Real estate investment tools are something we're often asked about. Do you want to know where we get our information?
We figured it was time to share a list of resources that you may find interesting.
You can find the usual interest rate stuff with some quick Google ninja searches.
Ready?
Let's get busy...
1. Real Estate Appreciation Data & Trends: Here's one of the best places to get historical appreciation rates for the year, trends and predictions of the next year's appreciation for residential real estate. This is a free resource available to all of us: CMHC's Housing Now Reports. You can get them for Canada, by Province or even by major city. These are also the reports journalists use to write articles about real estate in all the major papers. Steal their best real estate investment tools for yourself!
2. How To Find Out What Will Be In Tomorrow's News Today: The media often just repeats information that is released by Statistics Canada and it's neat to read the reports before the media actual releases them. It's also a very instructive way to watch how the media does its reporting. You can find everything from Consumer Price Index reports (inflation reports) to Canadian Income Trends to Greenhouse emissions to Canadian Export activity at: The Daily by Statistics Canada. You can even sign up for daily emails on specific topics that interest you.
3. Should You Go Variable or Lock In Your Rate? Isn't that the question on top of every investor's mind? There's a pretty famous study by a York University professor, Moshe A. Milevsky, Ph.D., that did some thorough analysis on this.
4. Bottom Line Of The Above Mentioned Reports? Don't want to read all those reports we just linked to? Variable rate mortgages have proven to be better than fixed-rate mortgages with exceptions in the early 80's and 90's when rates went into the teens. RBC has a summarizes this with a nice little chart on page 3 of this report here. RBC reports are terrific real estate investment tools!
5. Want to Know Where Mortgage Professionals & The Media Get Their Smarts? The Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals does a solid job of mortgage data gathering. For example, did you know 68% of Canadians use fixed rate mortgages or that 18% of mortgage holders took out equity from their homes this year or that 80% of Canadian mortgage holders have 20% or more equity in their homes or that Ontario is responsible for 41% of all mortgage approvals in Canada or that Alberta has the highest mortgage arrear rate in Canada? Well now you know, here's the Annual State of the Residential Mortgage Market in Canada.
6. The Tools The Bank of Canada Uses To Control The Canadian Economy. Look, we know we're monetary policy geeks - but we love this stuff! And as a sophisticated investor, you should too! 🙂 We really can't believe how open the Bank of Canada is with the way it tries to guide the economy. It's kinda cool (and scary). Click on any of the links on the right-hand side of their Monetary Policy Transmission Mechanism for a very simple but informative guide to Canadian Monetary Policy. And our favourite summary is the chart they use to describe how they try to control inflation, click here to see it. Add this to your arsenal of real estate investment tools!
7. This is an "unusual list" so we didn't want to share a standard mortgage calculator. Instead, here's the coolest calculator around. It's the Bank of Canada's Inflation Calculator. Here's a test: Enter in the amount of money you were making per year 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago etc. in the "Basket of goods" box and then hit CALCULATE. Is your income keeping up with inflation? It should be if you want to enjoy those Mexican Beach of Florida Disney vacations we Canadians love! Add this knowledge to your existing real estate investment tools and your knowledge and understanding will continue to grow!
8. Want To Know Where Interests Rates are Headed? Watch the value of the U.S. dollar. If the U.S. Dollar stays low or keeps falling rates in Canada will likely stay low - even in Canada - unless Canada does a major monetary policy about face. Simple as that! Here's a handy chart you can refer to.
9. How Is The Rest Of The World Viewing Canada? It's so easy for us to get self-absorbed. To keep proper perspective you'll want to take a look at what the rest of the world is saying about Canada every once in a while. We are always monitoring what the International Monetary Fund is saying about Canada. - their comments often dictate the Bank of Canada's actions and it's one of the ways we forecast the future of interest rates and real estate appreciation in Canada.
Now for some that are totally non-real estate related at all! We've given you our best real estate investment tools, now here are some real life tools.
10. Best Blog to Keep You Thinking Outside Of The Box and not always focused on Real Estate. You need balance, right? The Blog of Tim Ferriss, it seems to be losing a bit of its pizazz but there's more good information about life, health, cash and travel in there than any other blog we've come across. Pick up his pick while you're at it, 4-Hour Work Week, fun read. Remember, real estate investment tools are helpful for real estate investments, but life tools, they're always good.
One more! Why not, it's our list and we can do what we want 🙂
11. Want to keep track of "Social Media" but don't know where to start? Just follow our friend Scott Stratten. He's the Canadian Twitter Jedi Master and a good guy. Reach out to him and let him know we said Hello. One of the few guys who really understands the power of your own unique voice in the social media world.
