BlogFriday, March 13, 2009 Surrey, Maple Ridge called best spots to buy propertySurrey, Maple Ridge called best spots to buy propertyAccess to transportation is a key to top picks, real estate consultant saysBy Gordon Hamilton, Vancouver Sun -
Friday, December 5, 2008 Making sense of today's housing marketCategories:news stories,stats The local slowdown should not be confused with the collapse in the U.S.By Dave Watt
In recent months, economists have had the unenviable task of trying to calculate the direction the housing market is likely to take, factoring in things like unemployment rates, population and immigration figures, economic growth, mortgage rates, and that most nebulous of criteria, consumer confidence.
They agree that the decrease in housing sales and prices bears little relation to the economic indicators in British Columbia. What has changed is public perception of our financial security, triggered by the troubled global financial markets.
As realtors, people are asking us to help make sense of the housing market.
Sellers are asking if the market value of their home is decreasing. Buyers want to know if they should wait for further price reductions. Homeowners not in the market to buy or sell want to understand the impact on their equity, which may affect decisions like plans for renovations. Investors are asking about short-term impact -- is it a good time to buy, renovate, and re-sell for a profit? And long-term impact -- is quality real estate now available at lower prices? First-time buyers want to know how much they need for a down payment, whether they can afford the monthly mortgage payment, and if they can get financing in these uncertain times. There are no easy answers. Around the Lower Mainland's kitchen tables, realtors are helping people assess their individual situations.
Circumstances cause each of us to make decisions despite uncertainties related to global economies and politics. Someone gets a job in another city. A family must consider estate planning for a parent. A young couple wants to start investing in their own home, rather than renting.
Our MLS statistics and housing price index (HPI) tell us that, since May, residential home sales and prices have been decreasing. After five years of unprecedented growth in home values in the Lower Mainland, that's not particularly surprising or necessarily unwelcome.
Between 2003 and 2008, the HPI benchmark price of a detached home in Greater Vancouver increased nearly 70 per cent to $761,000 from $449,000. Condominiums over the same period increased 82 per cent to $387,000 from $213,000.
Left unchecked at this rate, by 2013 the benchmark price of a detached home would top $1.2 million and condos more than $700,000.
Current trends offer moderation to a market where affordability, for much of this decade, was eroding, making home ownership unattainable to an expanding segment of our community.
Since May, residential home prices have declined 12.8 per cent, resulting in an 8.3-per-cent year-to-date price reduction for detached, attached and apartment properties across Greater Vancouver.
These moderating home prices should not be confused with the U.S. housing downturn. Since 2005, prices in the U.S. have been edging downward owing in large part to imprudent subprime lending practices.
The local real estate market is not immune to global economic challenges; however, Canada's disciplined lending structure has kept the mortgage landscape steady in these uncertain times.
While the current rate of foreclosures in the U.S. is nearly five per cent, only 0.28 per cent of mortgages in Canada are in arrears, a proportion that is not only low but steady, according to the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (CAAMP).
Low prices are not the concern as much as the view that prices are falling. Buyers are waiting to see of the real estate market has hit bottom.
Identifying the "bottom" of a market is difficult, given that certain variables must remain constant to attain real savings.
For example, interest rates must remain low and that perfect house must remain available at an acceptable price.
Most of us sell a home and buy a home within the same market; while we may be selling at a lower price, we're also buying within that lower-priced market.
Deciding to buy or sell a home should be a milestone moment based on your financial and personal circumstances, and the market conditions within your neighbourhood of choice. For those whose finances allow it, there are excellent opportunities in today's housing market. This is a good market for long-term investors.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver has existed for nearly 90 years and witnessed numerous market cycles. Sales increase and decrease. Prices go up and down. Historically, the values at the peak of the next cycle inevitably surpass the ones before.
Dave Watt is president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.
See the original article here: http://www.vancouversun.com/Homes/Making+sense+today+housing+market/1034266/story.html Thursday, November 27, 2008 Hooray! -- We're NUMBER 4 in Google search results!I felt this was worthy of a blog post.....
If you go to www.google.com and search for "vancouver realtors".... Out of 10,000+ Realtors in the Vancouver area, I'm FOURTH on the map list at the top... and I'm actually the ONLY Realtor on the list -- the other results are all Realty companies, not individual Realtors. So I hope you don't mind me giving myself a little pat on the back for this accomplishment.
