City of Toronto Land Transfer Tax is hurting the market

Our regular readers will know that I have commented before on the negative effects of Mayor Miller's City of Toronto Land Transfer Tax. In a recent note that I sent out ("Crunching the Numbers on the Toronto Real Estate Market"), I showed how prices along the city border are trending lower in Toronto than they are in the 905. Well, the guys at the C.D. Howe Institute are even nerdier with the numbers than I am! They did some serious crunching (including 'regression' and 'estimation'!) and came to the same conclusion. The bottom line is that the Toronto LTT is bad for the market, and bad for the people who make up the market. To my mind, that makes it bad - period. Given the C.D. Howe report's superior crunching, I'll give you the link and recommend that you check it out. Enjoy! http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/commentary_277.pdf