There was a lot of news about the housing market last week and all of it good. Well good but cautionary really.

House Prices

First of all house prices are expected to keep rising this year. According to a report by Royal Lepage, Prudential Real Estate’s sister company, Canada’s housing market will continue to be strong this year, with rising property values expected in all major markets.

The report predicts that prices will rise across to country by 2.8% by the end of 2012, following stronger gains last year.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, the average price of a standard two-storey home was $375,427, up 4.2% from a year earlier. The average rate of a detached bungalow was up in 2011 by 6.1% to $344,392, while condominiums gained 3.6% to $234,680.

“Widespread calls for a major real estate correction in 2012 simply can’t be justified,” Royal LePage CEO Phil Soper said in a statement. “The industry has significant momentum entering the year, and buoyed by the stimulative effect of very low interest rates, we expect the market to continue to expand.”

Mortgage rules

In the face of historically low interest rates, our federal government remains concerned that the real estate market is getting overheated. Our government is concerned that the housing market will over-inflate and the bubble will burst. If this happens, it would have a large negative impact on our AAA rated economy. As they did last year, they are looking at ways to tighten regulations, making it harder for individuals to qualify for loans. One of these measures are aimed at self-employed individuals (like myself) and how we self-disclose what we make when applying for a loan.

In the case of condominium buyers, the government is considering a proposal that would include 100% of the condo fees as debt. This would impact the Loan to Debt Ratio of the loan applicant.

Third best economy in Canada

The CIBC released a report that showed that Waterloo Region has the third best economy in Canada. The report attributes our success to our high tech sector, irregardless of what’s happening at RIM.

Housing activity, population growth, employment, and bankruptcy statistics were some of the variable measured for the report.

Agents of Change weekend activity

We’ll be holding an open house this Sunday from 2:00-4:00pm at 49 Cedarwoods Crescent, Unit 29. It’s a quiet condo townhouse complex right behind the Fairview Park Mall. Come on out and see the house. It’s nice. Meet us. We’re nice too.

Filed under: Around Kitchener Waterloo, Buying Real Estate, canada, general news, open house, real estate, real estate trends, real estate vocabualry, this week in real estate 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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Canada is one of just three of the nine developed countries that saw year-to-year price growth, adjusted for inflation, in its housing market in this year’s second quarter. There was 5% price growth, on average, in the April-to-June period.

Canada’s housing market is the notable out-performer in comparison to other countries, where renewed doubts about the strength of the global economy are weakening an already fragile real-estate scene, says a Bank of Nova Scotia report released Tuesday. Even in the face of record high prices, ultra-low interest rates continue to support affordability.

The Bank of Nova Scotia report of the global housing market said that high unemployment, concerns over the financial health of some European governments, signs the global economic recovery is slowing down and recent stock-market volatility are burdening residential real-estate markets around the world.

Locally, our Kitchener Waterloo real estate market is strong, still growing slowly and performing well. As a Realtor, many people lately have been mentioning RIM layoffs as an reason to be cautious. Truth be told, RIM laid off 900 people locally a few months ago but I’ve heard from many people that all of them found jobs with other high tech firms (and there is still a great demand) or started their own companies.

Filed under: Buying Real Estate, canada, real estate trends by Keith Marshall
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Because of lower property prices and the easing of U.S. marijuana laws a RCMP report reveals that many organized crime groups involved in marijuana grow ops are moving from Canada to the United States. According to the report, the U.S. housing crash has enticed many Vietnamese organized crime groups to move their marijuana growing operations south of the border where the lower cost of real estate allows them to operate a more profitable enterprise. They can also avoid police/customs detection at the border the RCMP report states.

Since 2007, house prices in the U.S. have dropped by roughly a third nationwide and in some markets, by more than half. During that same period, housing prices in Canada have been stable if not rising.

Filed under: canada, editorial, general news, just for fun, real estate trends by Keith Marshall
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Violent crime in Kitchener Waterloo rose again last year as residents reported more robberies, threats, criminal harassment and sexual violations against children.

Property crimes fell again and consistent with the past several years. There were fewer cars stolen, fewer thefts reported and fewer break-and-enters.

National figures show Canada’s crime rate fell last year to its lowest level in nearly four decades. Bucking this trend, the local violent crime rate is up 39% since 2003 on a wave of assaults, threats, harassments and sexual assaults.

The severity of local violence is increasing. It remains below national and provincial rates but the gap is narrowing. Also, the severity of national and provincial violence has fallen four years in a row.

On average, the region saw 14 violent crimes reported to police per day in 2010, up from nine per day in 2003.

The tally for last year includes 335 robberies, up from 275 the year before, and 733 assaults causing bodily harm or using a weapon, up from 618 the year before.

Residents reported 48 property crimes per day last year, on average – the lowest number in at least 13 years.

Despite rising violence, Waterloo Region enjoys a low amount of crime compared to other cities.

The local crime rate, measuring crimes per population, is eighth lowest among 32 cities. The robbery rate is 12th lowest and the rate of auto theft is eighth lowest. The seriousness of local crime, measured by the punishment imposed, is also lower than most cities.

Filed under: Around Kitchener Waterloo, canada, general news, home owners, neighborhood update by Keith Marshall
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