Average Canadian house prices will fall by another 3 per cent in 2009, but the drop will add up to a “correction,” not the sort of “crash” that has crushed the U.S. market, real estate brokerage Royal LePage Real Estate Services said Tuesday.
Nationally, the average house price will fall to $295,000, from a projected level of $304,000 for 2008, the Toronto-based firm forecast. This follows a 1.1-per-cent dip last year from $307,265 in 2007.
Royal LePage also is betting that that the number of houses sold across the country this year will fall by 3.5 per cent to 416,000, although it expects to see both price and activity gains in several markets, including Regina and Winnipeg, where prices remain below the national average.
But price increases of 6 per cent and 4 per cent the firm is forecasting for the two prairie cities – bringing the average up to $243,300 and $204,900, respectively – will be a mere shadow of the 38.6 per cent and 20.5 per cent gains they saw last year.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Friday, January 9, 2009
Overheated Vancouver-area real estate market cools
rst in the greater Vancouver housing market.
Sales of homes in 2008 dropped by over 35 per cent, compared to 2007 sales of more than 38,000 homes.
Dave Watt, president of the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board, says the last half of 2008 showed a consistent drop in prices.
At one point the market was so overheated that buyers would enter into bidding wars for properties and forgo inspections just to undercut other potential purchasers.
Prices have dropped almost 11 per cent between December 2007 and the end of 2008, and Watt says the perception is that prices are still falling so it's hard to identify the bottom of the market.
The cost of a single-family detached home in December 2001 was almost $360,000 and grew to about $650,000 by last December.
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Sales of homes in 2008 dropped by over 35 per cent, compared to 2007 sales of more than 38,000 homes.
Dave Watt, president of the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board, says the last half of 2008 showed a consistent drop in prices.
At one point the market was so overheated that buyers would enter into bidding wars for properties and forgo inspections just to undercut other potential purchasers.
Prices have dropped almost 11 per cent between December 2007 and the end of 2008, and Watt says the perception is that prices are still falling so it's hard to identify the bottom of the market.
The cost of a single-family detached home in December 2001 was almost $360,000 and grew to about $650,000 by last December.
Comments are now closed for this story
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Montreal real estate firm cans spam with Google Message Security
T director Lance LeBlanc balks at the notion that he would ever even consider turning off his Google Message Security spam filter – to do so would overwhelm his 250 employee real estate company with a daily mass of e-mails a company of 10,000 might receive.
Montreal-based real estate firm Canderel reached its tipping point in 2004, when it was receiving on average between 200 and 300 spam messages a day. With the business communications hamstrung as a result of the problem, LeBlanc sought out the services of Postini, a company that provided a hosted service promising to filter out the spam and let through legitimate e-mails.
It took just two days to put the new service into place and Canderel immediately stopped receiving spam, LeBlanc recalls. He hasn't looked back since.
Montreal-based real estate firm Canderel reached its tipping point in 2004, when it was receiving on average between 200 and 300 spam messages a day. With the business communications hamstrung as a result of the problem, LeBlanc sought out the services of Postini, a company that provided a hosted service promising to filter out the spam and let through legitimate e-mails.
It took just two days to put the new service into place and Canderel immediately stopped receiving spam, LeBlanc recalls. He hasn't looked back since.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Canadian housing market still looks good here compared to U.S.
TORONTO — House prices continue to plummet in the United States, but the consensus in Canada remains that the impact of the downturn will not be as severe here.
Home prices in 20 major U.S. cities are now falling faster than at any point on record, hit hard by increasing foreclosures and slumping sales. The S&P/Case-Shiller index declined 18 per cent in October from a year earlier after dropping 17.4 per cent in September. The gauge has fallen every month since January 2007.
House prices have been falling fast in Canada as well. The Canadian Real Estate Association, which represents 100 real estate boards across the country, said this month that average price of a Canadian home sold in November was down 9.8 per cent from a year ago.
Home prices in 20 major U.S. cities are now falling faster than at any point on record, hit hard by increasing foreclosures and slumping sales. The S&P/Case-Shiller index declined 18 per cent in October from a year earlier after dropping 17.4 per cent in September. The gauge has fallen every month since January 2007.
House prices have been falling fast in Canada as well. The Canadian Real Estate Association, which represents 100 real estate boards across the country, said this month that average price of a Canadian home sold in November was down 9.8 per cent from a year ago.
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