I was in the sauna at my club when one of the other members commented that he was waiting for the home prices to go down before buying his next house. I had to tell him that housing prices are not going down. They’re going up. I think maybe his problem was that he wasn’t paying attention to the local news or even perhaps the national news. You hear a lot of news about real estate prices, but most of that news is out of the states. And much of that isn’t good.

In fact, the opposite is actually true in Canada. All the news about the Canadian economy and our housing market is positive. Here’s what happened this week in real estate:

Canada’s AAA rating

Earlier this month Canada’s AAA credit rating was overwhelmingly endorsed by all of the rating agencies. This means, foreign governments see Canada as a solid investment – a great country to lend money too. Money is flowing into Canada.

Canadian home prices continue to rise.

Although home prices were suppose to soften in 2011, it was reported in Property Wire last week, that the average price increase in Q4 2011 was at least 3.6% over 2010. Furthermore, they predict a further increase of 2.8% through 2012. And, now the experts are saying don’t expect any market correction until 2013.

Mortgage war breaks out. Finance Minister ready to intervene

A mortgage price war broke out among Canada’s major banks when The Bank of Montreal posted the lowest mortgage rate in Canadian history. The other big banks all followed suit. Our federal Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty said he stands ready to intervene in the housing market again. He does not want it to overheat. So much for a cooling market and prices going down, eh?

RIM and local real estate

On a local level, The Waterloo Region Record reported that the Kitchener Waterloo real estate industry is still keen on the local market despite RIM’s woes. The article was talking about commercial real estate but I think it’s safe to say our real estate market in KW is not impacted by what happens at RIM.

Share

Share this article if you know someone who is going to be buying or selling a home in the next year to 18 months. And if you’re thinking of buying or selling real estate yourself, please give me and Alasdair a call. We like to share.

Open House

Visit us at our open house this Saturday and Sunday 2-4pm 639 Bonavista Drive, Waterloo.

Filed under: advice, Around Kitchener Waterloo, Buying Real Estate, open house, real estate trends, RIM by Keith Marshall
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My stocks and mutual funds are not doing well. They haven’t done well since 2008. I’m just waiting for them to rise to the level of my original investment and them I’m taking everything I can out of the stock market. I’m investing my money into real estate.

My wife and I have a couple of investment properties. We are doing an addition on our Uptown Waterloo home. There is only so much real estate in Waterloo Region not to mention the world. Over time, unless you live in a one industry town (and the industry dies) the value of real estate always goes up.

The stock market, on the other hand has become a sham. It used to be that brick and mortar companies would issue stocks to raise funds to expand production, open new markets, create jobs, inspire economic growth…

Now we don’t really have industry anymore. Now we have nothing. Dot-com bubbles. Hedge funds and junk bonds. Derivatives. We have IPO’s based on what a company might do, maybe. The value of stocks fluctuate widely and wildly. And investors, like me have no control.

I was reading an article recently about the baby boomers. They have 44% of all mutual funds. The first of the boomers are now turning 65. Everyday for the next twenty years another few thousand baby boomers will stop working, stop paying into mutual funds and start actually taking money out of the market.

How do you think that will impact investments and interest rates?

And how will it impact housing and real estate, I wonder?

Filed under: About me, advice, Buying Real Estate, canada, general news, interest rates, investing in real estate by Keith Marshall
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Seth Godin writes “Some things are bought–like bottled water, airplane tickets and chewing gum. The vendor sets up shop and then waits, patiently, for someone to come along and decide to buy.

Other things are sold–like cars, placement of advertising in magazines and life insurance. If no salesperson is present, if no pitch is made, nothing happens.

Both are important. Both require a budget and a schedule and a commitment.

Confusion sets in when you’re not sure if your product or service is bought or sold, or worse, if you are a salesperson just waiting for people to buy.”

I like this bit by Seth Godin, actually I like almost everything he writes. Probably because I am a marketer. Real estate is a marketing business. I market homes and I market my services.

Real estate is sold. It’s not bought, and that’s where many real estate agents make their mistake.

The Kitchener Waterloo real estate market is no longer a sellers market. Houses priced right and in good order sell well. Here is what we currently have for sale.

If you’re interviewing agents, please interview us.

Filed under: About me, Buying Real Estate, for sale, home, house, Industry, life of a realtor, real estate, real estate trends, Selling Real Estate by Keith Marshall
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We’ve known for a long time, even before the book “Men are from Mars, Women from Venus” that men and women approach most things completely differently. Generally speaking, men tend to retreat under stress to work out solutions on their own, whereas women tend to find a solution by working through the problem there and then with whomever they are with. It’s no surprise that men and women are different homebuyers too.

A recent survey exploring how men and women are different in there approach to home buying found that women tended to make decisions more quickly than men. 70% of women knew straightaway upon viewing a home that it was the one for them, whereas only 62% of men felt that sure, that quickly. Men needed more return visits and more time before they could reach their decision.

Another interesting finding was, in terms of location being an important factor, only 37% of men felt that location was one of the most important things when buying a home, compared to 55% of women respondents.

If you’re looking for a new home, here are our current listings.

 

Filed under: Buying Real Estate, editorial, general news, home by Keith Marshall
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This Weekend’s Open houses

Alasdair Douglas and I will be doing two open houses this weekend. The first is at 639 Bonavista Drive on Saturday from 2:00-4:00pm. Bonavista Drive is in Eastbridge, a popular Waterloo neighborhood.

MLS: 147111

Listed Price: $359,900

Our second open house is at 29-49 Cedarwoods Crescent in Kitchener. We are holding this open on Saturday and Sunday 2:00-4:00pm. This is a great place for first time home buyers, down sizers or investors.

MLS: 1147343

Listed Price: $169,900

Condo market overheating

Alarm bells are going off  in the heads of several bankers about the robust condominium market in Toronto and Vancouver. Many feel that there is an oversupply of stock.

With so many new condo units becoming available in Kitchener Waterloo, I hope our condo bubble doesn’t pop!

Interest rates now at historic low in Canada

We now have the lowest interest rate in Canadian history. The Bank of Montreal, earlier this week cut the rate on its closed five-year fixed mortgage to 2.99%, a half a percentage point drop. It’s expected that this will be matched by most of our other banks and lenders. There has never been a better time to take out a mortgage!

This week in real estate  looks at what’s trending in the real estate market in Canada and KW.

Filed under: Around Kitchener Waterloo, Buying Real Estate, condo, for sale, interest rates by Keith Marshall
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