Blogs

Our team is honoured to work with so many of you to make your home ownership dreams come true. We meet some amazing people in a variety of situations, but we always feel so humbled to get this kind of client feedback. The following words were submitted by one of our clients who has kindly given us permission to share this story.

Kam Brar and the team at Auxilium mortgage have been an absolute blessing and an incredible help during some difficult personal times.

While already having the responsibility of being the lone caregiver for my elderly mother, I was unfortunately rendered permanently disabled in early 2013. My finances, credit and general opportunities took an immediate nosedive and after months of trying to balance pre-existing debts and mortgage commitments on only 60% of what I was previously earning, I began to sink under the weight.

Victoria is now second only to Richmond in the number of residential real estate transactions in this province involving foreign buyers. According to data from October, 6.3% of the sales in the Capital Regional District were to non-residents. This volume is almost double the amount of September transactions.

For the past few years, credit has been easy to come by for most Canadians. However, for every individual who manages their credit well, there are horror stories of monster loans and mountains of debt. According to an annual report by credit agency TransUnion, individual debt among Canadians is increasing. A typical individual is currently carrying $21,686 in debt, not including their mortgage – an increase of 2.3% from the same time in 2015.

Over the past few weeks, we've heard some pretty scary terms being tossed about regarding the housing market: Canada is in a housing boom – bubble – bust; the market is softening, deflating, freefalling, crashing. The truth is that the federal government's new mortgage qualifying regulations introduced a lot of uncertainty into the market. Many folks are calling us with one question on their minds, "Should I buy now or wait?"

The following story was submitted by one of our clients who has graciously given us permission to share it with you. It has been slightly edited for clarity, but otherwise contains his own words about his experience with our team.

My wife and I moved out to Victoria B.C. in June 2015 to follow a dream. We left behind our family, friends and a beautiful house to work for a medical services company that was employing me to design and implement a respite/resource centre for all functional ranges and ages. By the middle of July, we sold our house back in Winnipeg and began to search for a house around Victoria.

Are you a millennial looking to buy your first home? You’re not alone in the Canadian real estate market. The National Association of Realtors reports that one-third of purchasers are millennial home buyers, and a study of summer data by Point2Homes Canada shows that the “typical” Canadian home buyer is a millennial woman.

Do you play the lottery week after week, dreaming of becoming an instant multi-millionaire? You’re not alone! In the past fiscal year, the BCLC reports that $636 million was awarded to lottery winners in B.C.

In addition to those daydreams, it might help to have a plan in place for your winnings – just in case! Below we share 6 silly things (and 1 smart thing) that people do after winning the lottery.