Employment recovers strongly in Victoria, but it’s about to lose meaning
Despite the gloomy headlines about ever increasing unemployment rates in Victoria, the effective unemployment rate continued to drop quickly in June. Based on my methodology of projecting sector-specific BC employment on to the Victoria labour market, the effective employment rate has halved since April, dropping from an estimate of 18.1% to 9.3% in June.
That’s good news for us and the rapid nature of the recovery in employment so far is what I expected given many of the unemployed were simply forced out due to business shutdowns that have since reopened. However most of the low hanging fruit has been picked as of the Phase 3 reopening in BC, and the remainder of the unemployed will take longer to return to work. We won’t be returning to our ultra-low unemployment rate anytime soon.
So far the government has managed to paper over any employment losses with emergency financial supports that solidly exceeded any losses in employment income. The velocity of all that CERB money is very high since it has been given out primarily to lower income people who have lost their jobs. That means most of it is likely being spent quite quickly and thus going directly back to the economy to support those jobs that weren’t lost. In some ways then, the current economy is an illusion. There is more money floating around than before the pandemic which is giving a sense of normalcy when the reality is anything but. We’re building a bridge over the gap, but we don’t yet know if we’ll reach the other side before the bridge runs out.
Many people are worried about what happens when the billions in CERB stop flowing. That will hurt consumer spending, but with some luck the majority of CERB recipients will be back to work before that happens and I assume the rest will transition to EI so their income will decline but not disappear. An interesting point to note is that there have been 1,105,030 unique CERB applicants in BC, or a staggering 44% of the pre-pandemic number of employed people. That compares to a peak drop in employment of only 383,000 people. Of course there is some churn here (some lost their job while others regained it in the past few months), but three times as many people accessing a program for those who lost their jobs than peak job loss seems rather startling. I wonder if there will be lots of rude surprises come tax time. In any case it seems the push to transition people from CERB to the business wage subsidy program CEWS can’t come soon enough. That 75% wage subsidy program for employers is widely expected to be extended past the current deadline of August 29th in some form has just been extended to the end of the year. However, while it’s certainly better to have people in a productive job than out of work, it’s all still dependent on the flow of money continuing.
With more businesses accessing CEWS to hire back employees, the unemployment rate will certainly go down, but it will lose some meaning as the measure of how well the economy is doing in providing jobs. If your job exists only because your wage is subsidized 75% and the employer is getting commercial rent relief are you really employed? Right now the biggest sector accessing CEWS is “Professional, scientific and technical services”, which has not seen mass layoffs, perhaps partially for that reason. In the end it all needs to be unwound and we won’t know how well we’ve done until that happens.
The same is true of the real estate market. With June’s promising numbers I cautioned that it’s too early to declare victory for the market. July and August will be strong months, with sales likely 30-50% higher than last year. But a big part of what’s happening here is the burning up of pent up demand. Don’t mistake this for our normal market that you can now extrapolate out to the future. We will very likely still see some dramatic shifts this year.
Y axis deliberately omitted. Illustration only, not a forecast.
We lost some 800 sales due to the pandemic, and some of those will end up happening in July, August, and September. That will push sales unnaturally higher in a time when sales usually drop, which means they will look especially good for those late summer months. But eventually the market will settle down and we’ll see the true level of activity. That return to normal will coincide very closely with the expiration of CERB, the expiration of most mortgage deferrals, and whatever the re-imagined CEWS looks like.
It would be silly to try to forecast the state of the market in the late fall with all that uncertainty. I think we can be relatively confident that we will see some more inventory start hitting the market in the fall and into 2021. Based on the extreme shortage of listings in the detached market right now, I don’t think the extra inventory will be enough to tip that market into territory that would lead to substantial price declines, but it should bring a bit more balance. As always, the condo market is more vulnerable in downturns.
Also weekly numbers courtesy of the VREB
| July 2020 |
July
2019
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | ||
| Sales | 111 | 329 | 706 | ||
| New Listings | 201 | 549 | 1152 | ||
| Active Listings | 2675 | 2710 | 2949 | ||
| Sales to New Listings | 55% | 60% | 61% | ||
| Sales YoY Change | 36% | 38% | |||
| Months of Inventory | 4.2 | ||||
The shift towards detached sales continues, with 1.9 single family homes selling for every condo in the last few weeks. Last year it was 1.5. Over ask statistics reflect the same, with a pretty steady 1 in 4 detached properties going over asking price, while only about 1 in 12 condos does. Inventory is fairly steady, still down about 10% from this time last year.
Both new listings and sales are higher than this time last year, but sales have increased more, which means the market overall is hotter than this time last year as shown by the months of inventory, which crossed over from weaker to stronger around mid June. That’s a strong sellers market for the detached market at least. If you were considering selling and were put off by the pandemic, this may be a good time to bring your house to market.
Thanks for the info Leo & Marko.
New post: https://househuntvictoria.ca/2020/07/20/the-way-we-build-houses-is-insane/
Thinking about renting a home as a single tenancy and not sharing part of the home with someone else*
Allow me to help you to know what you will be getting for your money.
Take what you want to pay annually for rent and divide that by 3.5%. That will give you a rough idea of the value of the house you would get for your money.
If you are willing to pay say $3,200 a month in rent, then that would be equivalent to a house with a value of 38,400/0.035 or $1,100,000 (approximately). Now you can go shopping for houses in the different neighborhoods to see what you can get.
*This doesn’t work for houses with suites or homes with acreage, water views or water frontage. It’s just a rough gauge of what kind of home you can reasonably expect.
Happy house hunting.
Looks like they’re actually net positive if you ignore the propane and wood combustion. But if you converted that propane and wood energy to equivalent electricity they’d be pretty far from net zero. They have a 2kW array which isn’t going to cover 6 people producing and processing food on-site.
I can’t remember…not sure if I read about it or heard from someone with knowledge of the project. I have a very vague recollection that it was something more substantial than pipe sizing.
My point is that something being ‘permitted’ isn’t much use if the implementation is nearly impossible….and let me tell you that the majority of these types of things are very challenging and/or expensive to implement. There is a good reason a lot of this fun stuff happens outside of the jurisdiction of building codes (gulf islands for example).
I have all kinds of personal examples but I won’t pollute the blog with that.
I don’t really understand the numbers as this is not my area. They are net zero and use solar to produce their electrical energy.