How did I pull this off? I have no idea. I've done so much in the way of online marketing, I couldn't possibly even list it all for you, never mind telling you what, in particular, got me this status. But there are Realtors out there who spend hundreds of thousands in marketing.... and I'm not one of them!
So what do I think made the difference? I suspect it's because of all my loyal clients visiting my website! YOU--my readers, clients and fans--generating website traffic volume. So thank you. I appreciate the support.
-Telf
Monday, November 17, 2008 Zoocasa - new Canadian search siteZoocasa - new Canadian real estate search siteZoocasa is a new company launched on September 11, 2008 by Rogers Communications Inc. It promises "to give all people searching for a home in Canada the ability to easily find homes for sale based on the things they value the most." Although the website is still in "beta" (ie. not yet finished), it does seem to have some decent features, as well as a lot of problems.
Zoocasa allows you to search by the typical information of city, neighbourhood, bedroom count, price, etc. but will also give you some interesting statistics on houses available that match your search criteria, such as listing count, high price, low price, and average price. They all pull data from Wikipedia, giving you an overview of the neighbourhood you are searching, which is a nice feature.
Another nice feature of Zoocasa is automated linking of listings with a Real Estate Agent's facebook profile. While this seems like a fantastic time-saving feature for Realtors (like me) who post everything on Facebook, it doesn't work yet.
But biggest issue on Zoocasa is a lack of listings! There are, as of this moment, 5773 properties for sale in the City of Vancouver (on MLS). Zoocasa brings up just 2814. (Zoocasa results here). Will people use a website to search for property knowing that they're only getting access to less than half of the available listings?
But my personal pet peeve about Zoocasa, and the biggest problem they seem to have, is that my listings are linked back to another Realtor. Now that's annoying. I did email them, twice, about this small glitch and have not received any reply. As there is no phone number or any sort of contact information on their website, it prompted me to do a little research on Zoocasa.com
Officially, Zoocasa Inc. is owned by 2167961 Ontario Inc (as stated in their Terms of Use). As that's not much help, a little more research was required.
The domain name, zoocasa.com, is owned by Rogers Communications Inc. (WHOIS). Which is eye-opening. If a corporation as large as Rogers is planning to enter the Real Estate listings market, they could be a force to recon with! Although, from a quick look at their site, they do seem to be contradicting some of Canada's laws for real estate advertising. I guess we'll see what happens.
A quick search of Ontario corporate records shows that the directors of 2167961 Ontario Inc are "Michael Lee" and "William W. Linton". Michael Lee brings up too many Google results to filter.... but add in the search term Rogers, and you will quickly find that Michael Lee is the Chief Strategy Officer for Rogers Communications Inc. and William W. Linton is Roger's CFO. Very interesting.
Zoocasa was incorporated on March 28, 2008 in Ontario and went live on the web on August 9, 2008.
List of 2167961 Inc. (Zoocasa) Directors & Officers:
Nadir H. Mohamed, President & COO (Rogers President & COO)
Michael Lee, Director (Rogers Chief Strategy Officer)
M. Lorraine Daly, Officer (Rogers Vice President/Treasurer)
William W. Linton, Director (Rogers CFO & Vice President, Finance)
David P. Miller, Officer (Rogers Senior VP, General Counsel, Secretary)
As you can tell, although they seem to be trying to keep it quiet, Zoocasa is clearly owned and operated by Rogers Communications.
Once you have this info to start from, searching for more becomes easy. You can read an interesting interview with one of their web developers here: http://www.blogto.com/city/2008/09/zoocasa_aims_to_clean_up_mlss_mess/
The future of Zoocasa is unclear. If they can solve the seemingly insurmountable problem of where to get their listings from, they might have a chance. MLS is not going to share, and is not going away anytime soon! And if they stop annoying Realtors by linking listings to the wrong person, and actually allow Realtors a way to post their listings on Zoocasa, then they might have a chance to at least survive. I guess time will tell.
Meanwhile, I would LOVE to hear some comments from all of my readers. Which search is easier to use -- zoocasa.com or my own personal website's search feature? Thank you for your feedback! |
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