No one in Canada will forget the massive floods that invaded Calgary this June and had much of the world watching as Calgarians floated to work and scrambled to reclaim the belongings of theirs swimming down the street. Much of the city still needs to be rebuilt, and that means many of those homes that sadly got severely damaged by the storm. The Calgary Herald reports that due to that damage, Calgary and the surrounding areas will see a boom in home renovations that are needed – and you can help. Many of these homeowners, for whatever reason, won’t be approved for a second mortgage or a home renovation loan. And that’s where you can step in to help.
“The storms in Calgary were catastrophic,” says economist Diana Petramala at TD Economics. “Over 14,500 homes were damaged, many of which need to be rebuilt completely.
“The estimated dollar amount of the damages is not insignificant. Insurance claims are expected to exceed $2 to $3 billion according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, while the Alberta government has devoted an additional $1 billion in funding to help support rebuilding efforts. That is not to mention the knock-on effects from additional spending re-construction may encourage. We estimate that renovations tied to these floods could add about one percentage point ot the overall tally in 2013 and 2014.”
That in itself puts private mortgage investors in a position to help – not just homeowners, but those in business looking for a commercial mortgage or second mortgage to help repair the damage to their offices and business structures as well.
But you might want to refocus your private mortgage investments on Alberta all the time, every year, and not just this year and next. Alberta continually tops the list of renovation spending throughout the country. In the past decade, renovation spending in this province was at 9.3 per cent, and throughout the rest of the country it was 7.6 per cent.
We’re always talking about different areas for private mortgage investing that you might be interested in. But we don’t tell you about Alberta so that you can capitalize on it. Simply so that you can help, and also do what’s right for you by knowing where the best places to put your investments are.