Cliff Peskin BuzzBuzzHome Dec 31, 2010 If you’re invested in REITS (Real Estate Investment Trusts) then you’re the winner. Not only are you receiving big dividends but real estate stocks have once again trumped the broader stock market with gains of 27% versus the Dow’s 11%. This stellar performance of REITS is being attributed to investors seeking bigger dividends; REITS are currently paying dividends of around 4% compared to 3.35% on treasury bonds. “The REIT yields are very attractive compared … Read More

BuzzBuzzHome Dec 30, 2010 Where do you think 2010′s biggest real estate investment in the United States was? California? Florida? Springfield? Nope…Boston, home of the Celtics! The John Hancock Tower was just sold to the highest bidder, Boston Properties, for $930 Million! But is the building worth it, even though it has an up-and-down past? The John Hancock Tower is located in the lovely Back Bay area in Boston, towering over the city, 62-stories up. The predominantly glass skyscraper, built … Read More

Cliff Peskin BuzzBuzzHome Dec 30, 2010 Canada home prices are dropping ever so slightly. According to Teranet’s House Price Index, prices declined 0.4% in October from the previous month. Prices were up 6.0% year over year though. The average cost of a Canadian home had increased for 16 consecutive months until September when prices started declining. Though prices were down in September in all six of the metropolitan markets surveyed, two cities showed a monthly rise in October – Halifax, … Read More

BuzzBuzzHomeDecember 29, 2010 Toronto boasts more high-rise construction than any city in North America and 2010 was a big year for new GTA condos. In the words of Heath Ledger’s Joker, “I wanted to see what you’d do. And you didn’t disappoint.” Throughout the year we saw dozens of condo launches, relaunches and a few outright condo failures. Looking back, we can say some of these projects stood out from the crowd. They may have had more hype, purchaser interest, … Read More

Matthew SlutskyBuzzBuzzHomeDecember 29, 2010 Real estate developers, builders and marketing firms are not adapting to online social behaviours fast enough. We are living in an era of Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, blogs, Google, online forums, and many many more. With all of these online sources of shared information, new home buyers have more control then ever over the flow of information. Buying pre-construction, whether highrise or lowrise, used to be a one-way conversation between an informed sales-agent and a curious buyer, … Read More

BuzzBuzzHome December 29, 2010 What does 2011 have in store for the Vancouver real-estate market? Is it the new years resolutions, the on-and-off commitments to the gym, or rapid developments in every industry? For the real estate developments in Vancouver, it is going to be the realization that times are a changin’. We are going to see 2011 bring a lot of new product onto the new-development scene, as well 2011 will be the year of the enlightened purchaser! The … Read More

BuzzBuzzHomeDecember 28, 2010 Chit-chatting and dallywhapping is very easy to do online, but writing blog stories – errr.. eStories – is no easy task. Now, imagine pumping out two to ten of these… per day! That is just what BuzzBuzzHome does, somewhere between two to ten stories per day, seven days a week, 365 days of the year. One day per year we have the joy of taking a look at the past year, and analysing which stories received the … Read More

BuzzBuzzHomeDecember 27, 2010 What are we doing buying property in Canada? Why didn’t we buy in London?? According to the website Zoopla, the number of properties in London and southeast England worth at least one million pounds (about $1.5 million Canadian) rose more than 10 percent this year as foreign investors helped boost demand. Bloomberg states: “London homes worth a million pounds jumped 11.1 percent to 123,236 in 2010, the company said in a report today. That’s almost twice the … Read More

BuzzBuzzHomeDecember 26, 2010 A 6-block piece of land in Beijing’s Central Business District just sold in auction to state-owned Citic Group for 6.3 billion yuan… that is just shy of a Billion (yes, with a B) dollars. According to reports, Citic plans to use part of the plot for a 500-meter skyscraper. Yes, Billion with a B, and 500m with a 5. When this skyscrapper is built, it will be Beijing’s tallest. It will be taller than the recently completed … Read More

BuzzBuzzHome Dec 25, 2010 Jude Law and Sienna Miller have purchased a townhouse in London together for $12,298,650. Law and Miller, who are both British, met during the filming of Alfie in 2003, but split up in 2005 after Law began an affair with the nanny of his children. In December 2009, it was reported that Law and Miller had rekindled their relationship after starring in separate shows on Broadway in New York City in the Fall of 2009. And … Read More