CENTURY 21 Countryside Realty Ltd. - Blog

Happy New Year! 2011 a great year for Metro

paul.burns@century21.ca — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Happy New Year everyone. I hope your Christmas break allowed you a chance for a bit of rest and relaxation and visits with family and friends.

We just received our year end report from the GMRGM Board and they are really solid. Our sales volume was up 8% for the year, the number of units were up 3% and the average sale price is now $172,612, a 3.7 % increase which is very good for this area. Sales to listing ratios were up by 2% over last year as well.

It's good to see some commercial building progesssing around the city with one of the big projects on Mapleton Rd. beginning again. That was put on hold a couple of years ago when the US retail sector imploded and it looks like the initial phases are moving again. Our vacancy rate for commercial property saw a reduction this year which is welcome as well.

The US is enjoying a very modest growth and certainly is still fragile. We don't know how the Euro-zone is going to play out but locally things continue to be okay. The growth in the energy sector, trucking, the Government ship building contracts and more is beginning to put more people to work in the area and all that money spinning through the economies of Atlantic Canada helps us all.

I wish everyone a great 2012 and we'll all hope that the Mayans just ran out of stone to carve anymore calander and the world won't actually end on December 21st!

November Sales in Metro down a bit

paul.burns@century21.ca — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Our fall slow down has finally started in Metro Moncton, but it is still pretty good. MLS report from the GMRGM show that the average sale price is up 3.8% to $173,079. This is good news for anyone selling their home. Our sales dollar volume for the month of November was down 5% over November of last year and the actual number of sales were down 10% but year to date our volume is still up 6%. So, all in all, compared to some regions, especially in the US, we are doing great.

For the next few months our market becomes quite weather dependent and slows down considerably around each snow storm. So, if you recall last winter, January and February snowed all the time so we got a slow start to the year. Thus, still being up 6% by year end shows that our market recovered very well once the weather improved.

Market stays strong

paul.burns@century21.ca — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

October continued to show strength as we move through our fall market. Although there are a few signs of activity slowing down a bit, October was still a very good month at the Moncton Board. Dollar volume YTD was up 7%, the dollar volume for October 2011 vs Oct 2010 was up 5% and the total number of units sold was up 3% for the month and the YTD.

Our average sale price is up 3.3%, year over year, to $173,306 and remains pretty stable with September's average sale price of $173,724. Not much danger of a "housing bubble" in this area. It's one of the reasons real estate is a great investment.

These numbers are encouraging as it indicates to me that buyers in our area are not so concerned about the world economy that they're not spending locally. Nothing becomes a self fulfilling prophesy quicker than crying hard times and reducing spending. If everyone thinks we're in hard times, we soon will be! I'm not suggesting for a minute that anyone spend what they can't afford, but those who can afford it need to be buying to keep the economy moving and employment up. Housing, because of it's huge economic spin-off (renovations, furniture, appliances, etc.), is a great place to be spending.

If you need to know more about the local housing or investment market send me an email, text message or give me a call anytime. You call also follow me on twitter as well at peburns@twitter.com.

Atlantic Nations come to town.

paul.burns@century21.ca — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT

This past weekend, July 8th to 10th, over 2000 beautifully buffed, polished and pampered vehicles came once to Moncton once again. My wife and I try to take an extended lunch hour on Friday to take advantage of all the cars being displayed on Main St. They shut down a portion of Main St. all day Friday and park the cars all along road and people just mill about. It's great and there are plenty of places to eat.

How do yo like this truck. Not much "back roading" done in this puppy I'd wager. The paint job was amazing and my Bberry's camera doesn't do it justice. This truck was parked on the grass in front of City Hall.

We had lunch at a litttle café called The Garden House. Great burgers and things but the biggest surprise/traet were there sticky buns. People in our area often speak of the sticky buns that are at Kelly's Bakery in Alma, next to Fundy Park. They are good, not as good as when Mrs. Kelly ran it 40 years ago, but good. The sticky buns at The Garden House do Mrs. Kelly proud. They are the best I've ever eaten and I have eaten my fair share of sticky buns. Absolutely out of this world. I now know where to sneak away for a tasty treat once in awhile.

Here are a few more of the more interesting cars on the street:

There is always some talk about closing down Main St for the summer months. I think it would be a good idea. It's already closed a few times anyway for the various festivals and maybe it would get the locals out walking a bit more and patronizing all the nifty little restaurants and shops. If you think having Main Street made into a pedestrian mall for July and August let Council know. It might be a good experiment and if it isn't successful,don't do it the next year.

I hope to see you out next year. This is one of the biggest car shows on the circuit and the drivers love to come here because they get treated so well.