Suzanne Sharma / November 13, 2012 Four years into a recession being touted as the worst since the ’30s, the U.S. housing sector is giving markets something to smile about. Between August and September 2012, housing starts leapt 15% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 872,000, the biggest surge since July 2008. Read: Slow and steady U.S. hops over Canada And it’s likely groundbreakings could increase another 25% in 2013, predicts Kermit Baker, senior research fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard. Before you get too excited, though, realize home construction’s still a long way off the 1.6 million unit average highs it’s seen for the last three decades. Still, it’s among the first positive signs of a real economic recovery. And,

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VREB Launches Safety App to Protect REALTORS® Today VREB launched the Guardly safety app to help our Members create a safer working environment.Guardly’s mobile application for smartphones allows members to instantly connect with managers, colleagues, family and 9-1-1 when faced with safety concerns. Guardly’s technology leverages alert notifications, call conferencing of up to 15 contacts, real-time location tracking and instant messaging to provide members with peace of mind, wherever your job takes you. And it only takes 5 minutes to set up. Whether you are meeting a new client or hosting an open house, feel safe in knowing that Guardly is always there to protect you. Guardly and VREB put safety first! View a video here to see how it works, or download

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Ron’s candid thoughts on today’s market in Victoria Last month I wrote commenting on the Victoria Real Estate Board News Release saying that in my opinion gives a sugar coated outlook of reality. I also said that it’s not all doom and gloom, that it’s an excellent time to buy, especially to trade up! This month is a repeat! The first sentence of the VREB report claims that “prices held steady” which is simply untrue. We are commonly seeing sales reported in some cases substantially below their tax assessed values and recent independent appraised values. We are seeing properties sell for less than they were purchased for in the last few years. We are in a Buyer’s market with a substantial oversupply relative to buyer’s activity. Last month’s ratio of sold…

REALTOR Ron Neal, left, and developer Glen Wilson at the cleared site of the proposed Midtown Parkproject.
Photograph by: Bruce Stotesbury, Times Colonist

A Saanich property once labelled a neighbourhood embarrassment is being cleaned up for a new five-storey condominium building.

An excavator started work this week moving ground on the 42-unit wood-frame condo project with underground parking on a pie-shaped parcel at Cloverdale Avenue and Inverness Road. The project is expected to transform the site, which has been an irritant to nearby residents for years. Neighbours had complained to Saanich city hall about boarded-up, derelict houses, which attracted squatters, on overgrown lots. One house had been burned out in a fire. In 2005, a local

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Ron’s candid thoughts on today’s market in Victoria: Following is our Victoria Real Estate Board News Release which in my opinion gives a sugar coated outlook of reality. The market is anything but steady with sales numbers down significantly and prices too, driven down buy distressed sellers competing for the few predatory buyers who are seizing the opportunity. Statistics are misleading and the 64 average days on market does not include the prior listings of the same properties or those that have not sold. By my estimate the average days on market is closer to 180 days including just the successful sales. Furthermore, the average sale price reported as 96% of list is based on the final listing price, not reflecting the original price or prior listing…

The total value of monthly home sales through the Greater Victoria Real Estate Board dropped below $200 million in September for the first time since January. At the same time, the number of sales and the average price for a single-family house also declined.Greater Victoria's results reflect what's been happening across the province, according to the B.C. Real Estate Association, which noted the dollar volume of B.C. homes decreased 25.4 per cent to $2.6 billion in August compared with the same month last year.Consumer demand also weakened in August and tighter mortgage rules in July affected the "already tentative market," the association said. Between January and August, home sales in B.C. declined by 17.5 per cent to $26.2 billion, compared to the

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U.S. existing home sales increased more than expected in August

• Existing home sales in the US jumped 7.8% to 4.82 million annualized units in August 2012. Market expectations were for a modest increase to 4.56 million in the month.
• The median price of existing homes jumped 9.5% on a year-over-year basis as the share of distressed property sales declined.
• Homes available for sales rose by 2.9%; however, this was exceeded by the faster pace of sales leading the months’ supply of unsold homes to fall to 6.1 from 6.4 in the previous month.
• Existing home sales were up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis in August and are up 7.4% year to date. The overall improvement in the pace of sales, firming prices, shrinking housing inventories, and decreasing

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Global housing markets remain under strain, says the latest Global Real Estate Trends report by Scotiabank. "Among the international property markets we track, the number of countries reporting declining average real prices on a year-over-year basis outnumbered those reporting increases by more than two-to-one," says Adrienne Warren, senior economist at Scotiabank. She adds, "Weak consumer confidence, high unemployment and tight credit conditions continue to weigh heavily on housing demand and pricing." Canadian housing activity remains relatively buoyant, but has slowed. Adjusted for inflation, national average prices fell 2% year-over-year in Q2 2012, matching Q1 declines. Read: Canadians confident about housing A slower pace of job growth and the

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VICTORIA BC - The August real estate market continues to be steady and flat, considered by the Victoria Real Estate Board to reflect the "wait and see" attitude its Member REALTORS® are hearing from the buying public. Total MLS® residential sales for August 2012 was 462 compared to 542 for the same period in 2011. During the month, 240 single family homes sold throughout the Victoria Real Estate Board’s region, 67 fewer than the 307 sold in August 2011. The average price for single family homes sold in Greater Victoria last month was $590,843, down from August 2011’s average of $652,841. The median price is down by $17,000 to $530,000. There are 5,034 active listings. "Sales are down 11.5% over August 2011. When seasonally adjusted, there is little…

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