They preface the use with a statement that the three generations living in the home have “the per person electrical energy intensity of the occupants of this home is about 90% less than the average person in BC. Reduction of energy consumption both for operations and for amortized construction carbon footprint has been the primary energy strategy.” Is energy intensity the same as consumption?
Could it be the three cords of wood used annually to which they ascribe a value of 16,705 kWhrs is pushing up the total?
https://ecosenseliving.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/prerequisite-04-net-zero-energy-2.pdf
Which part? Their grey water system had to get a specific approval due to smaller pipe sizing than normal, but subsurface greywater irrigation and tub to toilet recycling are are permitted now is my understanding?
Duttons Property Management often has a few listings on their website.
I haven’t searched Facebook marketplace but when I put my units up for rent on Usedvic, Craigslist and Facebook 80% of the inquiries are from Facebook.
No kidding, nearly 80% higher than our place which is fully electrically heated and cooled + electric car.
That’s pretty much it. You could try putting in a wanted ad for a rental too, that sometimes works.
Hi folks. My RN partner seems imminently to be offered a transfer to the Victoria area for a senior position, so it looks like we may finally be able to come back to the area.
We’ll be looking to rent, initially – pet friendly, bright ground level with yard access, newer than 1993, away from busy roads. Tall order, I know. UsedVictoria (and Craigslist) seems to be the site(s) to watch, or is there something else we should be minding? Any areas to avoid? We’re looking forward to daily Thetis walks (or anywhere forested away from traffic). Thanks!
This project had to go all the way to Ottawa to get approved. While extremely commendable, this is not an example of what your typical homeowner/builder is going to be able to do.
As an aside, the LBC (living building challenge) part is great, but their energy usage numbers are surprisingly high.
Bring it.
When the tide goes out, my extremely high-quality wetsuit will be revealed 🙂
As for using the previous years assessed value.
I use a Sales to Assessment Ratio (SAR) as a cross check to the final conclusion in my appraisals. I can’t use the latest assessments as VREB does not use that for its calculations. Instead I have to present both this year and the previous year assessed values in the reports.
For most properties I am still finding that the previous years median SAR for houses, excluding outliers, is a few percentage points over. Depending on your immediate area the typical home is selling at 105% of its previous years assessed value.
And that puts Victoria’s house prices, depending on where you live, up by some 5 % over last year.
I also work with several groups of investors wanting to purchase properties, renovate, and sell. They of course feel like this is the time to vulch on sellers and throw in low ball offers. That type of strategy isn’t going to work because the market place strongly favors sellers. Furthermore, there are not that many duress listings as the banks are not foreclosing on home owners. These investors have a lot of cash and really want to spend it.
The way I try to explain this market to them is that while this is a sellers market you don’t have to let your enthusiasm get in the way of making an informed decision. Slow down and crunch the numbers first. If it’s not this property there will always be another coming onto the market later. In the words of Ford Prefect “DON’T PANIC”
In my opinion, I doubt we will see any change until the fourth quarter or 1st quarter of 2021 when (if) these stimulus packages end.
Then when the tide goes out we will learn who has been swimming naked.
Raw human manure is used for the production and growth of real estate agents. Back to the housing market.
Non-organic farmers have no time limit between application and harvest. Certified organic farmers are prohibited from spreading fresh manure for at least 90 days before harvesting crops intended for human consumption. For crops that come in direct contact with the soil, the minimum time period is 120 days.
Fresh produce is the cause of most food borne illnesses in NA.
LeoS: Interesting to see the build up of inventory but what is the breakdown of SFH vs condos.
Yeah, I wasn’t looking for a debate, but you never know what will happen in this forum!
Raw animal manure is OMRI approved! (With some precautions.) My apologies if that upsets anyone who thought they were clean by eating only organic produce.
Sorry Leo, not blaming you. Indeed you have mentioned you were not impressed, in your previous comments. I just read your “test of competency” comment as leaning towards being dismissive.
I’ll believe the switchover when I see it.
Still, the damage has been done. A qualified journalist needs to survey what the direct extent of that damage was to directly affected buyers (nevermind the cascading effect that purchase price subsequently has on other home.purchases), and make it public.
New listings doing pretty well these days. Will be interesting to see how this progresses as normally it would be a long slow slide to the end of August.
The value of the home is the highest price that someone is willing to pay for it today. An assessment is a guess of the highest price that someone would have been willing to pay for it at some point in the past. It’s not a hard fact like the size of the property, which realtors often get wrong and don’t guarantee to be correct.
You don’t have to convince me. I’ve hassled the board several times to get it sorted and warned all the agents in my brokerage not to do it. At this point there is no excuse. They’re switching over to the combined Victoria/Island board now so all new listings should be with the new assessment pretty soon.
“Think of it as a free way to see who is competent.”
Same with any of the many fraudulent phone scams, or email scams. Many can be very convincing. Is that how we should think of those, too? Some of those can even be very crafty about how they word things, such that technically they don’t even out-and-out lie.
At least with phone or email scams, we know the person contacting us is a complete stranger. Realtors and their listing information are extremely well subsidized by commissions, and furthermore have a monopoly on sales data and a near-monopoly on transactions. All this deserves much more than a shoulder shrug.
Should out-of-province retirees, many whom can hardly get around MS Windows or email, be expected to know that they should go to the BC Assessment website because their Realtor who stands to get a commission of many thousands of dollars is misrepresenting the value of the home?
Your comment reminds me of a news story i saw on Thailand once, and how some of the deeply religious Buddhist locals there won’t think twice about ripping off or defrauding foreigners. They generally squared the two opposing viewpoints by saying what amounts to, “If they are too stupid to know they are being ripped off, Buddism principles have no problem with it”
PS – I’ve even RECENTLY overheard real estate agents talking to each other, referring to the incorrect (older) assessed value as if it is the correct one.
Realtor A: “My client (buyer) might be willing to offer a price down closer to assessed value”
Realtor B: “Go for it. I think my client (seller) would be willing to seriously look at an offer around that range”.
…
Realtor A: “Wait, you know I’m talking about the actual most recent assessed value, not the older one listed,right?”
Realtor B: “What??! No, in that case forget it,.my client wouldn’t consider that”
The point of this isn’t whether or not people should be paying 2019 assessed values right now. The point is, even professional Realtors are referring to the incorrect older values as if they are correct.
