Friday, May 18, 2012 Thinking outside the real estate boxby Dale McGauran on Fri, May, 18, 2012 03:27 PM Green players are turning out sleek, contemporary designs and changing perceptions of modular homes. ![unknown.jpg]()
You could be forgiven for asking the obvious: "What the heck is a house doing in the parking lot at Scotiabank Place?" The contemporary construction of exposed wooden beams and glass looks lonely, sitting in the spring sun under the giant posters of Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson and crew that hang over the front doors of the team's official home. The players are long gone for summer, but for four months of the season, thousands of fans walked past the home, glancing in the windows. "It's all about marketing and raising the profile of a new, very green and decidedly modern player in the world of prefab homes," says a slightly wistful Dany Bonneville, co-president of Bonneville Homes, a Quebec-based firm that has built more than 35,000 homes since 1977. As the savvy marketing whiz for his family-owned company, Bonneville was hoping the Sens would go further in the... Wednesday, May 16, 2012 Vancouver’s real estate swoon deepensby Dale McGauran on Wed, May, 16, 2012 04:00 PM Mayur Arora is seeing something few would have expected in Vancouver’s real estate market – people walking away from deposits on houses, convinced prices will fall further. “It happened twice in the last month. One [deposit] was $75,000 and one was a $20,000 deposit, the guys just walked away from it,” said Mr. Arora, who runs Oneflatfee.ca in Surrey, B.C. “They are going to wait it out. So they lost $75,000 and $20,000, but if the market comes down $150,000 on a $1.5-million house, that’s not uncommon.” Vancouver’s once-overheated housing market has cooled sharply, with the average price falling nearly 10 per cent in April from a year ago to $735,315, according to figures released Tuesday by the Canadian Real Estate Association. That was the largest drop since the recession and it marked the fourth decline in the past five months. In a market once famous for being overheated, Mr. Arora said he hasn’t seen a bidding war in months. “It... Tuesday, May 15, 2012 Canadian home prices flatten in Aprilby Dale McGauran on Tue, May, 15, 2012 03:51 PM ![460-housing-chart.jpg]()
Price gains in two of Canada's largest housing markets have slowed considerably, but the national average price in April continues to inch higher. (CREA) The average selling price of a Canadian resale home was a little less than one per cent higher in April compared to the same month a year ago. The average home sold for $375,810 across the country in April, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Tuesday, a rise of 0.9 per cent from the same month last year. But the volume of homes sold was significantly higher. April home sales were 11.5 per cent higher than where they were the same month a year ealier. CREA said that's partly because sales in April 2011 were lower after buyers rushed to buy the month before ahead of new mortgage rules. A total of 157,804 homes have been sold across Canada this year, an increase of 6.4 per cent over the first four months of 2011. As has been the case for several months, activity in two of Canada's largest housing markets, Toronto and Vancouver,... Monday, May 14, 2012 In condo market, 'bubble chatter' heats upby Dale McGauran on Mon, May, 14, 2012 03:23 PM New numbers last week on Canada’s condo-juiced housing market are fanning fresh worries about a bubble in Canadian real estate. This week brings another temperature reading on the housing market – sales of existing homes for April. And Bank of Montreal deputy chief economist Doug Porter is forecasting a healthy 10 per cent year-over-year gain. He also expects prices to rise, paced by Toronto’s hot housing market. ![article2426184.jpg]()
“Look for another round of bubble chatter,” he warned. “Early indications are that activity revved up again last month.” There’s clearly a lot of demand for new housing. A surge in condominium construction helped drive overall housing starts up 14 per cent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 244,900, the highest since September, 2007, and an increase from the March pace of 214,800, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing statistics released last week. Almost all the activity... Friday, May 11, 2012 Would you sell your home to lock in profits before real estate prices drop?by Dale McGauran on Fri, May, 11, 2012 05:46 PM OTTAWA - For most Canadians their home is the biggest investment they'll ever make - but they might be surprised to learn you can use if for more than just sleeping. People generally don't think of their homes as a potential pile of cash in the bank, but experts say it's something worth pondering now that home prices in Canada may have hit their peak. In fact, analysts say if finance is the only consideration, conditions now and into next year or so form a seldom seen sweet spot for using home equity as a type of asset for investment. Why might it be a good time to sell? At about $370,000 average nationally - and just under $800,000 in Vancouver - home prices are already at record levels. Many observers believe prices are long due for a downward correction of anywhere from 10 per cent to 25 per cent, perhaps more in some of the hottest markets. "Home prices to income, housing price to rent, all the indicators are setting off warning signals," said Derek Burleton, a senior economist with... Thursday, May 10, 2012 REBGV April Stats Videocastby Dale McGauran on Thu, May, 10, 2012 04:55 AM | | REBGV April Stats Videocast
Click on the box above to view our monthly market update videocast featuring Board President Elect Eugen Klein.
