January 16, 2008
In a post with a Yahoo.ca link earlier this week I asked what effect we’d see with a 0.05% drop in mortgage rates at a couple of the big banks. I got a new rate sheet today, effective January 15, from James Cosco, of Cosco Mortgage Corp., 604-290-6316 / www.coscomortgages.com /coscoj@telus.net , that indicates not much of a change.
1 year: 6% (up .25% compared to last week)
2 year: 6.1% (unchanged)
3 year: 6.05% (down .05%)
4 year: 5.95% (unchanged)
5 year: 5.94% (up .06% from last week).
Last week’s rate sheet is here.
January 15, 2008
Yesterday I asked “When will [the listing surge] start breaking….?” Maybe it happened today. (Or maybe not… 
)
There were 185 listings today, and 103 sales, for a vastly improved sell/list of 55.67%. (When’s the last time a 55% sell/list was a vast improvement?!)
Inventory planed out at 8,200, while over 90s hit 2,368, or 28.88%.
King Albert is off the market. I originally posted this listing as a Coquitlam house witha hot price. We intentionally priced it very sharp, in an effort to generate the maximum amount of activity and top dollar for our seller. We received multiple offers with $33,000 range between low and high. Inspection revealed some hidden damage to the house that scared some potential buyers. Once we learned about the problem we had to take action. When a buyer gets an inspection and elects to drop his offer the seller doesn’t always get to see the inspection, so isn’t always sure what to disclose; yet, if the seller doesn’t discose a defect of which they are arguably aware, they could be committing a tort. We had to have some tradesmen perform inspections, and have the seller re-do the property disclosure statement in order to acheive full disclosure(and we did exactly that).
Buers and the seller still disagreed on price, but I’m happy to say that we have finally sold the house after a great deal of work. Real estate board interpretations of privacy legislation forbids me reporting the actual sale price, but it sold for a very good price. Anyone who wants to know the actual price can contact any Realtor on a one to one basis and find it out (”any Realtor” being the operative term).
January 14, 2008
BMO and Scotiabank cut some of their rates today The rates quoted are the posted rates; it will be interesting to see what mortgage brokers come up with.
January 14, 2008
There were 206 new listings today, and 83 sales, for a sell/list of 40.29%. Inventory was 8,151, while over 90s were 2,342 (28.73%). The wave of listings is looking pretty big. When will it start breaking….?
January 14, 2008
Recently we’ve been talking about real estate outside BC. Some people have mentioned buying in the States, as well, and expressed surprise that US property isn’t being marketed more strongly here. I was approached in late 2007 to market Phoenix property, but really haven’t seen much activity otherwise (I didn’t pursue the offer).
I read an interesting take on the weekend written by Diane Francis. She thinks its too early to buy in Florida, and assumes that her read is applicable elsewhere. She’s not stupid, so take a look at her column and see if it spurs any discussion.
January 11, 2008
Busy week, hence weekly numbers.
Since Monday there have been 1,117 new listings and 380 sales. What kind of sell/list is that? 34.02%! Ouch!
Inventory has reached 8,084, with over 90s reaching 2174, or 26.89%.
Looks like December in reverse!
I recently mentioned a Costa Rican real estate project. Today I ran across another interesting development for those interested in sunny real estate. Bank of Nova Scotia and Finance North America will team up to offer Canadian and US citizens mortgages to purchase, construct or re-finance Mexican property. The world is certainly getting smaller.
January 8, 2008
I received a new rate sheet effective January 7 from Spencer Close and Associates (604-922-0424).
Variable: 5.4%
1 year: 5.75%
2 year: 6.10%
3 year: 6.1%
4 year: 5.95%
5 year: 5.89%
7 year: 6.25%
10 year: 6.3%
For more information contact Spencer directly at 604-922-0424 or at spencerclose@shaw.ca
January 7, 2008
There were 189 new listings today and 79 sales, for a sell/list of 41.80%. Inventory hit 7,620, of which 2,148, or 28.19%, were over 90s.
I read something interesting in the weekend Post. Apparently, adjusted for the rise in the Canadian dollar, the S&P 500 is down 13% over the course of 2007. And here I thought buying Spiders was a good way to go!
I also saw an ad for Costa Rican real estate. I lived in Costa Rica for several years and would love own some good property there, and now that I know strataman has a place in the Chilcotin I might try to work out a vacation property swap with him. If you want your own place in the sun take a look : http://colinasdelsolcr.com/location_about_costa_rica.html
January 4, 2008
There were 206 new listings today, and 64 sales, for a sell/list of 31.07%. Inventory was 7,563 while over 90s were 2,028 (26.81%).
January 3, 2008
As predicted, there was a listing rebound after the New Year.
There were 148 new listings today, and 72 sales, for a sell/list of 48.65%. Inventory was 7,448, while over 90s were 2,044 (27.44%)
Yesterday there were 146 new listings and 76 sales, for a sell/list of 52.05%.
Tax assessments are in the news, and fears of tax hikes are prevelant. I heard on CKNW today that municipal tax freedom day is January 15. That’s not too bad, considering we’ll have at least another 6 months after that before we hit general tax freedom day. But, this thought occurred to me: if renters get a bargain in that their accomodation is subsidized (as many have argued) doesn’t that mean that the landlord is paying taxes that the tenant really should pay? And if the tenant isn’t paying those taxes, or at least not his fair share, should he have a say in how they’re spent? Should we move back to a property qualification system for voting? No property, no vote? Or should we consider funding our municipal expenses differently? The renter pays the same as the landlord, based, perhaps, on income, and collected, like provincial income tax, on your T1? Is it fair, or wise, for landlords to subsidize a renter’s tax bill?
