Average Toronto house price surpasses $1M + MORE Jul 13th

Canada’s main stock index advanced on Monday, tracking global market sentiment, after all-night negotiations between eurozone leaders and Greece resulted in a deal that would keep the debt-burdened country afloat.

NEW YORK, N.Y. – A partnership run by Marathon Petroleum will spend $14.69 billion to buy MarkWest Energy Partners, a company that splits natural gas into other fuels.
The combined company will have a market capitalization of $21 billion and tie up Marathon’s huge pipeline network with the refiner.
The cash-and-stock deal values MarkWest units at $78.64 each. The companies said the purchase includes $4.2 billion in debt held by MarkWest. The companies value the deal at $20 billion and expect it to be completed during the fourth quarter. Denver’s MarkWest will become a unit of MPLX LP, a midstream partnership created by Marathon Petroleum.
MarkWest is among the biggest natural gas processors in the U.S. and has major operations in and around Texas. But it’s also active in major shale plays line Marcellus in the Northeast and Utica on its western border.
Common units of MarkWest closed at $59.75 on Friday, meaning the purchase price represents a 32-per cent premium…

(Getty Images / Martin Barraud)
In June 2015, the average sale price of a house in Toronto surpassed the $1 million mark for the first time. No doubt homeowners across the city were popping champagne, but buyers were in no mood to celebrate. And realtors? Well, any real estate agent representing an average detached home that sold for $1.052 million would be paid a $26,300 in commission. A seller, then, would need to fork out more than $50,000 in commissions for the sale of that million dollar home—since the seller pays both their own realtor’s commission as well as the commission for the buyer’s realtor, at a standard rate of 2.5% per realtor. You may want to hold off on the bubbly.
It doesn’t take a millionaire to understand that there are at least a million different ways to spend $50,000. PropertyGuys.com lead analyst, Walter Melanson, has a few suggestions. Ranging form the necessary to the luxurious here’s what you could buy for $50,000:
* $16,740 will buy you: An entire month in a suite at the Ritz Carlton in Toronto
* $18,306 will buy you: Five top-of-the-line new appliances at Best Buy
* $22,576 will buy you: A pair of Toronto Maple Leafs Platinum season tickets
* $24,880 will buy you: Four years of Arts & Sciences undergrad tuition at the University of Toronto
* $30,000 will buy you: A private concert for you and your friends by Ice Cube, or spend $40,000 for a private audience with David Crosby and Graham Nash (of Crosby, Stills and Nash fame)
*$38,252 will buy you: Four business class tickets to Sydney, Australia with Air Canada
* $39,834 will buy you: Five years of groceries for the average Canadian household
* $43,058…

The Financial Post’s Kristine Owram looks at some of the day’s top business and financial stories.

(Grant Cochrane/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
Q: My wife has her own RRSP and a spousal RRSP I haven’t contributed to for a while. Both accounts hold the same type of mutual funds at the same institution. Would combining these accounts save us on fees?
—Brad Daneliuk, Windsor, Ont.
A: Combining the accounts might help you save investing fees, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. It depends on the mutual fund policies and the amount of money involved. Let’s say you have $50,000 in each RRSP but the threshold to qualify for “premium” funds, and lower your MERs, is $100,000. Combine the accounts and you could reduce your MERs by 0.5%, which would save you $500 in fees per year. But it could lead to complications says Kathryn Del Greco, VP and investment advisor at TD Wealth. “The newly combined account will be considered a spousal account in the eyes of the CRA and the three year attribution rule applies to withdrawals.” Instead, ask your advisor if you can reduce the total fees you pay—a plan that may or may not include combining the accounts…