It's a question that gets asked a lot in this city. We are now the condo capital of North America, selling more of these concrete boxes in the sky than cities like New York and Chicago. We are obviously in love with condos, but are they good for us? Architectural critic for the Globe, John Bentley Mays, will be doing a live web-chat on the subject today at 1pm.

Mays recently wrote a piece expressing his disappointment with the failure of an architecturally unique condo development on College Street. N-Blox was something new for Toronto-a high end, boutique style condo on a major pedestrian street with a real focus on architectural excellence. It looked like something out of Berlin or Amsterdam, certainly nothing like it in Little Italy.

Let's be honest, Yonge-Dundas Square has not exactly gotten rave reviews from the Toronto blog scene over the past few years. And if all you read are Toronto-focused blogs and zines you couldn't be blamed for assuming that the much lauded square was a complete failure. But recently, a couple of high profile urban affairs writers, Richard Florida and Christopher Hume, have come out not just in defense of the square, but actually gushing with praise for it. Did I miss something? Since when did Toronto's attempt at building a shrine to the god of consumerism become praise-worthy? Is this the turning of the tide for Yonge-Dundas Square?

The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates again yesterday, this time by one half of one percent. So what-this is blogTO, who cares right? Well, not exactly. The massive erosion of the US housing market and subsequent slow down in the economy south of the border is something anyone thinking about real estate in Toronto should be watching closely over the coming months ahead.

The tanking of the US housing market might actually act as a catalyst for something good for us in Toronto. And it's not just good for the lucky few who already own property, it also could help those who will be jumping into the market for the first time this year.

January is normally a very quiet month in the real estate world, but there were a lot of interesting news items on the real estate front this week so I've compiled them into a single post with the tidbits. Call it a Morning Brew for real estate junkies.

Condos are hot. For the first time ever, condos appreciated at a higher rate than the traditional detached homes in 2007. Once considered the holy grail of Toronto real estate, detached homes appear to be losing some of their luster as prices have simply become out of reach for most first or even second-time home buyers.

This week I put on my investigative reporter hat and went for a stroll around the soon-to-be ghost town that is Roy's Square. I wanted to see how the businesses were coping with being kicked out and what their plans for the future were. In case you missed it, Roy's Square at Yonge and Bloor is going to be completely destroyed to make way for the behemoth that is 1 Bloor.

As expected, no one was happy about moving and some were quite depressed about it, but overall I was glad to see that most of the businesses will be living on in some form or another elsewhere in the city.

For a (somewhat) complete list of the businesses of Roy's Square and their fates, keep reading after the jump.

Another reason to smile if you are a soon-to-be first time home buyer in Toronto: the province just announced a tax break of up to $2000 for all first time home buyers in Ontario. The rebate will apply to the provincial land transfer tax on all new and resale properties for first time buyers. Previously, this program was only available for first time buyers of new homes or condominiums.