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Re/Max released their Market Outlook for 2009.

According to Re/Max, Kitchener-Waterloo’s real estate market will remain balanced throughout 2009 with supply meeting demand. The number of homes sold will hover around the 6000 unit mark and the average house price will remain stable.

For more details about the Kitchener-Waterloo real estate market see page 12 of the report.

Thanks for reading!

Warren & Melanie McNeil | Sales Representatives, Team McNeil | Re/Max Twin City Realty, Brokerage
( 519.579.4110 | * Click Here to Email | 8 www.clickthathouse.com, www.clickthatblog.com

Mississauga, ON (December 3, 2008) - Global economic uncertainty weighed heavily on residential real estate activity in most major Canadian centres during the latter half of 2008. Although the forecast for 2009 promises more of the same, most markets are expected to weather the storm, says RE/MAX.

“Housing market performance will clearly be contingent on economic performance at a local, provincial, and national level in 2009,” says Michael Polzler, Executive Vice President and Regional Director, RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada. “Issues affecting the overall economy are impacting housing markets across the country and the situation is not expected to be remedied until consumer confidence is restored. That said, we could see a bounce back as early as spring - if inventory levels remain stable, pent-up demand kicks into gear, and lower interest rates stimulate home-buying activity.”

See full press release
http://www.remaxevents.ca/08/PR/HMOutlook/MarketOutlookRptPR2009_REL.pdf

Thanks for reading!

Warren & Melanie McNeil | Sales Representatives, Team McNeil | Re/Max Twin City Realty, Brokerage
( 519.579.4110 | * Click Here to Email | 8 www.clickthathouse.com, www.clickthatblog.com

By Warren McNeil

I don’t know about you but I a getting really frustrated with what is going on with the news these days. The headlines are enough to make you go mad. This news is so depressing especially when it is always negative! I tried imaging last night how interesting the news would be if it was all filled with joy and happiness. I bet people would just change the channel. Negative news draws interest from the masses.

Let’s take a look at the current issues:

1. There has been a recession in the US for a year now. This was on the news last night!

2. There is a major mortgage crisis in the US. It is now effecting commercial real estate as well.

3. Waterloo region and area real estate unit sales are down about 21.5% in Oct 07 and Oct 08.

4. The Canadian government might get overthrown by a coalition government

5. Mass layoffs at CTV and today Rogers announced they were laying off. Just shortly after Ted Rogers passed away. Pretty sad really…

6. Of course the big issues with the car sector. I really hope this gets resolved.  

How about some good news:

1. Black Friday sales were up 7.2%. Horray! people still have money to spend
http://blogs.reuters.com/shop-talk/2008/12/02/sorting-through-black-friday-data/

2. Average house prices in Waterloo region and surrounding communities price for Oct 08 is up 3.75% compared to Oct 07.  Single-detached is up 9.8% compared to Oct 07 and Condos,Semis,Townhouses,Mobiles unit sales are only down 0.7%.  Horray! People are still retaining the value in their houses

3. Britney Spears is going on tour in March 09. Horray! I am glad Britney is back on track! (Sarcasm )

So there is still some good news to be had.

Ok, maybe I don’t have many good news stories because you really have to dig for them or discover them yourself. They are not publicized!

What’s a person to do? I say that we all need to stay focused and positive. In my industry, people still need a place to live. It’s a great time to buy despite the negative news stories. To quote Mark Twain, “Buy land, they’re not making it anymore”. If you have the money and you are renting, stop paying rent, buy a house and build up some equity. Donald Trump is a millionaire real estate investor because he believes in the product. I like to think that if the real estate moguls have faith in our product, then so should we.

In summary, I think we should look at the next year as a challenge that we all need to overcome. However, we can’t just sit on our hands and wait for something big to happen like winning the lottery. We need to be realistic with what is happening around us and adapt to the changes. I think we should set our goals a little bit smaller for the next little while until we see what is going to happen with the economy. The most important thing that we can’t do is give up thinking positively. Negative thinking will only drain the remaining positive energy. If you are starting the think negatively, do something that will change those feelings. Pickup a good book, start exercising, eat an ice cream cone or go and watch some funny you tube videos.

My final words are, “It always gets better!”

