“The strong home sales reported in March and throughout the first quarter of 2011 have been based on a solid affordability picture and improving economic conditions in the GTA and country-wide,” said Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) President Bill Johnston.

The average selling price for March 2011 was up five per cent year-over-year to $456,147. The strongest average annual price growth was reported for condominium apartments and semi-detached houses, at approximately seven per cent for both home types.

“Market conditions were tighter in March compared to last year. With more competition between buyers, we have seen a strong but sustainable rate of price growth,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis. (Source: Toronto Real Estate Board)

TD Canada Trust said the biggest increases will be for mortgages with terms of five to 10 years, which will all go up by 0.35 percentage points. The move was matched by CIBC. The Royal Bank raised its rates on mortgages for five- and 10-year terms by 0.35 percentage points and its seven-year rate by 0.15 percentage points.

The posted rate for five-year closed mortgages — one of the most popular types of loans for Canadian home owners — will rise to 5.69 per cent.

The three banks will also raise their rates on one-year, three-year and four-year terms by 0.2 percentage points while two-year terms go up 0.3 percentage points.

Fixed mortgage rates, which are closely tied to the bond market, tend to climb when traders shift investment activity to riskier equity assets from bonds, which are considered safer.

However, The Bank of Canada has a more optimistic outlook for Canada's economy. The central bank boosted its forecast for economic growth as it held its benchmark rate steady at 1 per cent earlier this month. But there was no signal that Governor Mark Carney and his colleagues plan to resume raising rates next month, particularly given the strength of the Canadian dollar.

"There is no smoking gun here signalling a quick return to tightening," said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns. "While the bank is less concerned about the global and U.S. risks, it is focused on the strong loonie. The needle is slowly moving to renewed rate hikes, but a hike is not yet imminent." (Source: Moneyville & The Globe and Mail)

If you already have a tablet or you’re gearing up to purchase one, you know how much they can do – but will your tablet have a home in your kitchen? Here are six good reasons to make space for a tablet in your kitchen:

1 | Easy recipe look-up. This is the most obvious benefit of a tablet in the kitchen: You can look up any recipe at any time, whether you do it on the web or through a recipe app. No longer will you have to dig through all your cookbooks to find a suitable recipe or print off loose pages from the net.

Best apps for recipes: Epicurious (free for iPad and iPhone); All Recipes (free for iPad and iPhone)
Offline readers: Instapaper lets you cycle through all your favourite food blogs and pick up new content, then opens recipes when you're ready to cook.

2 | You can keep an ongoing shopping list. Forget scribbling shopping lists on scraps of paper and pads that get misplaced before you make it to the store. Keep track of what you need on your device and you’ll have it at your fingertips at all times. Better yet, you can email it to a family member and ask them to pick up what you need!

Best grocery list app: Grocery Gadgets (free for BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone and Android devices)

3 | It’s your stereo, too. Playing your favourite tunes in the background while you chop, sauté and bake is multi-tasking even the iPad can handle. If you have music on your tablet, you’re good to go, without all the bulk of your old stereo – so you can clear that out of the kitchen along with all your old cookbooks.

4 | You have a sommelier at your finger tips. There are plenty of apps designed to help clueless cooks select just the right wine to pair with their meals.

Best wine and food pairing app: Hello Vino (free for iPad, also available for your iPhone or Android phone)

5 | Measurement conversions. You won’t have to try to remember how many ounces are in a cup anymore or leave the room to check on your computer (or call your mother). All tablets either come with a measurement calculator or you can download one easily.

6 | It can help you figure out “how to” anything. Can’t remember what the difference between mixing and folding is? How to season your cast iron pans? With a tablet in the kitchen, you don’t even need to leave the room to find out. You can find step-by-step YouTube videos for almost any task, or follow along with Jamie Oliver or Chef Mario Batali as they take you through a full recipe.

Best how-to app: How to cook everything (free on your iPad or iPhone)

Two more tips for using your tablet in the kitchen. A tablet in the kitchen is many devices rolled into one – so you have more space to work your magic – but it’s an electronic device, after all, so you still need to take care of it.

» Find a stand for your tablet and set it out of your cooking danger zone where batter, oil and splatter is flying.

» If you’re following a recipe, adjust the sleep setting so your screen stays on for long intervals and you’re not constantly faced with a blank screen. You don’t want to need to put your sticky fingers all over the screen to wake it back up. (Source: Your Home via The Toronto Star)

Worried that installing a low-flow toilet won't do the job it's meant to? With the right system, properly installed, a low-volume flushing system will not only put money in your pocket, it also will save more than half of the water you currently use on a daily basis.

If your home is older than 15 years and your toilets haven't been updated, you're probably using anywhere from 12- to 18-litres of water every time you flush. If your toilet runs and you need to jiggle the handle to get it to stop, or you need to double flush frequently, chances are you're wasting twice that. By replacing an older 18-litre a flush toilet with an ultralow-volume (ULV) six-litre flush model, you'll save up to 70 per cent of your previous water usage. Your plumber can pick up a low-flow flush toilet for as little as $150.

When it comes to retrofitting, you can adapt your toilet by installing water-saving devices inside the actual tank or at the back of the toilet. There are devices for water retention, displacement, as well as early-flush and dual-flush gadgets. By far the most popular is the toilet dam, which will save about five litres of water a flush. Easy to install and costing only about $10, toilet dams are government-approved retrofits. They do have a tendency to leak over time, however, so keep your eye on them and replace them periodically.

If you don't want to call the plumber to replace your entire toilet, you can have an early-closing device or a dual-flush device attached to the overflow tube inside the tank. Basically, they work by closing the flush valve or the flapper when the tank is only partially emptied. With the dual-flush attachment, the amount of water used depends on how long the handle is held down — lighter for the small jobs and longer for the — well, you get the picture.

Ultimately, a ULV toilet is the best approach, since it uses considerably less water and produces less wastewater. If your municipality applies a sewer surcharge on your water bill, the investment in a new toilet could mean even bigger savings. If you are on a private well and septic system, you will really reduce the load on your tile field as well create less wear and tear on the system over the long term.

With the average person using 350 litres of water daily and spending a total of three years on the toilet in a lifetime, retrofitting or replacing your existing ones is a sure way to bring some comfort to your life by saving money — and water. If you prefer to keep your old water guzzling systems, you're just flushing money down the toilet. (Source: The Globe and Mail)