Imagine you’d been keeping your eye on a desirable neighbourhood over the years. You had hoped that one day you could buy a home there. But then you saw prices creeping up — to a point where they became unaffordable.

“Oh well,” you’d thought. “I guess we won’t be moving there!”

That scenario is familiar to many homeowners. In fact, you too may have been keeping your eye on a neighbourhood you’d love to get into but have decided it’s become too expensive.

If that’s so, it might be worth taking a second look.

The real estate market changes. One year an area might be a red-hot seller’s market with prices soaring. The next year, things may have cooled, and prices stabilized....

Positive Buyer Strategies for a Tough Market

With the way the housing market is at present, it’s tough for buyers to compete and even harder to stay positive, and things may seem especially hopeless for first-time homebuyers; they have no previous home on which to draw equity, and they can also be dealing with sky-high rent and high student debt balances, making it extremely difficult to save for a down payment.

Buying a home is always emotional, and having to deal with disappointment and uncertainty just adds to the stress levels. So how can buyers stay positive in a market like this? We’ve put together a few tips on how buyers can make smart decisions, and move in the right direction towards finding their new home.

1) Mortgage ...