A big surprise for many first-time homebuyers are the closing costs. Closing costs typically add up to between 1.5% and 4% of a home’s purchase price and include home inspection fee, legal fees and disbursements, municipal and provincial land transfer taxes, title insurance and appraisal fee. If you’re making only the minimum 5% down payment, […]

The Ontario government hinted last week it would offer something “small” to first-time homebuyers in its fall economic statement and it didn’t disappoint. On Monday, the Liberals announced that starting January 1, 2017, the maximum provincial land transfer tax rebate for first-time homebuyers will double from $2,000 to $4,000. If you’re buying a home in […]

Nothing is certain except for death and taxes. Complaining about taxes is a national pastime for a lot of Canadians. I haven’t met one person who doesn’t think we’re being gouged by the taxman. There’s no denying we pay a lot of taxes, but how much do taxes account for of our overall spending? The […]