You can be sure many of them are not telling their clients what the correct/updated assessed values are, either.
Also, as I have mentioned here before, when open houses were going on earlier this year, printed property details often had the incorrect assessed value listed. And, when I would gently ask the open house about the assessed value, I would often be told the wrong value.
Hanlon’s Razor.
Think of it as a free way to see who is competent.
“How is this not fraud?”
A journalist interested in a potentially eye-opening consumer fraud story should mail out or leaflet any Victoria homes sold since January, where the wrong assessed value was shown. It should be easy to figure out which homes those were, by looking at the electronic history of sold listings since January 2020.
A letter mailed or dropped off with only those potentially affected purchasers that MIGHT have been affected can read:
“Dear homeowner, congratulations on your recent purchase of your new home. I am a journalist for _______, researching a story on the effects of assessed values being misrepresented to Victoria real estate consumers.
Since January 2020 many older (higher) assessed values have been shown on many Realtor websites and printed matter, advertising properties for sale. In some cases, those incorrect older/higher assessed values were referenced in the property listing descriptions.
Your property is among those for which the older/incorrect assessed value was shown on Realtor websites and printed matter.
Your home’s latest assessment, for July 1, 2019, was actually $________.
The assessed value that has been shown on Realtor listing sites since January 1, 2020 is for a year beforehand, July 1, 2018, for $________.
Can you help me as I compile research for my story? You are FULLY guaranteed to remain anonymous unless you request otherwise.
Q1. Which assessed value did you believe to be the most current, when you made your recent home purchase? A. $_______ B. $______ C. Ofher
Q2. When you were deciding on the purchase of your home, who/what made you aware of what you believed to be the most recent published assessed value? (Choose all that apply). A. Realtor-provided web access to listings. B. Realtor-provided property description sheet. C. Verbal/email discussions with Realtor. D. BC assessment website E. Other (please specify)
Q3. How important was the assessed value which you believed to be most current, to the price you decided to pay for your property? A. Extremely important. B. Somewhat important. C. Not important.
Q4. If you were only aware of the erroneously listed assessed value at the time of purchase, would knowing the true latest published assessed value have changed what you offered to purchase the property?
Feel free to call or email me with any questions, comments, or anecdotes you have on the issue, and when you do please also identify yourself by the address which you recently purchased.
Sincerely,
XYZ newspaper/media/TV”
Next step: Compile results of your survey.
Then, ask the BC real estate consumer rights advocate for comments.
And, ask Victoria real estate board and any other relevant entities for comments.
Write it all up, and you MIGHT just have a good story on your hands!
Something this kind of survey still wouldn’t capture is, how many people’s offers for other properties (for which assessed value was correct/up to date) were affected by other incorrect assessed values they were looking at?
Ok boomer.
And yes I’m kidding 🙂
The bar is a lot higher for fraud. That would be selling you something that doesn’t exist, or that the “seller” doesn’t actually own. This is more like those retail sales where the price is marked down from a “regular” price that was jacked up. Something the Competition Bureau might be interested in, but not the police.
You can do a laundry/bath to irrigation system under the code. You can also recycle to toilet. Here is one in the Highlands:
https://living-future.org/lbc/case-studies/eco-sense-residence-victoria/
I have a hard time believing you can do this within a municipality. Seems like there is always at least one gotcha with these types of things.
The first 3 new listing properties that came through my brokers filter today all still using the assessed value from 2018, which just happens to be substantially higher then last years assessment. An example is 3225 Exeter Rd listed at 1.77, using 2018 assessment at 1.72 when last years assessment was 1.55. I guess seller trying to do anything they can to minimize the loss from purchase in 2017 for 1.9 plus LTT, looks like their heading for a loss of at least 200K.
Oh and look at 3.75 Exeter, 2018 assessment 2.23 and 2019 assessment 1.83 listed at 2.46, guess which assessment they are using? How is this not fraud?
Redevelopment of the property adding value plus any accrued appreciation. After it is fully redeveloped and rented (year three) I don’t see added value. Probably should be sold at that point. Maybe that is their plan.
Where the money will be coming from for these three years? From the subsequent investors? Hum …
Addy is an interesting idea. I’ve thought fractional ownership was the way to go for a long time. I would not be interested in paying others to do this or losing control of the process myself, but we’ll see how they do – they are predicting 14% roi per year for the first three years. The money you could make after that is going to depend on appreciation really as rents will likely go to the 40% financing and management fees. Not sure why someone would stay invested or buy shares after year three. The share value will drop if appreciation stalls or declines – or interest rates rise.
REIT’s trade on stock exchanges and so are subject to an array of regulations to protect investors. This appears to be some sort of private investment vehicle with unaccountable management and no guarantee of liquidity and I can see where that’s likely to go. Sounds rather like Wework in its marketing and you know how that turned out.
As I understand it, basically, but have to read some more into it. But buying REITs is boring, while investing in a new fintech platform is exciting. Plus fractional ownership down to a $1. I wouldn’t underestimate their ability to bring on tons capital from people who would have never considered a REIT (and perhaps won’t be too picky about the actual business case of the properties)
WRT Addy, isn’t it just another REIT, but with smaller priced units and is focused in residential properties?
You can already do this under the Building Code.
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/waste-management/sewage/provincial-composting-toilet-manual.pdf
Last thing we need is more speculation but I could see this kind of thing being only limited by how many properties they can acquire for some time. Robinhood type low barrier to entry
Right, for those who never use raw manure but think dumping our raw sewage in the ocean is to ” enrich the ocean with nutrients and cause an abundance of sea life” 🙂
But I do often wonder why we don’t have separate pipe for toilets outputs from other “used” water (Grey water) in our home plumbing system? Guess that might be added into building code when water shortage issue getting severe …
This could take off.
Addy is on a mission to allow every human to become a homeowner, by investing in real estate for as little as $1.
“Quality real estate opportunities are usually out of reach for everyday people and it is getting worse. As governments continue to print money in response to the global pandemic, they are pushing asset prices higher, which ironically makes it harder for anyone without vast sums of cash to participate in real estate,” said Michael Stephenson, Co-founder and CEO of addy.
https://techcouver.com/2020/07/15/addy-launches-to-unlock-real-estate-investing-for-as-little-as-1/
In depth composting discussions?
