June 22 , 2010

Site helps comsumers weather HST storm

Educates homebuyers on tax implications

RateSupermarket.ca, Canadian consumers' one-stop-site to quickly and easily compare over 500 mortgage rates from the country's top providers, has embarked on an educational campaign to expose additional fees that homebuyers will experience when the HST comes into effect July first.

"We were surprised to see that of 383 respondents to our online poll, 56% said that they had no knowledge of how the HST will affect home owners, 24% said they had a little knowledge and only 20% said that they had knowledge of the HST," said Kelvin Mangaroo, Founder, RateSupermarket.ca. "Clearly Canadians need to know the additional fees and taxes that they will be levied after July first because there is no doubt that the overall cost of home ownership will increase."

RateSupermarket.ca has posted articles about the HST on their website info centre and created the following 'hit list' to highlight additional HST levies:

- People hoping to move up the property ladder will have to come up with an additional $1,500 to cover fees when the HST comes into effect in Ontario on July 1st (based on a $300,000 home). This puts the total cost associated with moving at over a staggering $24,000.

- Even if you can manage to negotiate down your real estate agent fees to 3 or 4 per cent you're still looking at paying more than $17,000 in fees when purchasing a home.

- The HST will also increase the cost of running a home, adding 8% on top of many household bills, such as gas, electricity, heating, home renovations, lawn care, and snow removal fees.

- And all this while Ontario average property prices have increased 12.4 percent since this time last year. (April 2009 - $311,098; April 2010 - $349.624; CREA)

About RateSupermarket.ca (www.ratesupermarket.ca)

RateSupermarket.ca is an independent, impartial resource that is not affiliated with any mortgage lender or broker. It is the only resource in Canada that allows visitors to compare the whole mortgage market in the country. RateSupermarket.ca also compares insurance products, credit cards and GIC rates.