Before Comrade Miller's lap dogs start yelping about the C.D. Howe group being a right wing tory pawn the lap dogs might want to dispute the facts presented with their facts that can be verified. New tax helped sink Toronto real estate market, study says
JEFF GRAY , Globe and Mail Update
Amid a sinking Toronto real-estate market, Mayor David Miller's controversial new land-transfer tax is to blame for a significant chunk of falling sales and house prices, a study released by the C.D. Howe Institute today concludes.
According to the study (link to PDF file), Mr. Miller's tax – a levy of up to 2 per cent on top of the province's existing levy – is responsible for a 16 per cent drop in sales and a 1.5 per cent drop in house prices in the city compared to its suburbs.
City finance officials had pledged that the new tax would have little effect on the city's real estate market before it was implemented in February. But the C.D. Howe study, called Sand in the Gears, concludes that the levy actually was to blame for two-thirds of the drop in the number of houses sold in Toronto from February, when the tax was implemented, until August, when the real estate market's slide began to accelerate.
“The evidence really suggests a very large impact,” C.D. Howe Institute policy analyst Benjamin Dachis said in an interview. “I'll let the evidence speak for itself.”
The study says the new tax, implemented after months of political battles at city hall, can be blamed for an average $6,400 reduction to the price of a Toronto home, and has forced some homeowners to stay put instead of move.
In order to isolate the effect of the new tax from the rest of the winds hitting the real estate market, the study looked at the five kilometres of real estate on either side of Toronto's border with Peel, York and Durham Regions, where no new tax exists, from February to August. It found a deeper slide inside Toronto, where the new tax applies, than outside.
The new land-transfer tax, and a new tax for automobile registrations, caused a months-long political battle at city hall after council narrowly voted in July 2007 to delay the new taxes and Mr. Miller charged that the move put the city in a financial crisis. The new taxes were later approved in October.
1 comment:
bullshit. It was the economy that did it moron.
The land transfer tax came in LAST YEAR, and last summer was a RECORD for real estate. Now how do you explain that?
You seem not interested in facts.
I know this because I just sold my home 2 weeks ago, and bought a detached home in the downtown core last week. And yes I will be paying that toronto land transfer tax as this is my second home.
There you go spouting nonsense as usual.
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