Cambridge house prices jump 12.6 per cent

 A tight supply of listings continues to fuel big house price increases in Cambridge.

The average sale price increased 12.6 per cent to $377,779, compared to a year earlier, the Cambridge Association of Realtors said Wednesday.

The average price for all homes sold in the first five months of the year rose 9.4 per cent to $363,461.

The inventory of homes for sale continues to be extremely tight. In fact, the association said it is trending near record lows.

There were 500 active listings at the end of May, down 43.2 per cent from a year earlier. New listings during the month fell 17.5 per cent to 448.

The association said the inventory of homes stood at 1.5 months at the end of May, meaning it would take 1 ½ months to sell the current inventory at the current rate of sales. There were 2.5 months of inventory a year ago.

The association recorded 333 sales in May, down 5.4 per cent from a year ago.

"Home sales may have been down a bit from the all-time monthly record set last May, but May 2016 still saw the second largest number of transactions in any month in history, so the market remains very activity despite a growing shortage of supply," association president Karlis Bite said in a news release.

Last week, the Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors said it recorded 752 residential sales in May, a record for the month. The average sale price increased 7.3 per cent to $378,248.

 

 

Source: http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6713390-cambridge-house-prices-jump-12-6-per-cent/

5 Ways Sellers Sabotage Their Own Sale

Selling your home? Every seller wants the same thing: to sell their house for the mostmoney possible, as quickly as possible. This is exactly what your real estate agent wants too. That said, there are usually two things keeping this from happening: price and condition.

Price and condition are always the deciding factors for buyers, and they also affect the amount they may offer. Luckily for you, these are also the only two things you have control over!

So let’s take a look at the top five mistakes you may be making if your home hasn’t sold yet.

Mistake #1: Thinking your house is special.

As a homeowner, you are proud of your home. You might even think it’s superior to all others in your neighborhood. This might be because of the time and money you spent remodeling it. Perhaps you hand-picked every slat of Brazilian Hardwood and personally laid it, or chose a ridiculously expensive gold leaf wallpaper that you just had to have. You may assume if you spend a lot of money on bells and whistles, that MUST make it worth more, right? Wrong.

Buyers are looking at your home, trying to envision it as their home. They’re easily distracted by your loud, hot pink bedroom walls and won’t consider that it was a custom color made to match the loud pink zebra comforter and matching curtains. They’re also mentally calculating how much money they need to spend to refinish those hardwood floors, repaint and have that wallpaper removed.

You must understand your house isn’t special to anyone but you, so it’s always best to cater to buyers by showing them your home’s cleanest, most neutral face. You need to clean your home until it shines, ditch the clutter, paint, make needed repairs, and keep up with your landscaping.

You need to trust your real estate agent  on where to price your home. And remember one important thing: Just because you spent $50,000 on a kitchen remodel doesn’t mean you’re getting every penny back (despite what your shoebox full of receipts might be telling you).

Mistake #2: Thinking you’re a salesperson.

As a seller you may think you’re being helpful by sticking around during showings to help agents and potential buyers see how special your home is. You might think the buyer’s agent can’t possibly know how to showcase your home as well as you can, or have any clue what the really important things are to point out.

So you stick around, you smile super big and you’re super nice to everyone. You point out the hardwood floors, custom wallpaper and things that you love about the house, becauseyou are a better salesperson than some real estate agent who has never lived there, right? Wrong!

Actually, you’re not coming off as super nice, but annoying (at best) and more than likely cocky or creepy (hey, just telling it like it is). While gushing over all the things you love, those may be the very things the buyer hates.

The best thing to do is leave the house and give the buyers some space. Buyers want privacy. They don’t want to be cornered into awkward small talk with the homeowner or feel rushed when making the most expensive purchase of their life.

Mistake #3: Thinking they will come back.

