy. Let me try to answer both of these questions.

Let’s say that you want to buy a house for $350,000, with a 5% down payment. This would mean that you’ll need a mortgage of $332,500(excluding the CMHC/GE insurance fee).

With the 35 year amortization, your monthly payment @4% fixed rate, would have been $1,179, whereas with 30 year amortization, the monthly payment will be $1,307. To simplify it further, for every additional $10,000 in mortgage amount the increase in payment has been $3.50 at 4% interest rate.

It’ll be interesting to see how this has potentially affected the home buyers for their mortgage qualification. For mortgage qualification, lenders use GDSR(Gross debt service ratio) & TDSR (Total debt service ratio), which basically defines how much maximum mortgage you can obtain.

GDS is calculated by dividing total housing costs by the gross family income, where total housing costs include mortgage payment, heating cost, property tax & 50% of the condo fee.

TDS is calculated by adding any other monthly debt like car loan payment or credit card payment into the housing cost and then dividing it by the gross family income.

The standard mortgage guidelines from most major banks for high ratio (insured) mortgages dictate that your GDS and TDS ratio can’t be more than 35% and 42% respectively.

Using the same figure of $350,000 for the price of a home, let’s do some reverse calculation now.

Let’s assume that the monthly heating cost is $100 and the property taxes for the single family home which you’re buying are $150/month.

In case 1, with 35 years amortization, the total housing cost comes out to be $1,429. Therefore for 35% GDS, the monthly income had to be $1429/0.35, which comes out to be $4,083 ($48,995 annual)

In case 2, with 30 years amortization, the total housing cost is $1,557. So at 35% GDS, the monthly income has to be $1557/0.35, which is $4,449 ($53,383)

This calculation assumes that the other debt obligations including loan & credit card etc. don’t exceed 7% of the income account so that TDSR does not go out of the limit of 42%.

So from this scenario, it is obvious that with everything else being equal, a home buyer now needs an additional income of about $4,400 to buy a home valued at $350,000. The other option for a home buyer will be to either increase the down payment or to buy a less expensive home to keep his debt service ratio in line with the stipulation.

For majority of Calgary home buyers, the increased income requirement or a slight increase in mortgage payment might not be a deterrent, but it’s always prudent to discuss your financial situation with your Realtor & Mortgage Agent ahead of time.

As per figures released by Calgary Real Estate Board, sales of single family homes in Calgary increased by 50% in February, 2009 compared to January, 2009 ( 825 in the month of February from 550 in January).

The number of condominium sales for the month of February 2009 increased by more than 50% from January 2009 ( 343 in Feb 2009 vs. 225 in January 2009).

The average price of a single family home in February 2009 increased by 0.6% from January 2009.

There are too many buyers who are waiting for prices to bottom out before they buy. The only thing they have to consider is whether there will be enough houses for them to make their selection.

There are a lot of free tools for converting Word to PDF Files. But most of the conversion softwares for converting PDF to Word limit the size of file. For example, some of the programs allow you to convert a few pages only. This means that if you have a file which contains 50 pages, the software might convert only first 5 pages only. I recently came across the following website which offers a free PDF to Word Conversion and the good news is that it does not limit the size of the file. So try it out for converting your PDF files to Word to edit and then change them back to PDF if you wish so.

www.free-pdf-to-word.com

Enjoy it!

You can now get a credit on your home renovations thanks to the Home Renovation Tax Credit proposed in the Harper Government's Economic Action Plan.

The Home Renovation Tax Credit will provide a one time, temporary 15% income tax credit on eligible home renovation expenditures for work performed, or goods acquired between January 27, 2009 and February 1, 2010. The credit may be claimed on eligible expenditures exceeding $1,000 but no more than $10,000.

Properties eligible for the credit include houses, cottages and condominium units that are owned for personal use. (i.e., not rental properties)

The Home Renovation Tax Credit will be family-based (i.e., one credit per family).

The 15-per-cent credit may be claimed on the portion of eligible expenditures exceeding $1,000, but not more than $10,000, meaning that the maximum tax credit that can be received is $1,350 (9000 * 15%).

Renovation costs for projects such as finishing a basement or re-modelling a kitchen will be eligible for the credit, along with associated expenses such as building permits, professional services, equipment rentals and incidental expenses.

And don't get all excited... routine repairs and maintenance will not qualify for the credit. You can not claim the the cost of purchasing furniture, appliances, audio-visual electronics or construction equipment for your tax credit.

So go for the renovation which might increase the resale price of hour house!

Raj Khurana
Your Realtor for life
raj@rajkhurana.ca

ABR, e-PRO, PFP, CERC Relocation Specialist