Tips on Renewing Your Mortgage Excellent article in the January 12, 2024 Calgary Herald, written by Joel Schlesinger. This is paraphrased from his article. Here is the link (https://bit.ly/3RWS96k) An RBC report says six in 10 mortgages with major banks are due in 2024 and 2025. Are homeowners positioned to weather the higher rates upon renewal? Here are some tips to navigate your renewal: Uninsured (CMHC-insured) mortgages can get better rates than originally negotiated. No stress test required upon renewal. If you renew with the same lender, then you don’t need to demonstrate you can support ..read more

As we swing into a Buyer's Market, getting maximum exposure for your home is our top priority next to putting up the bright red SOLD sign.  We need to make the exponential power of social media (SM) work for you. We use an array of social media platforms to boost your listing posts including Google, Facebook, Instagram, and one of our newest tools, Ylopo. This last tool harnesses AI algorhithms to market and remarket your home. In consultation with Jordan Cohen, the #1 RE/Max agent in the world, he has insights into making social media work in unique ways. Jordan works the Los Angeles mar ..read more

Comparing this year’s market to last year’s over-active real estate market is like talking about fixing up a car you don’t own anymore. It doesn’t make sense any longer. The average price for a single family dwelling (SFD) from January 2023 to February 2023 did not change significantly. Only 46 homes sold in January with an average price of $$795,527; the average price in February was $793,790 with 60 sales. Both months had enough sales, in my opinion, to extrapolate that the 2023 SFD market is settling down after a tumultuous 2022 (it is hard to completely ignore 2022; we will be talking abou ..read more

The Canadian Real Estate Association predicts a downward market for 2023 with a rebound predicted for 2024. CREA forecasts a decline of 5.9% nationally. According to the report, this decline reflects built-in drops already recorded from late 2022. The volume of sales will continue to drop this year and see a rebound in number of sales next year. If you are thinking of selling, we are still benefitting from the steep incline in early 2022. If values decline by an average of .5% monthly and you were considering selling, then I would advise early 2023 versus waiting until late Spring or Sum ..read more

The Central Vancouver Island real estate market began 2023 slowly and then picked up some momentum by mid-January. A typical start to a new year reflects buyers stepping back over the holiday season from their Fall real estate search. Many sellers pull their homes off the market around this period as well, so inventory levels drop. This results in pent-up buyer demand which unfolds in January and February, ahead of the busy Spring market. I have witnessed a few pre-Spring markets and recognize patterns which seldom change. It is not so much if there will be pent-up demand, but when will it sta ..read more

Seller Market Conditions Isn't Always about Price Sellers have enjoyed upward prices since 2015 when the average price was just over $389,000 for a house. Buyers who entered the market over the last 6 years have enjoyed an uptick which has added a lot of equity. Buyers today are loathe to get into some of the bidding wars which have characterized the Canadian real estate markets since the pandemic began 18 months ago. Sellers have benefitted from some multiple offers on their homes which, if measured today, show the average selling price for a home is approximately 3% above the average list pr ..read more

Our local markets are mirroring many markets across Canada: hot seller's market, multiple bids on many homes, and many sellers obtaining sales well above list price. The average selling price for single family homes in February, 2021, was 104.27% of list price. On an average priced home of $638,000 (based on cumulative YTD MLS data), this represents an average of over $30,000 above list price. The average price in February 2020, was $595,223; this February: $747,413 or 25.57% higher. The contrast to last year as we faced the start of the pandemic is stark: in February 2021, 170 single family h ..read more

 For immediate release Strong December Home Sales Close Out an Unprecedented Year Vancouver, BC – January 13, 2021. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that a total of 93,953 residential unit sales were recorded by the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in 2020, an increase of 21.5 per cent from the 77,350 units sold in 2019. The annual average MLS® residential price in BC was $782,027, an 11.7 per cent increase from $700,369 recorded the previous year. Total sales dollar volume was $73.5 billion, a 35.6 per cent increase from 2019.  “Housing markets across th ..read more

A quick look at the Canadian markets ..read more

The Vancouver Island Real Estate Board published August sales statistics and the picture painted reflects broad strokes which may not apply to all market segments. The average selling price in August for a single family (SF) home was $881,254, yet only 72 homes sold compared to last year in August when 129 homes sold. Of the 72 reported single-family sales, 75% (53 sales) were under $1,000,000. Within these 53 sales, most were recorded between $600,000 and $850,000 (35 sales). Four sales above $1.5 million impacted the overall sales average so much so that, when removed from the mix, the avera ..read more