Imagine you had a long day at work. It’s a hot, muggy day. Your car’s air-conditioning is acting up, making you stick to your seats on your longer-than-usual commute home. Your kids are bickering and everyone is starving. Then your phone rings. It’s your real estate agent calling with a last-minute showing request… in ten minutes. This is NOT what you need right now, but you want to sell your house.

You have two choices. Option A: plead for the showing to be rescheduled, because you mistakenly assume the buyers and their agent will gladly rearrange their schedule around yours and come back.

Or, Option B, remind yourself that you want your home sold, and these buyers may only have the next hour or so to see as many homes as possible before making a decision because they’re relocating from out of state (or whatever their unique situation may be).

Never, ever, go with Option A.

No matter how you feel or what kind of day you’re having, you need to be accommodating. Sometimes you just have to bend over backwards. Buyers hold all the power because they’re the ones with the money and ability to make your dream of selling come true.

So as you load up your hungry, fussy kids, you smile and wave as you back out of the driveway and head to the nearest drive-through. You’ve made the right decision! You realize you must suck it up and make your house available… even when you really don’t want to, because buyers will rarely come back at a better time.

Mistake #4: Not being willing to negotiate.

So you got an offer on your home, and you accepted it! Congrats! Regardless of how long your home had been on the market or what the final terms are, this is exciting because it means all the showings are over and you’re roughly 30 days away from closing.

After the home inspection, the buyers ask for some repairs to be made, or possibly for you to purchase a home warranty for them or assistance with closing costs.

Most buyers will ask for those things; it’s nothing to get bent out of shape over.

This is where you, the seller, need to be willing to meet in the middle and show the buyer that you’re serious about selling. Otherwise you risk your deal falling apart and being stuck with the house which you’ll eventually shell out more money to fix anyway.

Sure, you can always re-list your home, but it may sit on the market for 30, 60, 90 days or more. Meanwhile you’ll have to deal with more showings, keeping the house spic & span, and losing sleep due to the anxiety of the unknown.

Please remember that this pending sale on your home has contingencies, and it could fall apart for a number of reasons. The appraisal is one contingency; the home inspection is another. Both of them may require you to be flexible and willing to negotiate. If you aren’t and the deal falls apart, then you have no one to blame but yourself.

Also, your first offer is usually your best offer, and oftentimes your only offer. Once you secure an interested buyer, you need to trust your agent and work with them and your buyers to get the home sold and not waste time on bickering over a $100 light fixture or $400 home warranty.

Mistake #5: Pets.

Last but not least, not everyone is a pet lover. Many people are allergic to cats or dogs, or have sensitive noses that can smell urine and stinky litter boxes on the other side of the house.

When you’re selling your house and you have pets, you really need to make the home look and smell as if no pets ever stepped foot in it. Your cat’s favorite spot on the couch that’s coated with 4 inches of matted fur needs to get scraped off (with a lint roller a few hundred times if need be). The food bowls, cat trees, pet toys, pet beds, scratching posts, cat condos, etc. need to be out of sight too. So do the fur babies themselves.

Before you leave, make sure your backyard is free of landmines. You may as well put Whiskers’ litter box in a garbage bag and store it in the garage or closet or someplace out of sight and smell.

When a buyer leaves, they’ll remember their first impression, so you want it to be a good one. Pet odor can be a deal breaker, even if everything else about your home is perfect.

To summarize…

Your home isn’t particularly special to anyone but you, so keep it clean and showing beautifully and as neutral as possible at all times. Don’t try to be the real estate agent (i.e., be sure to leave the house during showings), and take the pets with you! Don’t assume that buyers will bend over backwards to see your house—you need to do the bending, and you need to be flexible with negotiations too.

If you follow this advice, you shouldn’t have a hard time selling quickly and you’ll avoid the unnecessary stress that many sellers endure because they become their own worst enemy by sabotaging their own sale.

