Junuary is in full swing and it seems like summer is still just a dream for now. Working in the garden in between the cold rain is not as much fun but I hope summer will arrive soon enough.

Real Estate markets across the country have been showing signs of slowdown. I suspect that it will be short lived because even though the higher interest rates will discourage some buyers, the demand is still very strong across the whole country. There simply is not enough houses for sale to meet everyone’s demand.

Campbell River
The Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) housing market appears to be shifting amidst lighter demand and increased inventory.

The increased inventory is good news for buyers, giving them more options to choose from and easing the pressure to move too quickly when making an offer. However, the market still favours sellers, and balanced conditions seem to be some distance away. According to the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA), it will take a substantial decline in demand to return active listings on Vancouver Island to a healthy state.

In Campbell River, the benchmark price of a single-family home hit $76,200 in May, up by 29 per cent from the previous year.
Benchmark Price for an apartment: $385,700.
Benchmark Price for a Townhouse: $527,100.

full report HERE

Quadra Island
Quadra Island in May had 3 new listings, 1 sold (pending), 1 sold, 1 expired.
If you would like more details including “sold prices” go to my website, sign up and log in for free to members only area that will provide that information www.quadrarealty.ca
Cortes Island
May on Cortes Island had 3 new listings and 1 sold (pending).
If you would like more details including “sold prices” go to my website, sign up and log in for free to members only area that will provide that information www.quadrarealty.ca

Calgary
“For the second month in a row, sales activity trended down after all-time record high sales in March. “While higher lending rates are weighing on sales activity, the market is still struggling with supply levels and rising prices which could also be contributing to slower sales, especially in the detached market. Nonetheless, if this shift continues, we could begin to see more balanced conditions in the market over the next several months, slowing the pace of price growth in the market.
The benchmark price of detached homes in the city of Calgary hit $648,500;
semi-detached: $584,700;
row home: $363,300;
apartments: $275,300.”

full report HERE

Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BC – June 2, 2022 – After reaching record-setting levels in 2021, home sale activity has returned to more typical seasonal levels in Metro Vancouver* this spring due, in large part, to rising interest rates.
“With interest rates rising, home buyers are taking more time to make their decisions in today’s housing market,” said Daniel John, REBGV Chair. “Home buyers have been operating in a frenzied environment for much of the past two years. This spring is providing a calmer environment, with fewer multiple offer situations, which is allowing buyers to explore their housing options, understand the changing mortgage market, and do their due diligence.”

 “Upward pressure on home prices has begun to ease in the housing market over the last two months,” John said. “Where home prices go next will depend on housing supply. While we’re beginning to see modest increases in home listings, we still need housing supply totals to more than double to bring the market close to balanced territory.”

The benchmark price for a detached home is $2,093,600. This represents a 15 per cent increase from May 2021.
The benchmark price of an apartment home is $779,700. This represents a 15 per cent increase from May 2021.
The benchmark price of an attached home is $1,141,200. This represents a 21.5 per cent increase from May 2021.

Full report HERE

Toronto
TORONTO, ONTARIO, June 3, 2022 – Greater Toronto Area (GTA) housing market conditions continued to evolve in response to higher borrowing costs. Similar to April results, May 2022 sales were down on a monthly and annual basis.

“Bank of Canada rate hikes, including the 50-basis point hike on June 1, are impacting home buyers in the short term. There is now a psychological aspect where potential buyers are waiting for a bottom in price. This will likely continue through the summer. However, as home buyers adjust to higher borrowing costs, housing demand will be supported by extremely low unemployment, high job vacancies, rising incomes and record immigration,” said TRREB President Kevin Crigger. 

The average price for a detached home in area (416) is $1,914,890.
The average price of a semi-detached home (416) is $1,426,273.
The average price of a townhouse (416) is $1,045,874.
The average price of a condo (416) is $793,124 as reported by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TREBB).

Full report HERE

Are you thinking of selling your home? Call me for a free home evaluation.

Roman Krzaczek REALTOR ®
Home number: 250-285-2141
Quadrarealty.ca proud sponsor of Quadra Island online community www.quadra.life

Finally, Spring is here, and we can finally work in the garden! I missed being outside doing what I love.

When it comes to Real Estate, it seems like the desired results of cooling down the market have been achieved by the government. The increase of interest rates seems to be slowing down some purchasers from committing currently. More rate hikes coming in June.

Here is a brief summary of what each real estate board is saying about their region: 

Campbell River
Additional inventory positive news for buyers.
“Higher interest rates may also be tempering how much buyers are willing to spend when making an offer. However, it is too early to say whether conditions are beginning to shift towards a more balanced market. According to the British Columbia Real Estate Association, housing markets in British Columbia are so lopsided that it will take a substantial decline in demand to return active listings to a healthy state.

That said, sales did dip in April. By category, 507 single-family homes were reported sold on the MLS® System in April, a 13 per cent decrease from one year ago and down by three per cent from March.”
In Campbell River, the benchmark price of a single-family home hit $769,800 in April, up by 31 per cent from the previous year.
Benchmark Price for an apartment: $385,700.
Benchmark Price for a Townhouse: $527,100.