The videocast is also available at www.rebgv.org. |
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Wednesday, May 9, 2012 Metro Vancouver housing starts ‘steady’ in April, CMHC saysby Dale McGauran on Wed, May, 9, 2012 03:59 PM Home construction is feeding a stable Metro Vancouver housing market with an increase in multiple-family starts offsetting fewer single-detached starts last month, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. “It’s steady as she goes,” noted CMHC senior market analyst Robyn Adamache of their latest report on residential construction intentions, which concluded there were 1,332 starts in April, about the same as April 2011. However, starts were up 16 per cent to 5,963 for the first four months of 2012 compared to the first four months of 2011. Multi-family starts are up 20 per cent in that period to 4,987, while single-detached home starts are up one per cent to 976. Adamache said that although the local market is doing well, she sees no danger of a potential glut of new condos saturating the market. “I don’t see it,” she said. “The numbers are rising, but they’re nowhere near the numbers in 2007-08, when there were 20,000 units under con... Tuesday, May 8, 2012 Sky-high housing prices in Vancouver’s west side short-livedby Dale McGauran on Tue, May, 8, 2012 04:31 PM Realtors say the small boom of sky-high prices for Vancouver west-side houses – one that provoked media around the world to claim with scant proof that mainland Chinese investors were buying up the city – is fizzling out. Both sales and prices are down at the top end even more markedly than in the rest of the region, which has also seen a general slowdown this spring. A house on the 3000 block of West 24th Anenue, first listed at near $4.5-million six months ago, sold on April 15 for $3.35-million. Fresh statistics from the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board show the number of sales on the west side is down by nearly 40 per cent for the first four months of the year. Only a third of the nearly 400 homes listed in April have sold – one of the lowest rates in the region. Realtors say the slowdown appears to have resulted from a combination of tighter lending practices by local banks, which now want proof of income to service large mortgages, more restrictions on how much... Thursday, May 3, 2012 Vancouver real estate sales fall to lowest levels since 2001by Dale McGauran on Thu, May, 3, 2012 04:38 PM VANCOUVER - Vancouver homes sales have fallen to the lowest level since 2001, according to a survey by the Real Estate Board of Metro Vancouver. The survey noted that Metro Vancouver sales totalled 2,799 in April 2012, a 13.2 per cent decline from the 3,225 sales in April 2011 and a decline of 2.6 per cent when compared with the 2,874 sales recorded in March of this year. April sales were 16.9 per cent below the 10-year April sales average of 3,369, the board said in a release. There were 1,126 detached properties sold in April, a decline of 19.7 per cent from the 1,402 detached sales recorded in April 2011, although the benchmark price for detached properties increased - as they did for other property categories - 6.3 per cent from April 2011 to $1,064,800. The benchmark price for all residential properties stood at $683,800, up 3.7 per cent compared with the benchmark the previous April and an increase of 2.8 per cent over the last three months. The highest benchmark price in April for... Wednesday, May 2, 2012 Real estate bidding wars heighten pressure for buyersby Dale McGauran on Wed, May, 2, 2012 04:33 PM Rising home prices and an apparent spike in bidding wars are worrying the Bank of Canada, while causing headaches for potential Canadian homebuyers. Wayde Johnson and Jenn Lum, who entered Canada’s red-hot housing market four weeks ago, have quickly learned three things: houses are expensive, competition is fierce and properties sell fast. The young couple plan to sell their two-bedroom condominium and buy a detached home in one of Mississauga's older, more established neighbourhoods. And they're adamant they won’t enter a bidding war to win a house. “We’re going to lose a lot of houses,” Lum said. “The budget is just the budget and we’re going to stick to very close to that,” Johnson said. “If someone bids higher than that, they’re going to get the house.” That strategy may prove difficult — especially after a nationwide survey conducted by the Bank of Montreal suggested one in four Canadians would willingly enter a... | | Market Snapshot uses real-time MLS® data to provide Vancouver housing market pricing and listing statistics for buyers and sellers. |