You shouldn’t use uncomposted manure in a home garden unless it comes from alpacas or rabbits. Everything else needs to be aged unless you want to risk a million weeds, burnt plants and potential pathogen contamination with E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes and Campylobacter.
Non-organic commercial farmers do use uncomposted animal manure and it does pose a health risk and can result in recalls of affected produce. New regulations are under development for this.
As for humanmanure, it can be used on non-edible plants after composting. Grey water systems are pretty easy to retrofit and legal. Probably an easier win in an urban area than composting toilets that need to be emptied.
So you just imagined they are used raw on farms? 😉 .
BTW, we don’t own a farm, but did WOOFER at an organic farm that uses aged manures to fertilize their veg fields. It was really hard and smelly work (also needed to fight with the roosters ).
No, I haven’t. It would not be worth the hassle in a home garden.
Could those visitors be the recent new cases on the island (as the cases are counted by where they are tested)?
Have you tried to use them yourself? We use steer manure for our garden, but they must be aged (i.e. composted). The fresh raw ones (not aged/composted) are too strong and can burn plants /crops, a common knowledge to gardeners/farmers.
Victoria-bound flight had COVID-19 on board, BCCDC says
https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/victoria-bound-flight-had-covid-19-on-board-bccdc-says-1.5029978
I mean raw animal manure. Often used in agriculture.
Sewage is not comprise of only faeces, but also contains heavy metals, plenols, pharmaceuticals, house hold chemicals/detergents, farm runoff and road runoff pollution.
Mussels on drugs found near Victoria sewage outfalls — https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sewage-victoria-crd-drugs-contamination-mussels-pharmaceuticals-1.4537222
Sewage sludge — https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Sewage_sludge
Sludge contaminants — https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Sludge_contaminants
If you click through to the source data, you’ll find that about 10,000 invitations under express entry were issued to US residents in 2019. That’s up proportionally from previous years, but still comprises a small % of total immigration. Doesn’t change my expectation that immigration will be down until there’s a resolution of this pandemic.
You mean composted manure.
You’re talking about night soil, which spreads disease, and a major reason not to put it right into the water that people swim in.
Pre-pandemic data, but I would expect this to continue unless there’s a big reversal in the fall in the US. The way the labour impacts have landed there will likely still be a demand for highly skilled workers in Canada even with unemployment substantially higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Skilled workers from the U.S. coming to Canada in large numbers
https://www.cicnews.com/2020/07/skilled-workers-from-the-u-s-coming-to-canada-in-large-numbers-0715077.html
Is there anyway we could get a thumbs down button on this site?
lol, I expect you would be shocked to learn how much of the food you eat was fertilized with raw manure.
I guess to prevent them from laying off 10% of their staff. Agree that it shouldn’t be necessary and 10% revenue decline should be absorb-able.
While it’s good they’re phasing it out, why are they paying 10% of wages for companies with small revenue loss like 10%? That could be due to factors other than CoVid, and companies could make those numbers happen with creative accounting . Seems like a stupid giveaway to many companies that don’t need it.
Active cases could be misleading (as Alberta has done more tests than any other provinces), but hospital cases are perhaps better representing:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/alberta-has-most-active-covid-cases-per-capita-as-some-provinces-see-infections-spike-after-reopening-1.5028824
Was crunching the COVID numbers for B.C. and Alberta, and the differences are quite stunning: we have 4 times fewer active cases and hospitalizations despite having 15% greater population.
And, very worrisomely, half of Alberta’s active cases are “of unknown origin.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-adds-105-new-cases-of-covid-19-and-2-more-deaths-1.5654318
Previously sold for $432k in 2014 after chasing the market down for 4 years.
Fully renovated since then though.
3237 Service 10 offers and goes for 818k.
Right, what Rush4life said.
Wonder how many tenants not paying rent currently will sign up for a payment plan? With increased vacancy rate it may be more attractive to just move to another place in September and just not pay the back rent. Of course they wouldn’t get a rental reference.
Anna what Leo is saying is – lets assume rents are down from January – say $100 on a one bedroom place. The chances that you rented to someone in January at the peak and now have to re-rent to someone else is much lower than a landlord who was been renting to someone for the last year, two years, 5 years etc. So even if you believe rents have come down some, the majority of the landlords looking for tenants are still going to see an increase in rents as the time they started renting to their tenants the rent prices were much lower and so they may not be getting the max they could have but they will still be getting a substantial increase. Take my place for example. I am renting a one bdrm for $950 – if i move out tomorrow they will rent it for $1500. The fact that they could have possibly gotten $1600 in January doesn’t really matter to them as they will still see a $550 dollar increase in rent.
Yeah, my tenant of eight years has had a red-hot deal on rent for a while now, so maybe it’ll return to market value!
I’m not miffed, though. A great tenant paying less is always better than a terrible tenant paying more, in my books.
Leo S. Also a good point. We’ve seen very strong increases in rents in the past couple years, so anyone moving out now where the tenants have been living there for a couple years will likely be able to re-rent for higher.
Huh, what?
Soak it in while you can with high rents, however I think this is going to carry major momentum to the downside… As a Landlord myself “outside of Victoria” I can see that the writing is on the wall for a massive rental correction.. It’s going to hurt a lot of “brilliant” investors who thought that they could cap on this market forever, the good times are over for a while it’s time to Hedge yourselves and play it safe.. What I would like to know is how many speculative owners in Victoria had interest only loans on these rentals… Any data on that?
Structure of the new CEWS with phase out targeted by end of year.
Period 5*: July 5 – August 1
Period 6*: August 2 – August 29
Period 7: August 30 – September 26
Period 8: September 27 – October 24
Period 9: October 25 – November 21
https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2020/07/adapting-the-canada-emergency-wage-subsidy-to-protect-jobs-and-promote-growth.html
Also a good point. We’ve seen very strong increases in rents in the past couple years, so anyone moving out now where the tenants have been living there for a couple years will likely be able to re-rent for higher.
2ndary suites: Of course you have to declare the income for these suites….whether you call them legal or illegal. But, if you purchased your primary residence with the suite already in place, and the owners part of the home is greater in size, and you don’t claim the C.C. Allowance, then you will not have to pay capital gains on that part of your residence that is the suite on the sale of your home.
I’m seeing turnover in my rental units, and hearing the same from other landlords. Apparently lots of movement in the rental market right now.
