Lorne Martinuik

After a very fast spring, and a  slow summer, we are now in a 'balanced' Fall market. Home builders appear to have increased confidence in the Canadian economy.  Housing starts in all of BC are up  8.3% in the third quarter of 2011 compared to the third quarter of 2010 - however, the majority of the units being built are multi-family (68%).

Comparing September 2011 to September 2010, multi-f ...

Some of these new changes are pretty brutal if you don't have your affairs in order. 
For example: 
1) In the past, if you died without a will, the title to the home would automatically pass to the surviving spouse - or other person on title (joint tenants).  NOW if there is no will, the surviving spouse/ partner MUST buy the property from the estate at Fair Market Value ! So if your home is ...

The Fall market has turned out to be slower than expected.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver has determined that residential sales for  Oct. 2010 are down 37% over  October 2009…..but they are up 73% over October 2008.

Lower mainland average prices have increased 4.6% over the past 12 months but they have dropped .2% since June of this year.

Interest rates have not gone up (I was rig ...

Like all British Columbians, I have been bombarded with the latest doom and gloom predictions of a crashing real estate market.  Here are some REAL facts - that probably would not help sell newspapers - but please consider the following;

Recession is defined as "..a business cycle where employment, investment spending, household income, business profits and inflation ALL fall, while unemploy ...

This summer has been slow for home sales - as we witnessed an end to the 'seller's' market. We are back to our typical balanced market with selling times averaging 45 - 90 days. This will bring stability and predictability, producing a busy fall market and busier spring market with winter and summer slowing considerably. The last 2 weeks have already produced a noticeable increase in activity ...

Again, British Columbia is huge, diverse. Broad snapshots of any region shift focus when examining individual sub-markets. For example, although sales and value for Vancouver Island and Okanagan regions fell overall in 2009, the submarkets of the Capital Regional District/Victoria and Kelowna markets remain strong.

 

Thanks to what are still relatively low domestic interest rates, the improvi ...