The joys of property ownership

Its a funny thing in a way. I am going to sell my home in a few months and move from the hustle that is the Toronto City Centre Airport to a more humane location, The Beach. Besides having access to the wonders that are Queen East (apparently Queen Street East is the new Queen Street West) I will also have access to the busiest if smoothest trail in the city.

Anyway I mention all of this now because my Real Estate agent emailed me this afternoon and suggested that we might want to list our current property before the city's new land transfer tax became a fact of life. One wonders, assuming our current home has a value of $400K would a $4000 tax (actually a little less than $4K) really hurt that much? My agent tells me ever since city council approved the new tax there has been a spike in buyers, don't these people see the irrationality of their actions? Why is it when we talk about big ticket items, cars, houses, iPods, rational logical reasoning is tossed aside in favour of spur of the moment silliness?

Understand I know the city needs the money. But why a land transfer tax? Slap a road toll down on all rush hour traffic, use transponders like the North Eastern states have with their E-Zpass. Raise the mill rate. Threaten to secede like the Quebecois do every 20 or so years, hey look at what a great metro, and other gifts of Federal largess Montreal got in return for sticking it out with us horrible Anglos for the past 30 years. If we threaten to take Buffalo with us will the Americans give us money too? (Actually I suspect they'd say "Please! Go! Now!" Or they'd invade, they're good at that, they just suck at the post invasion stuff.)

Anyway something I post to the great wide yonder, should I list now or should I hold off until I have the keys for my new home in my hot little hands? (Bare in mind, last time I saw my new home, the drywall was in nice tidy stacks on the floor, it is that new.)

On an almost totally unrelated aside, I trail skated, for the last time in 2007 after work. Sunday marks the end of day light savings starting Monday, if I sprint home from the office I can make it just in time to watch the sun set. Today - after work - I managed to listen to my Real Estate agent rant about the horrors of His Blondness (Mayor Miller) and after that still had time skate all the way to the light house and back and do the legion hall hill four times for interval practice. I then skated home just as the sun set.

In honour of my skating adventures I steal (without shame) from the Unix Fortune Cookie program:

Definition: Michael - (1) apparatus to convert cookies into kinetic energy though the use of inline skates. (2) apparatus to convert knees into agonized joints as a result of process undertaken in (1) above.