Quadra Island
Quadra Island in April had 5 new listings, 3 sold (pending).
If you would like more details including “sold prices” go to my website, sign up and log in for free to members only area that will provide that information www.quadrarealty.ca

Cortes Island
April on Cortes Island had 2 new listings listed and 1 cancelled.
If you would like more details including “sold prices” go to my website, sign up and log in for free to members only area that will provide that information www.quadrarealty.ca

full report HERE

Calgary

“Following an all-time record high month of sales in March, activity slowed down in April. However, with 3,401 sales this month, it was still a gain of six per cent over last year and a record high for the month of April. “Despite some of the monthly pullback, it is important to note that sales remain exceptionally strong and are likely being limited due to supply choice in the market,” said CREB® Chief Economist Ann-Marie Lurie. “While further rate increases will likely start to dampen demand later this year, more pullbacks in new listings this month are ensuring the market continues to favour the seller, resulting in further price gains.”

The benchmark price of detached homes in the city of Calgary hit $628,900; semi-detached: $487,900; row home: $343,000; apartments: $272,600.

full report HERE

 Vancouver
“Metro Vancouver home sales return to more traditional levels in April. “So far this spring, we’ve seen home sales ease down from the record-breaking pace of the last year,” Daniel John, REBGV Chair said. “While a small sample size, the return to a more traditional pace of home sales that we’ve experienced over the last two months provides hopeful home buyers more time to make decisions, secure financing and perform other due diligence such as home inspections.”
The benchmark price for a detached home is $2,139,200. This represents a 20.8 per cent increase from April 2021.
The benchmark price of an apartment home is $844,700. This represents a 16 per cent increase from April 2021.
The benchmark price of an attached home is $1,150,500. This represents a 25 per cent increase from April 2021.

full report HERE

Toronto
“The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) housing market continued its adjustment to higher borrowing costs, with the number of transactions down on a monthly and annual basis. As has been the case with previous rate tightening cycles, some home buyers have moved to the sidelines to determine how they will reposition themselves in the marketplace given the higher rate environment and related impact on affordability.

“Based on the trends observed in the April housing market, it certainly appears that the Bank of Canada is achieving its goal of slowing consumer spending as it fights high inflation. Negotiated mortgage rates rose sharply over the past four weeks, prompting some buyers to delay their purchase. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see the balance the Bank of Canada strikes between combatting inflation versus stunting economic growth and related government revenues as we continue to recover from and pay for pandemic-related programs,” said TRREB President Kevin Crigger.”
The average price for a detached home in area (416) is $1,947,975.
The average price of a semi-detached home (416) is $1,494,640.
The average price of a townhouse (416) is $1,086,986.
The average price of a condo (416) is $820,835 as reported by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TREBB).

full report HERE

I’m off, back to the garden before the rain comes! Enjoy the sun!

 Are you thinking of selling your home? Call me for a free home evaluation.

Roman Krzaczek REALTOR ®

Home number: 250-285-2141

Quadrarealty.ca

The market is changing

 A very drastic title, just to grab your attention. I noticed lately that a lot of media outlets love to grab people’s attention by using a good title. Often, it’s not accurate and misleading but the sound bite is already out there and that’s what influences the masses. Not many people bother to read the whole article but base their opinions on these cleverly manipulated opinions. I suspect, that’s how critical thinking was abolished.

I would like to share some facts about the market and will try to avoid sharing my opinions, but before I do that, I wanted to give a round of applause to all the people that showed up to the Public Meeting at the community center last week. In case you missed the meeting, a lot of people showed up and we had a lot of great speakers. One thing I took away from this meeting was that people still care about this community. I have gotten used to seeing people’s eyes glazing over when you mention anything about politics. To my pleasant surprise I saw a nice mix of young people and experienced folks; and it warms my heart that a lot of people don’t only think about money. Job creation is nice, but change must be carefully planned with feedback from the citizens. It should never come down from the top. I’m curious to see what will happen with this proposal of rezoning but I really hope the democratic system still works here. Sorry I deviate from my main topic, but it’s important to note that communities consist of people, not empty summer houses.

It’s hard not to notice the news talking about the high level of inflation these days. In order to curb the inflation banks will be unveiling more interest rate hikes and effectively shrinking their monetary policy. A valid question is, how will it impact real estate in Canada?

What we are seeing today is a highly distorted curve of demand vs supply in the market. I think the higher interest rates will force prices down, but because the demand is still very high, I don’t think prices will decline significantly and probably only in some areas.

In addition to interest rate increases the government has proposed a freeze on foreign buyers. The government thinks that banning foreign ownership for 2 years will make an impact on affordability. I highly doubt that since foreign buyers consist of only about 3% across the country. No details have been revealed yet but as soon as I will know, I wish share. 