But I haven’t had to drop rents to attract tenants. Rents were already lower than market rate because of limits on increases the past few years. So I’m bumping up a little, but it just brings me to market rates. So far so good…
Sort of how all investors on the internet are geniuses that only win. That’s not to doubt anyone posting here, it’s just that those that didn’t have good experiences are not talking about them here or anywhere else on the internet.
Rents decreasing is not armageddon. It doesn’t mean most landlords will suddenly be cash flow negative when they weren’t before. It doesn’t mean you can’t rent out a place. It’s also temporary because students will be back in pre-covid numbers by sometime next year. It just means the rental market is softer than it was before and if you’re an investor it’s something to be prepared for.
And just like with the housing market, we won’t know the true state until CERB and rent supports expire.
From CBC: “Rental market ‘softening’ in Victoria while remaining steady in Kelowna”: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/rental-market-softening-in-victoria-while-remaining-steady-in-kelowna-1.5652617
That makes me wondering about Marko’s comment of “There is HHV and then you step out into reality”. Maybe people (i.e. landlords) only like to share good rental experiences here, and avoid talking about the bad ones? Or only those with good experiences will post on HHV?
Or to start CG only over certain cap, say over $500K (or $750K) gain on a PR sale. Better to start saving all receipts of house reno/upgrades. 😉
“Interesting if true”
If it were true I would think the Conservatives would be all over it, but maybe they’re too busy fighting each other at the moment.
Also I think economically it would be a bad idea, since it would encourage people to carry as much debt on their mortgages as they could.
We might see fewer exemptions for capital gains on secondary suites, but I don’t see anything happening beyond that on principal residences.
Introvert that is interesting – AHS disagrees – more than 50 cases connected to that condo in the verve – Alberta Health Services believes: “The agency believes high-touch areas, particularly in regards to the building’s elevators, had a lot to do with how many people got sick.”. 50 out of 400 is pretty substantial.
https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/more-than-50-cases-of-covid-19-connected-to-calgary-condo-building-1.5008655
The risk of catching COVID-19 from contaminated surfaces, objects is ‘negligible,’ scientist says
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-the-risk-of-catching-covid-19-from-contaminated-surfaces-objects-is/
Interesting if true
“ CMHC is spending $250,000 researching a first-ever federal home equity tax. Organizers of the research project earlier likened homeowners to lottery winners whose residences were tax shelters: “The objective is to identify solutions that could level the playing field between renters and owners.”
https://www.blacklocks.ca/feds-eye-home-equity-tax/
Probably politically not viable
I’m always amazed that the words “composting toilet “ never comes out of the mouth of environmentalists or politicians. As far as I’m concerned, you are not an environmentalist if you flush a toilet. Not only do you not produce sewage but you also save approximately 30% of household water consumption. The other benefit is your excrement turns into compost that can be used as fertilizer.
I have a composting toilet at my cottage that doesn’t get a lot of use but I’m at least familiar with one. The only thing needed to install one is a vent outside and an electrical outlet for a heater that evaporates urine.
This could also create another form of employment, people servicing the toilets, removing the compost for recycling and replenishing the start up material. This would be provided to people not wanting to do the dirty work. This will probably never fly and that is one reason humanity is doomed. By the way, in the slums of Mumbai it was reported that one “toilet “ is shared by 1400 people. Lovely.
Go ahead and spread it on your vegetable patch and let us know how that works out for you.
You can always tell a native Victorian from someone that moved here later in life. The native Victorian literally believes that their sh!t don’t stink. The rest of us are appalled that in 2020 we are still dumping our raw sewage in the ocean.
Yeah, WTF are all those other coastal cities in North America doing treating their sewage, amirite?
God forbid we enrich the ocean with nutrients and cause an abundance of sea life.
$775M today is better than who-knows-how-much in 2040.
More importantly, we could not continue to pour raw sewage into the ocean from an ethical/environmental standpoint.
The feds recently extended the deadline to 2040. We didn’t have to spend the $775M after all.
Oh well, it’s only money.
Worst of both worlds for Seattle-area home shoppers: rising prices and not much for sale
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/worst-of-both-worlds-for-seattle-area-home-shoppers-rising-prices-and-not-much-for-sale/
Another day another couple $2M+ sales
Good news.
$775M Greater Victoria sewage treatment plant nears completion
https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/775m-greater-victoria-sewage-treatment-plant-nears-completion-1.5027568
Cue Barrister chiming in that, on second thought, it is just like getting married.
Brings to mind a pre-nup. I guess it’s like getting married, without the sex. 🙂
Way back when I was looking at such an arrangement but the partner backed out. Than the market crashed and I bought by myself.
It can work well but you need a detailed written co-ownership agreement (https://www.ratehub.ca/blog/files/2014/02/Mixer_Mortgage_Co-Ownership_Agreement_Checklist.pdf).
Van City offers a mortgage for this purpose.
https://www.vancity.com/Mortgages/TypesOfMortgages/MixerMortgage/
Evictions for non-payment can resume Sept 1, but tenants get until July next year to pay in installments. rental supports also phase out then. https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2020MAH0081-001301
“During the state of emergency, 97% of renters continued to pay rent – with 85% of renters paying in full and another 12% making partial payments.”
Remember that nonsense survey out of Vancouver about how some absurdly high percentage (like 40%) of owners couldn’t pay their full mortgage in May or June? Didn’t make sense then either.
I’m curious if any of you have any experience with buying a home with a shared ownership?
Risk adverse is my middle name, to my detriment sometimes. I have always thought this scenario would be wrought with potential future pain. Recently friend proposed to me that we do just this with his small family in the basement suite and us up top. I have been thinking about it a lot lately as it opens doors for us to enter into the market and into a home we would potentially be excited to move into.
Would love to hear from anybody that any experience with this.
Thanks.
One new case on the island, could be just a linked one that’s already recovered.
It may not be rational but I am beginning to feel like we are in one of those Titanic moments where people dont realize how wounded the ship actually is at this point.
Freedom: Hope that your doctor had your heart and kidneys tested since Covid attacks those as well.
I know as I am one of them. Actually the symptoms stayed and kept changing (including a terrible multi-day non-stop bloody diarrhea that an ambulance sent me to RJH ER at midnight. But doctors couldn’t find a cause after all the tests (no Covid test for some reason). I only started to feel normal recently after 3 months prolonged sickness/weakness. 🙁
Even if accurate, this is not that surprising. In the early stages a lot of people that had symptoms were told to quarantine without getting tested, due to lack of tests.