Warren & Melanie McNeil | Sales Representatives, Team McNeil | Re/Max Twin City Realty, Brokerage
( 519.579.4110 | * Click Here to Email | 8 www.clickthathouse.com, www.clickthatblog.com

By Warren McNeil

So with the “R” word looming I am finding that alot of the buyers that I am working with seem to be a little reluctant to make the big decision of buying a house. I am actually very surprised by this. Buyers should be more motivated to buy now then ever before. Houses are well priced and there is more inventory then this time last year to choose from. Smart investors buy when the market is soft. That’s how they make the huge profit in later years. If a buyer waits for for the market to bottom out, they might miss the boat. By the time the market hits bottom, it has already started to go back up again. Another big advantage for buyers is the interest rates are still very low. I am also reading that the Bank of Canada may lower the prime lending rate again. This is really good news. Good news just like the 79 cents I paid for gas today

For sellers, if you sell for less but are moving up, you may take a bit of loss on the sale of your house but when you buy you might be able to regain some of that loss. Besides, in 10 years after you have received a consistent 5% appreciation per year, does it really matter if you took a $5000-$10000 loss on your current house. It might not be a bad idea to look further out if you are faced with the decision to reduce the price if you haven’t sold yet. I heard a story recently that an indivdiual sold their house at a loss of around $30,000. It gets better!! The next house they bought they paid over asking price…. When they sold this house years later, they ended up selling it and making over $100,000 profit. Therefore they didn’t lose anything… There are probably many success stories like this and I am sure you have heard them before. All I am trying to do is illustrate a point. That point being, you need to decide how badly you want to sell. If it means reducing the price, then you might have to make that tough decision. If you are unable to sell at the lower price, then you might need to look at some alternatives. Those alternatives could be staying put or renting.

Here is a little snippet of an email I received today from Re/MAX:

Real estate in the Greater Toronto Area has faced many challenges over the years but continued to experience steady growth. In 2009, there are some announcements that are expected to have a positive impact on the housing market and they are as follows:

1. The Bank of Canada has indicted that lending rates may fall further in 2009.

2. Federal government intervention in the form of a $75 billion mortgage purchase from the CMHC will free up additional credit.

3. Measures will be introduced by both the Federal and Provincial government to bolster the economy. In Ontario, that could mean a bailout package for the ailing manufacturing sector.

4. A lower Canadian dollar – hovering at 85 cents American – may provide a much–needed boost to manufacturing.

5. Job employment rates continue to hold steady in the GTA, despite upward momentum at the provincial level. The unemployment rate was 6.8 per cent in October, down from 6.9 per cent in September.

6. Population in the GTA continues to grow through migration, with 60,000 plus households expected to form in 2009.

In summary, with the lower interest rates, higher volume and aggressive pricing, now is a great time to buy. Take advantage of this softer market now because in 10-15 years you can look back on this time and say, I bought during the recession of 2008-2009. Real estate has historically appreciated by 5% per year on average. Sure there were years when it was lower but it always came back. I feel strongly that real estate is one of the best investments you can make. You don’t need to be Donald Trump to make alot of money in real estate.

Thanks for reading!

Warren McNeil | Sales Representative, Team McNeil | Re/Max Twin City Realty, Brokerage
( 519.579.4110 | *  Click Here to Email | www.clickthathouse.com, www.clickthatblog.com

By Warren McNeil

Kitchener Real Estate Board Statistics for Oct 2008

Here are board statistics for the Kitchener-Waterloo real estate board. Please note that the information here is only based on residential real estate. If you would like a more detailed report, please contact Melanie or Warren.

Aug 2008 – Oct 2008

(Single-Family All Categories (Condo, Towns, Semis, Singles), All Areas)

Aug 2008 – Oct 2008 (Single-Family Detached, All Areas)

All information deemed to be accurate and based on monthly statistics of the Multiple Listing Service gathered by the Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate board.

By Warren McNeil

It is finally here, what took it so long? (Just kidding!) Snow…. Love it or hate it. Today it arrived. I am not a huge fan but I do think it looks nice when you are nestled around the fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate and marshmallows.

I wrote a post early this year about Selling your house in this wintery weather!!! This could be a good time to sell since there is usually less inventory on the market. Right now I am seeing more buyers so you might be surprised to find that this time of year could actually get you a quicker sale. At least you don’t have to worry about the flowerbeds. Shoveling snow is not fun though!

Here are 10 reasons to love winter time.

10. Christmas

9. Hockey/Ice skating

8. Skiing/Snowboarding/Sledding

7. Building snowmen, snow forts and tobogganing. ( used to go GT’ing on my GT Snowracer)

6. No insects

5. You don’t have to mow the grass or maintain the flower beds

4. Snowblowers are really fun to use

3. People usually go south

2. No allergies

1. “Hot chocolate” Need I say more!

In closing, I’d like to leave you with some wise advice, “never eat yellow snow” unless it is a lemon flavoured snow cone.

Thanks for reading this silliness. Have a terrific winter!

By Warren McNeil

Today is going to be a big day. I hope that whoever gets voted in will be able to fix the econonomic crisis in the US. From all the news reporting that I have seen, it sounds like both Obama and McCain have the economy #1 on their list.

