Buying a home in Toronto may get way more expensive!

The chatter around the city (including water coolers, talk radio and even a newspaper or two) is that City counselors are poised to vote today on a new proposed land transfer tax of up to 2 per cent for residential properties. For those who are not so good with numbers, this will pretty much double the amount that home buyers must pay.

If I want to buy a home for $500,000 I would have to cough up about $13,000 in taxes up front....and by up front I am not even talking about a deposit.

Now in full disclosure, I live in the suburbs so this doesn't effect my directly but if this is to go through I can see the wonderful housing boom that many (including myself to a small extent) of us have benefited from bursting like Pets.com. Making it more difficult to live in the city will mean people will move out to the suburbs and this will effect me directly since I will bump into people I don't want to see more often and I will have to fight even harder for a seat on the subway everyday.

So if you see Mayor Miller on public transit today (he rides it often) make sure you tell him I think this is a bad idea.

saul