Yep, I would tend to agree. Very difficult to get flights in and out. Int’l students can leave, but to come back they need a valid reason they need to return to Canada, and attending 100% online classes is not considered essential.
Did you talk to any international students? I would say for those who have left, more than two third international students may not return. Also probably most new 1st year (undergrad) students wouldn’t need to come to campus at all in the fall.
Those low quality basement suite student rentals will be hurt (forced rent adjustment or be vacant) , plus those room and board student rentals. I know a family who used to supply room&board (three big upstairs bedrooms each with and ensuite at $1400+/m each) to UVic students, they are always full for past 4 years, but has no student since end of March this year, and no one booking for Sept either.
My estimate from talking to students is about a third will not return to campus in the fall.
Airbnb Faces Backlash After Asking People to Donate to Hosts With ‘Kindness Cards’
Just when you thought you’d heard everything, Airbnb comes to the rescue.
Toronto sees 52% spike in furnished condo listings, pointing to Airbnb conversions
It’s my understanding that if infection levels are low, the sero-prevalence studies aren’t that accurate because of false positives in the test. If 99% have no antibodies but there is a non-zero false positive rate it can bias the results higher than they should be.
This is problematic too. Small numbers means randomness has a huge impact.
Good to see this testing is ongoing now though.
FYI: A recent sero-prevalence research study (looking for antibodies in the blood samples of a random group of people) estimates less than one per cent of British Columbians were infected with coronavirus by the time first wave restrictions were eased in May. That is around eight times more B.C. residents have been infected than the number of cases reported:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/serology-study-vancouver-1.5650758
“Article on the market in Toronto.. Hits on a few themes commonly discussed here.”
Yes Toronto is seeing the same thing happen there with average prices in June hitting a record high from an increase in luxury sales
https://twitter.com/areacode416/status/1280546759001939968
Bear trap might be getting tighter , may want to consider getting out while you still can.
Our students decided to come back for September. They’d much rather live together in Victoria for the school year again then stay in Alberta with their parents over the winter. A lot of students have budgeted for rent and have RESPs and parental assistance with this. In addition, they’ve received six months of CERB or CESB.
Leo, surprisingly we had a fair amount of student inquiries, with the den being a decent size with a nice large window it can easily be used as a bedroom.
I thought the student rental market would have been dead especially at our price point
Slow reduction in furnished suites available for rent. About 290 down from 383 end of April on usedvic. Was above 400 mid April.
Article on the market in Toronto.. Hits on a few themes commonly discussed here.
http://business.financialpost.com/real-estate/mortgages/toronto-housing-market-belies-the-pandemics-economic-effects-but-potential-trouble-looms
Gotta think about where the rental weakness is though. Airbnb units and students leaving.
AirBnB mostly still trying to rent for a couple months to bridge the slow season.
Meanwhile students aren’t paying $2600/month for a 2 bed.
Your part of the rental market could be entirely unaffected.
2500 for a thousand square foot apartment. I am out of touch but that seems like a lot of money for a small place.
Nice to get some exchange with reality.
There is HHV and then you step out into reality.
I see Stevo’s back, and a little more anonymous this time.
And Leo provides concierge service upon request.
Lots of comments of rents dropping …..we had our second set of tenants give notice since covid started, because they both bought houses.
We listed the unit July 1 and now have the lease signed & deposit paid today
2 bed/den 1 bath unit 1000sqft , top floor of character house that was gutted and renovated 3 years ago
Previous rent 2495 plus utilities ( tenant was there two years )
rented today for 2595 plus utilities
We did 7 showings and 2 of those were video showings, We canceled the other 6 showings we had this week.
Sent you an email Steve.
Leo
Can you list the addresses of over 2 mln that sold and for how much? Redfin isn’t showing me any.
Both countries which have made mask wearing mandatory nationally on all public transport and both countries that have reopened cautiously. Ireland is extending mandatory masks to all indoor public spaces and nearly all states in Germany already mandate this when shopping.
Israelis are wearing masks but they reopened really quickly after early success and sent kids back to school in May and opened bars, nightclubs and synagogues. Tokyo’s cases have risen (70% of new cases are aged 20s-30s) but the overall infection rate is really low comparatively and they have not reinstated their state of emergency.
WestJet and Air Canada started selling middle seats on aircraft on July 1st.
“COVID-19 cases have been reported among passengers on 10 domestic flights and 16 international flights since June 29. ”
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/at-least-26-flights-have-arrived-in-canada-with-covid-19-cases-in-last-two-weeks-1.5024278
Also, I think “Covid fatigue” is setting in, a bit. The weather’s nice all across Canada, finally. Everyone’s been cooped up. There’s a “Screw it, I’m gonna have some fun” attitude that may be becoming more common, especially in the under-40 crowd.
Germany and Ireland have managed to keep CoVid numbers down (similar to Canada) despite their restaurants being busier now than they were a year ago! Canada restaurant numbers still down 50%.
https://www.opentable.com/state-of-industry
I know you’re not making a political point. I guess I just don’t get that same impression from Nate specifically which I found surprising.
Heard from a friend who just started building a house (duplex) that banks stopped issuing new construction loans (since March/April? May be just temporary? ). They are lucky that they got theirs last Dec.
We (BC) could face the same, if people are too relaxed and not as careful as we should be.
Yep. Not a political point, just saying even countries who did very well at first can see increases in cases. Given BC has done well so far it seems relevant that it could all deteriorate fairly quickly.
No one can pinpoint market value for these places because they are so unique and routinely listed at prices that are wildly optimistic. But definitely seems like some sellers are/were making larger concessions now after trying unsuccessfully to sell for months or years.
“ “We’ve been unusually clear about the path of future interest rates…If you’ve got a mortgage or are considering a major purchase…you can be confident that interest rates will be low for a long time” – Tiff Macklem, BOC Governor
A property only sells below “market value” if there is somebody willing and able to pay more than the buyer but is excluded for some reason.
are all these luxury sales value buys? Like are they purchased at prices below “market value” I know there are homes in the high end range that are essentially selling at 2014/15 prices.
Are those from Nate Silver?
I don’t know if I buy the argument that Japan and Australia are having issues yet.
