Calgary home sales inch up after 21 months of decline as signs of stability show + MORE Oct 4th

BOSTON – State officials have charged Morgan Stanley with dishonest and unethical conduct, saying it ran high-pressure sales contests.
The contests in Massachusetts and Rhode Island focused on the sales of securities-based loans, or SBLs, which let customers borrow against the value of the securities in their investment accounts with their securities as collateral, authorities said.
Democratic Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said 30 financial advisers in the Springfield, Wellesley, Worcester and Waltham offices, in Massachusetts, and the Providence office, in Rhode Island, participated.
Galvin said the contests offered advisers incentives of $1,000 for 10 loans, $3,000 for 20 loans and $5,000 for 30 loans. He said that created a conflict of interest.
New York-based Morgan Stanley disputed the allegations.
Galvin said contests involved a high degree of pressure since a manager closely tracked the performance of the advisers and the private bankers taking part.
The initial sales contest succeeded in nearly tripling the number of SBL accounts opened the year before the contest and generated nearly $24 million in new loan balances, according to a complaint filed by Galvin…

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VANCOUVER – Sales of detached houses continued to fall dramatically in Vancouver last month and even hit a 10-year low in one neighbourhood, real estate agents say as data for the month of September is set to be released.
Realtors say the high-end market is seeing the most substantial losses, while condominium and townhome sectors remain active. A foreign-buyers tax has increased uncertainty, causing investors to pull back while first-time buyers dive in, agents say.
“The speculators and investors, those folks who don’t need to buy real estate, they have moved to the sidelines,” said Adil Dinani, a Realtor with Royal LePage.
“This could be an opportunity, perhaps, for some people who now don’t have to compete with all the other buyers. They can go out there, take their time, make an informed decision and really complete their due diligence.”
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, which covers a large swath of Metro Vancouver but excludes several large suburbs including Surrey, is expected to release its September home sales data on Tuesday…

CALGARY – Calgary home sales inched up in September for the first year-over-year gains in almost two years.
The city saw a total of 1,488 homes sold last month compared to 1,458 a year earlier — the first such increase since November 2014, according to Calgary Real Estate Board statistics.
The inventory of homes for sale was also up in September at 5,877 listings, about a five-per-cent increase from a year earlier.
CREB said while the supply has increased, it hasn’t gone up as much as many had expected, preventing a more significant price drop.
The detached benchmark price representing a typical home was $503,400 in September, barely moving from August with a $200 increase in what CREB said was a sign of a stabilizing market.
Despite the September increase, total sales numbers for the year are still down about 8.3 per cent at 14,072 compared to 2015 sales for the first nine months of the year — and about 45 per cent below comparable 2014 numbers.
Sales totals for September also varied widely, with detached home sales up 4…

Third-richest tycoon in Hong Kong built his empire on jewellery stores and real estate