Ever wonder exactly how much the price of homes in your city have increased in price in the last five years, or perhaps ten or twenty years? Or what about your parents home, as they consider a downsize, or an out of town family member wanting a make a move closer to you? Perhaps you don’t really want to ask a real estate agent, but don’t know how to find out the information on your own?
A privilege of working in real estate is being able to have constant, current and immediate access to MLS information, both historical and current, for clients and being able to calculate market increases from year to year on a micro level such as on a particular street, or a macro level in terms of an increase or decrease in an entire community or even province. But recently, MLS has introduced a new website that allows people (not just licensed real estate representatives) to track broader trends in real estate themselves.
Foreclosures in B.C.’s Central Okanagan have been on the rise in the past few months. Currently, there are more than 170 court-ordered sale properties on the market. For the record, that number is 10 times more than what it was more than 3 years ago.
According to the article, a local real estate agent estimates that 60 new foreclosures have hit the market in the past 30 days. While some real estate agents believe that it’s working class families who are losing their homes, others believe that the foreclosures are the result of unflipped homes.
The real estate market in Kelowna and surrounding area has been stagnant for the past few months. Some real estate professionals attribute the standstill to low prices in the U.S. It is thought that Canadians are buying cheaper properties there, rather than spending their money at home in Canada. There’s hope, though, that buyers will return to the region once prices rise in the U.S., as they’re expected to do in the near future.
Not all markets are created equal, and negotiating in each requires its own unique set of strategies. In a buyer’s market, since the market is saturated and competition is thick, you can ask for the world and probably get it. In a seller’s market, on the other hand, homes sell in a matter of days – sometimes hours. For this reason, the way you negotiate your sale must fit the current market. Here are some tips for negotiating a sale in both a buyer’s and a seller’s market.
Did you know that the average price of a Greater Toronto Area (GTA) home was just $21,360 in 1966? Can you imagine? Last year, on average, homes in the GTA cost $465,412. That means that, get this, GTA homes are 22 times more expensive than they were 45 years ago. For the record, my student loan is more than double the cost of the average GTA home in 1966. How alarming is that?
820 feet.
That’s the average size of new condos being built in the GTA these days, which is down by about 100 square feet from units built two years ago (according to an assessment of the new housing market released recently by research firm RealNet Canada and the Building Industry and Land Development Assoc).
It’s no secret that in the 416 region, and downtown Toronto in particular, we have seen skyrocketing demand for condos because of a significant increase in demand by people wanting to live close to where they work.
But what about larger families who also want new construction in or close to the city?
Recently, a story caught my attention. No sale, but agent still gets $9,446 is the story of a real estate agent who fought back and sued a client for the commission he thought he’d earned – even though the home’s sale was never finalized. Here’s how the story goes:
Richard Fody, owner of a small piece of vacant land in Tillsonburg, Ont. hires a real estate professional with T.L. Willaert Realty Ltd. Fody signs a standard listing agreement with the agent and agrees to list his property for $199,900. The contract Fody signs states that he agrees to pay the broker 4.5 per cent commission “for any valid offer to buy the property during the listing period.”
During the listing period in February of 2009, several offers come to the table, but most are unacceptably low. In March, however, a reasonable offer (close to the listing price) is made by a man by the name of Benjamin Vink. Fody, not ready to accept the offer as is, counters at $195,000. The offer is not accepted. Worried that he’ll lose Vink as a potential buyer, Fody asks the agent what he can do. After a bit of work, the agent returns with another offer from Vink, this time for the full listing price of $199,900. Fody, however, is nowhere to be found. It seems that he has changed his mind. The deal falls through, and the agent sues for his commission in small claims court.
According to some experts, as lenders lower their standards, Canadians increasingly face mortgage risk. In a time where household debt is at an all-time high and the economy is considered unstable at best, lenders are loosening their standards when they should be, perhaps, being a little stricter.
According to a 152-page report obtained by Bloomberg News, both mortgages and credit lines are being granted without proof of income to high-risk candidates, including self-employed individuals and new immigrants. A recent article in the Financial Post compares the lax lending habits of Canadian financial institutions to those that led the U.S. to its current housing mess.
According to Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, the greatest domestic threat to Canadian financial institutions is record high consumer debts – 153% of disposable income, according to Statistics Canada.
According to Susan Pigg of the Toronto Star, Canada’s mayors predict a major shortage in rental housing across the country. One-third of Canadians are renters, and many are without suitable housing. Over the last 15 years, apartment construction has accounted for only 10 per cent of all new residential building projects. In fact, according to Pigg’s findings, the total number of rental units has decreased by about 18,000 units between 2000 and 2010 across the country. The fact is that “vacancy rates are at an all-time low across the country,” says Brampton’s mayor, Susan Fennell.
Selling your home can be a stressful ordeal, especially if you have difficulty negotiating. There’s an art to sales that involves understanding how to properly negotiate a deal, and like most things in life, there’s a right way and wrong way to do it. Here are some thoughts on what to do, and what not to do, when selling your home.
A luxury unit in Calgary has sold for $8.3 million – a record high for the city – and pre-construction. The condo, which boasts 5,260 square feet, takes up the entire 12th floor of the 15-storey building development that faces the Elbow River. The development, which is being called The River, includes some 38 residences – 11 townhouses and 27 units in the tower itself. More than $30 million in property has been sold pre-construction.
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