It’s interesting that he seems to downplay the severity in the US but is expressing concern for other countries who are having much less of an issue that individual states right now.
Israel is 50% larger population-wise than Arizona, but has half of the daily cases of Arizona.
Many countries that did well at the beginning are now seeing resurgences.
Trudeau will be on CERB soon.
Don’t worry, Trudeau will pay the WE group to deliver motivational speeches to at-risk business owners.
A lot of businesses are financed with residential home equity. Trying to get a business loan from a bank is nearly impossible without some collateral. Thousands of businesses are going to fail across the country and I expect a great percentage of them will result in a foreclosure. Give it another few months then look out.
I wonder if the luxury listings going up is due to certain business owners getting into financial difficulty. Especially thr ones that are conceding on price.
No idea. Some of the sales were because of big price concessions since the luxury market has been weak for 2 years so people were getting antsy.
But not all of them, $4M sale today that was for just over the asking price in 9 days.
My guess is that some out of town money is moving into retirement mode and cocooning in Victoria.
Leo or Marko any ideas why suddenly the over 1 million are flying off the shelves?
Also KS I once referenced the rental.ca report and now I see it was wrong to. According to the report rental prices went up 15 percent just in June. Clearly working with bad data. https://rentals.ca/national-rent-report
All time record of $2M+ sales in June. July already looks set to match or exceed that level.
New listings were also at an all time high for luxury single family, but just barely at 59 (previous high was 58)
Or maybe they are all escaping from upscale elevators.
Those buyers are on step 5 of the Totoro plan.
You can get 2.05% on a five-year variable mortgage for over one million right now – less for under. Makes the monthly payment about $4000 on a million.
Chart says % of total population. Alberta has the highest proportion of the population in the workforce of any province. They have the smallest proportion of retirees of any province. Note the provinces at the bottom have the highest proportion of retirees.
A meaningful comparison would be % of active workforce.
four sales over $3 million today….insane.
Albertans are such takers.
CREB by province chart again (sorry the image before didn’t seem to work, and can’t delete it).
Added: it seems to work afterwards, but can’t deleted this one now 😉
As per totoro’s post, I feel like The Capital should stick to its bread and butter: local news/issues.
The entire provincial deficit in a pandemic year is the same cost as one Site C dam.
Would be nice if true but, unfortunately, we still don’t know. The author is a Phd biochem candidate at UVic. There are lots of peer-reviewed journal articles by medical researchers and epidemiologists that are saying:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7336129/
Dr. Fauci and the US Surgeon General have both stated it was a mistake not to recommend masks from the beginning and that failing to do so at the start has made it more difficult to get public buy-in which has cost lives and had an economic impact. It is a mistake not to require them here in indoor spaces too. It makes no sense to open up and not take all reasonable steps to contain transmission.
Right, typo. $12.5B deficit.
you mean million
The trouble with mavericks who find extreme success by not following the crowd is that they often become overconfident and apply the same thinking to other areas, and it doesn’t go so well.
BC has $1.5B for stimulus earmarked to start deploying in September.
Estimates 465M decline in PTT revenues.
Had to push back on a bit of sillyness from MMM recently: https://twitter.com/LeoSpalteholz/status/1280521959663525894?s=20
test? not sure the comments RSS is working.
Right out of the Mr Money Mustache playbook!
Looks like in retrospect the variable would have been the better way to go for me. But last November was eons ago!
Mind you, we’re paying off the mortgage so aggressively that the interest rate doesn’t matter a whole heck of a lot.
Encouraging insight into Covid from a local researcher:
https://www.capnews.ca/news/how-covid-19-ends
I don’t know what the prices are like at Thrifty, but dungeness crabs was $15/lbs for A grade and $10/lbs for B grade last week at Hi Gear Seafood (Fisherman Wharf) that normally go for around $20-21/lbs for A grade and $14-15/lbs for B grade this time of year, B grade lobster (Atlantic) were $11/lbs.
Friend of the family with an oyster farm said last weekend that they can’t sell oyster and the price is down this year.
We always buy local food as much as possible (even if they are a bit more expensive). Don’t expect and haven’t seen any discount of local seafood this season (fresh halibuts are still around $3 -$5/100g at Thrifty, live spots pawns are still $20/lb at Oak Bay seafood), but that is fine and all good with us, and they taste so fresh and good. 🙂
At the moment we can enjoy local seafood at a discount, and support our local economy by buys local food & produce, and manufacture goods (made in Canada cars, bicycles, etc…). Lobby for Canadian minerals to be use in products that are sold in Canada, and lobby the government to stop wasting money on incentives that promote foreign products.
The perctange of sales right now over $1 million is insane…we may be looking at another $1+ million average this month.
You have to go a bit over asking with a clean offer and 6-7 days for conditions. I had a listing at 750k, and we had 6 offers on it ranging from 750 to 783k but ended up going with a 765k with short conditions. So Leo is right, 5-10 offers doesn’t mean 200k over asking right now.
With all the uncertainty terms are pretty important. I had buyers lose out to an unconditional competing offer that was 30k less but can’t blame the seller. Who knows where the market is at in 10 days if your conditional offers walks for no reason.
Mortgage deferral isn’t assistance, it’s digging the hole deeper. Also anyone who can afford to buy a house is not going to be making up lost salary with what CERB pays, or what EI would pay.
Barrister –
Festivals and events (music, art, food, business, weddings) and therefore hospitality, catering, transportation (you wouldn’t believe the lame car rental ads I keep getting in my spam box).
With less going out and hosting, I would guess fashion and design.
With economic declines, a lot of discretionary spending drops suddenly. A fisherman friend tells me prices have plummeted for boutique BC seafood items in China and Japan, hurting local producers. I’m sure there are many similar products.
I am trying to figure out what categories of jobs are looking at longer term losses. Restaurants and some retail are the obvious ones that come to mind. Almost anything that is driven by tourism. What other groupings come to mind?
5 year fixed rate as low as 1.76%
https://www.ratespy.com/covid-re-openings-too-soon-071314775
That’s a tough situation rush4life. So hard to know what direction the market will take. Fingers crossed.
We put some weight equipment (powercage, barbells) into our shed last spring. Great investment even outside of a pandemic.
“Guy walking over a bridge as it’s being built”.
The magic of Google and stock images.
BTW, lovin’ the work coming out of HHV’s graphics department lately.
