Since mid April, all you need is just 20% down to avoid mortgage insurance fees.  The old law was 25%, and it's been around for 40 years.This change should save you about $2500, for example, on a typical $300,000 home.  The savings includes the mortgage insurance fee itself and the interest you pay to borrow for the fee.  The savings will apply to both new purchases and refinances.The only ones not celebrating this new law are CMHC, Genworth and AIG insurance.  They're about to lose a nice chunk of insurance premium revenue.  Fortunately, according to Jim Rawson from Invis (as quoted in The Star), competition among Canada's mortgage insurers should prevent them from raising premiums to offset this revenue loss.Key Point:  Jim also notes that it doesn't always make sense to defer buying ... 06/23/2007

Thinking of selling your home soon?Follow some of these tips to help you make an easy and possibly a quick sale of your home.To prepare your property for listing, take a look at your home with the eyes of a potential buyer. What's your first impression? What needs to be cleaned, painted, repaired, or tossed out to make your house as attractive as possible? A small investment in repairs, decoration, and organization can add thousands of dollars to your property value. Experts such as, Home stagers and Home Inspectors can give you a quick assessment of your home to give you an idea of what changes or repairs need to be taken care of prior to listing your home.To find out the best ways to get your home ready for sale, take our Homeowner Quiz. It's a quick, fun quiz that will analyze your h... 06/12/2007

More than 5 billion crayons are produced each yearMore than 100 billion crayons have been produced so far. The first crayons consisted of a mixture of charcoal and oil. In the early 1900s, cousins Edwin Binney and Harold Smith developed a nontoxic wax crayon. Binney's wife, Alice, attached the French word for chalk, craie, with "ola," from oily, to form the Crayola name. Their first box of Crayola crayons were sold for a nickel in 1903.The first Crayola crayons came in a box of eight colours: black, blue, brown, green, orange, purple, red and yellow. By 1957, 40 new colours were introduced. Today there are more than 120 crayon colours, including Atomic Tangerine, Blizzard Blue, Mango Tango, Outrageous Orange, Laser Lemon, Screamin' Green and Shocking Pink. Over 5 billion crayons are pro... 06/08/2007