Another controversial measure proposed by the government to cool down the market is the introduction of a “cooling off period”. Similar tool exists in a pre-build market where a buyer who buys a condo that hasn’t been built yet can rescind their offer within few days after signing the contract. Unfortunately, this proposed measure would be favoring the buyers and possibly punishing the sellers. No details have been revealed by the government yet, but I will keep you posted.

One more proposal made by the government is to create a multiple offer registry, where all offers that the seller received would be registered. I think this is a great idea to gain more transparency and trust in the system. Similar system already exists in Toronto and seems to work well. Currently there’s no details about this yet but I hope it will be rolled out soon.

 Couple interesting statistics that also have an impact on real estate prices:

- more than 100,000 people moved to BC in 2021 (most since 1961)

- In BC between the years 2010-2015 we had an average of 40,000-50,000 active listings consistently every year. Since 2016 something happened and the number of available homes for sale has been considerably falling. In 2022 we are on track for about only 15,000 active listings for the year. A healthy balanced market is roughly 40,000 active listings.
We have been under a very low supply of inventory for many years and if you would like to get some hints of the core issue you could google questions like: “When was Justin Trudeau elected? What is Justin Trudeau’s immigration policy?” to get some interesting answers.

In summary, the sky is NOT falling. Prices in our area are still affordable for people coming from the city. Things will probably slow down, and we may not see as many multiple offers. Properties will take longer to sell, and prices will level off. Only time will tell.

Are you thinking of selling your home? Call me for a free home evaluation.

Roman Krzaczek REALTOR ®

Home number: 250-285-2141

Quadrarealty.ca

March in Real Estate

Spring is in the air and the nature is waking up from its wintery rest and hibernation (including myself!). Last few weeks have been quite busy for me therefore there was no time to contribute with an article in the last Discovery newsletter. In this edition however, I would like to share March statistics with you.

Campbell River

Inventory in the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) area is slowly inching up but is still far from ideal.

In Campbell River, the benchmark price of a single-family home hit $722,400 in March, up by 28 per cent from the previous year.
Benchmark Price for an apartment: $363,300.
Benchmark Price for a Townhouse: $537,300.

Quadra Island
Quadra Island in March had 2 new listings, 2 sold (pending), 2 cancelled, and 1 expired listing.If you would like more details including “sold prices” go to my website and sign up and log in for free to members only area that will provide that information www.quadrarealty.ca
Cortes Island
March on Cortes Island had 1 new listing listed at $775,000 and 3 pending.If you would like more details including “sold prices” go to my website and sign up and log in for free to members only area that will provide that information www.quadrarealty.ca

Calgary
For the second month in a row, sales activity not only reached a monthly high but also hit new record highs for any given month. Gains occurred across every property type as they all hit new record highs.
“While supply levels have improved from levels seen over the past four months, inventory levels are still well below what we traditionally see in March, thanks to stronger than expected sales activity,” said CREB® Chief Economist Ann-Marie Lurie. “With just over one month of supply in the market, the persistently tight market conditions continue to place significant upward pressure on prices.”

The benchmark price of detached homes in the city of Calgary hit $620,500; semi-detached: $478,400; row home: $335,400; apartments: $265,900.

Vancouver
“Market remained elevated in March."

“March of 2021 was the highest selling month in our history. This year’s activity, while still elevated, is happening at a calmer pace than we experienced 12 months ago,” Daniel John, REBGV Chair said. “Home buyers are keeping a close eye on rising interest rates, hoping to make a move before their locked-in rates expire.”

The benchmark price for a detached home is $2,118,600. This represents a 23.4 per cent increase from March 2021.
The benchmark price of an apartment home is $835,500. This represents a 16.8 per cent increase from March 2021. The benchmark price of an attached home is $1,138,300. This represents a 28.1 per cent increase from March 2021.

Toronto
There were almost 11,000 Greater Toronto Area (GTA) home sales reported in March 2022, capping off the third-best March and second-best first quarter on record. Tight market conditions continued to support a double-digit annual pace of price growth, with an average selling price of $1.3 million. The average selling price dipped slightly month-over-month, bucking the regular seasonal trend

However, we did experience more balance in the first quarter of 2022 compared to last year. If this trend continues, it is possible that the pace of price growth could moderate as we move through the year,” said TRREB Chief Market Analyst Jason Mercer. 

The average price for a detached home in area (416) is $1,920,018.
The average price of a semi-detached home (416) is $1,545,447.
The average price of a townhouse (416) is $1,117,469.
The average price of a condo (416) is $831,351 as reported by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TREBB).
Today we are facing the most serious housing crisis ever, in this country. Yet, we continue to keep faith that our government will come and save us, even though the government has created these problems in the first place. Have you seen the latest government proposals to “help” with the housing market? I may address those in my next article. As for now…. I’m once again excited about this new gardening season.
One thing I have learned last year, the hard way, is planting seeds too early.  The wait is hard, but in another week or so we should be good to go, my fellow gardeners. Thank you to all the gardeners for sharing valuable information with the community. I have lots to learn.

Are you thinking of selling your home? Call me for a free home evaluation.

Roman Krzaczek REALTOR ®
Home number: 250-285-2141
Quadrarealty.ca