Kamloops Home For Sale: 223 Larch Avenue, North Kamloops, B.C., $269,900

223 Larch Avenue, North Kamloops, Kamloops Real EstateCute 3 bedroom,1 bathroom home in central location with a 450 sq foot shop. Located only minutes to downtown shopping, transportation and many amenities. The over sized 1 car detached shop has 220 power with sub panel and lane access. There is tons of extra parking for your toys and RV. Recent updates include kitchen appliances, flooring, paint, furnace, central a/c unit and more! Main floor has 2 bedrooms nice sized kitchen, main bathroom, bright living room and laundry room. Basement is mostly finished with a rec room, bedroom, bar area and has rough ins for a second bathroom. The back yard is very private with new fence and garden boxes. Nice covered deck area and paving stone patio in the back. Roof approx 10 years. Great home for a downsize or first time home buyer.

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Kamloops Home For Sale: 16-1980 Glenwood Drive, Valleyview, B.C., $217,000

16-1980 Glenwood Drive, Valleyview, Kamloops Real EstateOne of the best locations in the complex! Corner unit with private East facing patio leading to the beautiful courtyard and pool. As nights cool, cozy up by the gas fireplace. Enjoy the updated kitchen and open dining area with eating bar overlooking the sunken living room. The master bedroom is large with a cheater ensuite and there are 2 other spacious bedrooms up. Downstairs is a great area for playroom or media room. No rentals but pets are welcome and it’s close to schools, shopping and transit. Possession is flexible.

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Flaherty: House Prices A Worry, But No Mortgage Crackdown For Now, Huffington Post

This article was written by Julian Beltrame of The Canadian Press on October 28th, 2013.

OTTAWA – Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is taking on the responsibility of averting a housing bubble in Canada that could destabilize the economy, adding he will speak to those in the business to try and keep a lid on rising home prices.

With the Bank of Canada essentially taking itself out of the game by signalling interest rates won’t be raised for some time, Flaherty said Monday after meeting with about a dozen economists that it falls on his department to ensure the market is stabilized.

“It does fall to the Department of Finance to do anything if we’re going to do anything because there’s basically no room for the Bank of Canada to move,” he said. “Some of the economists suggested I have some conversations with people in the building industry because what we’re seeing in certain parts of the country (is) a re-acceleration of housing prices. I do speak regularly to people in the business and I’m going to do more of it now.”

Flaherty said he has no intention of acting at the moment, but said he was keeping an eye on the market to see if the current uptick in sales and prices is temporary or the beginning of another hot run.

Most economists see the market slowing after the recent resurgence, including the Bank of Canada. But the central bank also cited the “renewed momentum” as one of three domestic risks to the economy in its October monetary policy report. “This (the resurgence) would provide a temporary boost to economic activity, but could exacerbate existing imbalances and therefore increase the probability of a correction later on,” the bank said. “Such a correction could have sizable spillover effects to other parts of the economy and to inflation.”

The minister has been active in the housing market throughout his tenure, at first easing rules but more recently clamping down as Canadians took on ever-increasing debt levels to buy real estate.

The latest measure, which came in July 2012, was followed by a slump in sales and a slowdown in price gains. But the market began picking up again during the summer, particularly in Toronto and Vancouver, with the average home price hitting a new record high of almost $386,000.

Home prices are not Flaherty’s only worry.

The minister told reporters he remains focused on trying to eliminate as much as possible the price gap between the United States and Canada that one recent report pegged at about 10 per cent. Flaherty said he has been meeting with CEOs of the country’s major retailers to ask for explanations as to why prices for the same items remain elevated in Canada, adding that he is not altogether persuaded by the answers he has been given.

“There are some companies that look at Canada as a relatively small market that is relative well off, (with a) large middle class, and, ‘Let them pay a little more, and they’ll pay it.’,” he said of merchant attitudes. However, Flaherty said he will wait until the results of a study being conducted by the market research firm Nielsen before deciding if anything needs to be done.

“It becomes an interesting question of what the government can do about that … there are always persuasive techniques that can be used to nudge people in the right direction,” he said. The minister has deployed the approach before.

Earlier this year he personally phoned the Bank of Montreal to “persuade” it to raise its five-year fixed mortgage rate after BMO cut it to 2.99 per cent. Flaherty said he was concerned about a race to the bottom on rates that would trigger unsustainable borrowing.

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