 

Source:  http://lightersideofrealestate.com/real-estate-life/5-ways-sellers-sabotage-sale?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=The%20Lighter%20Side%20of%20Real%20Estate&utm_content=5%20Ways%20Sellers%20Sabotage%20Their%20Own%20Sale

High prices, low inventory fuelling strong real estate market

If you're looking to sell your house, there may be no better time than the present to put it on the market.

Prices are high and inventories are low in Waterloo Region, with multiple offers and quick sales becoming more and more common this spring.

And although analysts with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. are forecasting that home sales and prices will both remain strong through 2016, there's a belief that prices won't rise nearly as quickly next year.

"We'll more than likely see a pretty significant deceleration in price growth," Ted Tsiakopoulos, the corporation's Ontario regional economist, said at a Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors luncheon on Wednesday.

So far this year, the resale market in the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo census metropolitan area has seen sales rise 13.9 per cent and prices jump 6.6 per cent over last year's numbers, said Erica McLerie, a senior market analyst with the agency.

Growth is especially strong in properties priced above $350,000, a sign that the local market is becoming a more popular option for buyers being priced out of the Toronto area.

"The homes in Kitchener are, let's say, more affordable," McLerie said.

Listings, though, are in short supply, with April's statistics showing 29.4 per cent fewer active residential listings on K-W association's Multiple Listing System than in April 2015.

"The market is a bit of a two-headed beast," said association president Charlotte Zawada. "If you are a seller, this is a great time to sell."

This year, 33 per cent of association sales have gone above the asking price, while seven per cent have met that price.

While a multiple offer scenario might yield a surprisingly high price for a seller, it can lead to some anxious moments waiting to see if the buyer can secure the necessary financing, Zawada said.

Some prospective buyers might prefer to avoid this kind of market altogether, she said. High prices are also keeping some first-time buyers out of the resale market.

On the flip side, many baby boomers are working later in life and aren't moving — one of the reasons there aren't as many homes being listed, McLerie said.

New home sales are benefiting from the tight resale market, and even though new home prices are rising as well, it's not happening at the same speed as on the resale side, she said.

On the national resale scene, Ontario and British Columbia "are leading the pack in a big way when you look at regional activity," Tsiakopoulos said.

Ontario has seen broader strength, primarily in the southern and southwestern regions, while B.C. is very much a Vancouver story, he said.

Economic and employment growth in those two provinces is driving the market; it's a different story in places like Alberta and Atlantic Canada, Tsiakopoulos said.

While prices in Ontario and B.C. are expected to keep rising above the rate of inflation for the foreseeable future, any hike in interest rates would dampen sales activity, he said.

 

 

 

 

 

Source: http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6702607-high-prices-low-inventory-fuelling-strong-real-estate-market/#.V1AlCcIL1B8.gmail

Investors may want to avoid this property type – or should they?

Big bank sounds the alarm about one popular real estate investment, according to multiple media sources, but is there more to the picture?

The answer is, as usual, yes.

Both the Globe and Mail and CBC sparked worry among Torontonians and investors across the country with their respective coverage of a Royal Bank of Canada report, released last week.

“Canada's biggest bank has sounded the alarm about overbuilding in Toronto's condo boom, saying the level of new units coming online coupled with existing ones that are yet to sell have the market in 'high risk' territory,” the CBC reported.

The Globe countered with its own (similar) take.

“Royal Bank of Canada economists are fretting over the condo construction boom,” the Globe wrote. “They’re flagging other issues, as well, notably that of housing affordability in Vancouver and Toronto.”

And RBC did indeed say there is a risk of condo overbuilding, particularly in Toronto.

“There were 5.7 multi-unit dwellings per 1,000 population under construction in Canada in Q1/16 or just shy of the decades-high of 5.8 units reached during 2014,” RBC economists Craig Wright and Robert Hogue wrote in their report, entitled Canadian Housing Health Check. “This level is well into the ‘high risk zone’ (4.5 units or higher).”

However, the pair also claimed the condo market has heretofore been operating at a “healthy” level.

“Healthy condo absorption has mitigated risks that arose following a spike in condo completions in early 2015,” they wrote.