It says the 9th, which was Thursday, but maybe that’s what they were talking about. They said it was local transmission, and in Victoria.
No there were 2 new island cases on Friday.
That’s good news. Means who i heard it from is dead wrong.
I read on some twitter feed that study permits will be required for online courses so we won’t know how many students physically arrive in Canada this year from just this data
Canada study permit holders
2015- 219,045
2016- 264,315
2017- 315,130
2018- 354,745
2019- 402.260
Jan-May 2020- 96,730
BC study permit holders
2015- 56,760
2016- 65,665
2017- 76,420
2018- 81,675
2019- 85,965
Jan-May 2020- 22,980
Victoria study permit holders (data only up to first quarter 2018)
2015- 6415
2016- 9605
2017- 11,585
https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/90115b00-f9b8-49e8-afa3-b4cff8facaee
KS i made the move to government a few years back. Pay is same and work life balance is much better – allowing me to work on the side. Benefits are much better as well. I think having both the tenant and my wife lose work is less likely as well – but something to consider. its a good rule of thumb i think for the one paycheque which is about right assuming my wife is working. but if she doesn’t things get tight quick.
The way I like to look at things is if something somewhat forseeable happens, will i feel stupid about the choices i made that got me there. In this case i see a plausible conversation with a friend in a year going like such: “so you bought your house at near peak prices” “yup” “in the middle of a pandemic” “yup” “right after you wife went back to work, looking at the possibility of a round 2 of covid” “yup” “knowing rents were dropping” “yup” “and now you are stressed about money and the future” “…..yup”.
I see that as a realistic scenario and so for now i will wait.
July 10-12 cases just announced and no additional cases on the Island. Still 135.
Rush4 life, what sector do you work in now that you are not in banking anymore? My thoughts on mortgage affordability is that as a single person you should be able to cover all your housing expenses with one pay chq (not counting suit rental) and use the other one to live on every month. This is assuming your take home pay is atleast $3k a month, I wouldn’t try that with a $2k a month take home as having $2k to live on doesn’t provide much of a buffer for life events.
I think you can use something similar in your situation but include your wife’s pay. What you are assuming right now is a little too aggressive in my opinion because the chances of COVID #2 comes and both risk items materialize for you (wife not working and tenant not paying) without any government assistance (another round of CERB and also mortgage deferral) is fairly slim.
All the adults need to be on their best behaviour to ensure schools can open full time. Without full time school and day care, there can be no equitable recovery.
Thanks. Working on a consistent place to publish just the up to date charts without my 2c. This one would be relatively straightforward to generate.
These are good and valuable information, for potential buyers or anyone who are interested in the housing market, much more useful and accurate than one (or ten) example of sales here and there. Two Thumbs up to you Leo!
For those concerned (or happy) about lack of students cratering the rental market. This might be (partially) offset by US hostility to foreign students.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-13/as-u-s-turns-hostile-foreign-student-permits-climb-in-canada
Thanks for the good reading Leo!
I was in Vancouver recently and noticed graffiti downtown that was encouraging anyone with a SIN to collect CERB. Judging by the numbers Leo mentioned a lot of the recipients would not have qualified and simply didn’t care. A lot of money pissed away that could have been better allocated. I’d be happy to know that someone used their CERB payment to justify an over ask offer or to increase their downpayment by $10K instead of wasting it on alcohol and drugs.
In any event lots of bankruptcies to come as a result of non-payment following next tax season.
Sounds like we’ve got 2 new local cases that are local transmission. Hopefully the contact trace the hell out of them.
Exercised at the rec centre for the first time since they shut down. Nice to be back!
It was funny, though. Before we entered, we’re all lined up outside, two metres apart, and the rec centre employee is reading us the riot act (don’t use the water fountain, thoroughly disinfect equipment after use, don’t breathe moistly, etc.). As this is happening, two groups of summer camp kids are returning to the building and most kids are shoulder-to-shoulder with the kid next to them, some are grabbing their friend’s arm, others are receiving noogies — in short, zero physical distancing.
September’s full-school startup is gonna be interesting.
Anyone got a contractor to recommend? Looking to do some basic stuff and hopefully have a conversation about a more major renovation (attic conversion).
Thanks for the info Leo! That is encouraging.
Absolutely not. Of single family properties listed under $750k sold in the last 4 weeks, 30% sold over ask so two third still going at or under. Biggest over ask was $105k over, but that is an outlier due to a purposefully underpriced listing.
Most over ask sales are only a few percent over. Of the 32 over-asks, 81% were within 5% of the asking price, and 60% are within 2%.
Is it safe to assume that I would have no chance of actually purchasing one of the lower-priced houses like 429658 or 429621 because they’ll all end up with 15 offers and go for $200k over ask?
interesting… could be that we are seeing peak affordability here and thats why there are not more over asks for that segment (100% speculation). But given the comment Marko just made it does make you think. I think we can all agree there is a peak price at some point in Victoria – individuals, unlike the government, can’t just conjure up money from thin air.
My fear about buying in this market is round two covid comes and my wife loses her job again (dental hygienist) or we buy and our tenant decides they can’t afford the mortgage and we only get $300 in lieu from the gov and we can’t kick them out for the next 6 months or more (not to mention rents seem to be more at risk then prices for dropping). A lot of risks right now IMO but as a former banker i know most people won’t think about those things – they just want to get in as everyone has told them just buy in are you will be rich (just like your parents who now have a million dollar property). Prices don’t drop in BC etc. Based on what the government is paying out i can’t say i disagree – seems like the ride will never end.
My choice is continuing to wait as i don’t want to be house poor. It could be prices are up 20% next year and we are priced out forever – thats a risk i’m willing to take – Honestly it may be a relief – right now we can barely qualify for a place for with a suite but if prices go up then it prices us out and take the option off the table – then i can stop thinking about it and visiting this site X times a day haha.
Your ad revenue may drop considerably of course Leo so I apologize in advance.
Surprisingly, identical to the overall market. ~25%.
Leo can you break out what the SFH under a million over asks are?
Absolutely anecdotal here. I was on my way home from a camping trip in China beach last week and noticed a lot of for sale signs on the main Sooke road. I counted them and noted 25 for sale and 5 sold signs from otter point to kangaroo road. It seemed like a lot to me.
detached market under a million is still nuts….just got this from a property I showed yesterday