Or

The Canadian dollar has been going down lately and prices at the pumps are going back to normal. I hope this is a sign of normalization here. At one point, the Canadian dollar was at 1.10. This is definitely not normal and not very good for our exporters. With the normalization of the dollar, we should be able to resume our exports to countries like the US.

For a little negative news. Apparently Ontario is considered a “have-not” province and we require money from the “have” provinces to help us get through. What does this mean? I am not sure. The problems are stemming from the weak automotive sector and poor exports to US. Check out http://news.therecord.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/438918

I said it before, I am optimistic that the housing market will continue to thrive. Negative media only impedes the progress. People will become fearful if they read too much negativity.

Vehicle sales are up though! That is good news for the automotive industry. I hope that sector gets really busy so that it will fuel the manufacturing sector.That’s good news.
http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/438895

Thanks for reading!

Kitchener Real Estate Board Statistics for Sept 2008

Here are board statistics for the Kitchener-Waterloo real estate board. Please note that the information here is only based on residential real estate. If you would like a more detailed report, please contact Melanie or Warren.

July 2008 – Sept 2008

(Single-Family All Categories (Condo, Towns, Semis, Singles), All Areas)

May 2008 – July 2008 (Single-Family Detached, All Areas)

Unit Sales and Average Price from 2000 – July 2008 (All Residential Listings)

All information deemed to be accurate and based on monthly statistics of the Multiple Listing Service gathered by the Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate board.

Thanks for reading!

By Warren McNeil

Lately I have been thinking how cool it would be if we could do all our offers electronically. Not only would this be convenient, it would also be a very “green”. Coming from a technical background, I personally would like to see this happen. I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t use tablet PC’s to do our offers. Since security and privacy are an issue, then we need to find a way to securely transmit the data. Secure webservers would be one way. Currently the following systems are all done electronically: land title, MLS, MPAC. If we can bank online then we can definitely do our offers online. Maybe Web 3.0 or 4.0 will include this feature. Come on techies get programming!

I see a future where I will go into somebody’s house with my 100GHZ supertablet PC. Internet is connected via a wireless Terabyte initernet connection that utilizes 2048,000,000 bit supercryptoamzinglythebestuncrackable encryption, dna identification challenge and repsonse verification. I am presenting the counter offer to my clients on their 2 bedroom space pod situated on planet Remaxia. The universe is experiencing incredible growth, the Canadian dollar is the offical universal currency, pigs can fly and RIM and Microsoft rule the world.

Maybe I am being a tiny bit silly here. All I am saying is that I hope we move to a model where we are doing offers on our computers and then processing them electronically instead of the current paper-based method we are currently using.

It will be really interesting to see what the next 5-10 years will do for our industry.

Anyways, thanks for reading!

By Warren McNeil

Seems like one of the most common questions people ask me these days is what is going on with the real estate market in Kitchener-Waterloo. Now being the positive person I am, I am telling people that the market is a bit soft right now but I am very optimistic that we should be able to weather the storm. One thing is for sure, people still need a place to live and as long as there are still buyers, there will be sellers.

What I am seeing happening right now is that houses are sitting on the market a little longer and some people in some areas of the city are getting less money then they would have a year ago. I think there are few of factors at play here. Some of these factors are, the US subprime situation, the current election, the time of year, banks have stopped offering 0 down or 40 year mortgages, the negative media exposure coming from the US and other areas of Canada.

Take a look at this chart:

According to the above chart, the overall average house prices consistently gone up over the last 8 years in our area. In some areas the appreciation has been alot higher. My point is, sooner or later things cool down. The hot market of the last couple of years is starting to cool. How much will it cool? Only time will tell.

I have heard news reports stating that the Kitchener-Waterloo real estate market is one of the top ten markets in Canada to invest in. I believe this to be true.

Here are a couple record postings that might cheer you up! When I read the following postings I can’t help but remain optimistic.

Housing sales on track for record year
http://news.therecord.com/article/251944

Townhouses, condos bolster real estate sales
http://news.therecord.com/article/424344

Residential sales up 10 per cent
http://news.therecord.com/article/423822

Townhouses, condos and semi-detached are currently selling well. This means that parts of our market are still strong, Hopefully this will spill over into the other areas that are not doing as well.

Luxury house sales in our area are also up:

Re-Max reports upswing in luxury home sales in major Canadian cities
http://news.therecord.com/article/237718

Luxury housing market standing its ground
http://news.therecord.com/article/420246

Luxury home sales rising in ‘unprecedented’ uptick
http://news.therecord.com/article/238144

It always gets better!