“According to the Toronto Real Estate Board, condo rental activity has surged in recent years. Yet strong supply has been met with equally strong rental demand,” the pair continued. “So far, there is little evidence that condo investors who rent their units have overestimated rental demand.”

Still, there is a chance that demand will peter out and lead to an excess of units.

"The prospects for high levels of condo completions in the period ahead in markets such as Toronto, Montreal and Calgary maintain above-average absorption risks," the Wright and Hogue wrote.





Source: http://www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca/news/investors-may-want-to-avoid-this-property-type--or-should-they-208053.aspx

Real estate optimism close to 2-year high

Canadians are confident that real estate prices will continue to rise for the rest of 2016. Bloomberg/Nanos Canadian Confidence Index reached a new 2016 high in the week ending May 20^th and real estate prices were a key factor in the gain.

“Positive sentiment on real estate has almost reached highs last touched in July 2014 and confidence scores in British Columbia have hit their highest level since Nanos started tracking sentiment in 2008,” said Nanos Research Group Chairman Nik Nanos.

Although there were fewer positive responses on the Canadian economy; there were rises for personal finances including mortgages, job security and real estate.
Ontario was the only region that showed lower overall confidence and nationally, homeowners were more optimistic than renters.



Source: http://www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca/market-update/real-estate-optimism-close-to-2year-high-207930.aspx

CMHC releases Q2 housing market outlook

The Crown Corporation released its long-term economic and housing forecast Wednesday morning.
It expects housing starts to slowly decrease over the coming years.

“On an annual basis, housing starts are expected to range from 181,300 units to 192,300 units in 2016 and from 172,600 units to 183,000 units in 2017, a slight upward revision from our previous outlook, but a slowdown compared to 2015 when there were 195,535 starts,” CMHC said in the report.
Home sales, meanwhile, are expected to moderate or increase in 2016 over last year’s total and decrease next year.

“There were 505,673 Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) sales recorded in 2015,” CMHC said. “Sales are expected to range from 501,700 units to 525,400 units in 2016, but are expected to be in a lower range of 485,500 units to 508,400 units in 2017.”

The average Canadian home price is expected to continue to increase in the next two years, meaning CMHC doesn’t expect any sort of wide-scale correction.

“The average MLS® price is forecast to be between $474,200 and $495,800 in 2016 and between $479,300 and $501,100 in 2017. These levels are higher than the 2015 average price of $442,999,” CMHC said.

When assembling its outlook, CMHC said it looks at global as well as Canadian-specific economic conditions.

While the global economic growth is expected to slow this year before rebounding in 2016, CMHC predicts Canada’s growth is expected to accelerate in 2016, led by manufacturing exports and increased public spending.

Employment, however, is expected to increase to 7.2% this year before dropping to 7% in 2017.

“As the economy adjusts to lower oil prices and with the announcements of higher public spending, employment trends are projected to improve in 2017,” CMHC said.







Source: http://www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca/news/cmhc-releases-q2-housing-market-outlook-207566.aspx

Market boom helping investors get rich

Investors continue to cash in, with this red hot market continuing to break records.

"Housing demand is exceptionally strong across the southern regions of the province,” Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist, said in a release. “Consumers appear to be particularly active in the Vancouver Island, the Fraser Valley and the Thompson/Okanagan regions.”

“Strong employment growth is helping underpin consumer confidence.”

According to the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA), a record 12,969 residential sales were reported in April – a 30.3% increase year-over-year.

Total sales reached $9.64 billion in April, a 52.7% hike. To date, sales volume increased 64.3% this year to $31.2 billion. Total residential sales increased 36.2% to 28,028 units.

The average price, meanwhile, increased 17.2% year-over-year, reaching $743,640.

The BC economy added 78,000 jobs this year, representing a 3.5% year-over-year increase in job creation.

“Strong employment growth is helping underpin consumer confidence,” Muir said.