In sharp contrast to era of "foreclosure-gate" in the United States, residential power of sale activity in Kitchener Waterloo continues to represent a small percentage of the market. Active listings under power of sale on the Kitchener-Waterloo MLS totalled 15 as of mid-November which equalled October's total. Of note, 93% are in Kitchener and 7% in ...
Posted by Jeff Gingerich
on November 16, 2010
Regular readers of this blog will know by now that this monthly update is designed to answer the frequently asked question "How's the market?". The residential real estate market in Kitchener Waterloo continues to be a sellers market. Active residential listings on the K-W MLS at the end of October stood at 1251. Of this total, 403 were new homes and 848 were resale properties. ...
Posted by Jeff Gingerich
on November 2, 2010
The 4 month trend showing year-over-year monthly declines was broken in September as the 371 residential MLS sales in K-W were virtually identical to September 2009 results of 369. The average days on market for September sales was 43 versus 41 in September '09. The list-to-sale price ratio was 98% off slightly from the 98.2% a year earlier. The median ...
Posted by Jeff Gingerich
on October 5, 2010
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has just released a report titled 'Canada's Housing Bubble: An Accident Waiting to Happen'. The author is David MacDonald and he studied housing trends in the country's 6 biggest markets: Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. Among other data, he compares provincial median household income and ...
Posted by Jeff Gingerich
on August 31, 2010
Million dollar residential sales have set a record in Kitchener Waterloo in 2010. Luxury home sales over $1 million dollars on the Kitchener-Waterloo Multiple Listing Service have surged to 9 year-to-date. The average price of these sales is $1,481,444 and the average days on market is 100 days versus a brisk 37 days for the broader market. Sellers of these ...
Posted by Jeff Gingerich
on August 27, 2010
There are days in real estate and in life where you come across things that just don't sit well. I usually try and think things through but sometimes I still end up like the photo above...puzzled. I found this gem while searching MLS for suitable properties for a buyer client.
I was equally puzzled by an article in today's National Post entitled "Variable ...
Posted by Jeff Gingerich
on July 28, 2010
To me, urgency is part of the the appeal of the NCAA basketball tournament known as March Madness. It's win or go home. It appears buyers adopted this attitude in March as MLS sales activity in Kitchener-Waterloo saw year-over-year increases of 9% in average price and 38% in unit sales. March unit sales in K-W totalled 546 besting the 507 sales in March ...
Posted by Jeff Gingerich
on April 6, 2010
The headlines are hard to avoid these days as the mainstream media rush to report December real estate sales in Canada at an all-time high. The Canadian Real Estate Association reports that the number of sales nationwide was up 7.7% in 2009 over 2008 and prices were up 5%, on average, versus a drop of 1% in 2008. As I've stressed before, markets are local and ...
Posted by Jeff Gingerich
on January 18, 2010
Kitchener-Waterloo residential real estate continued to post solid gains year-over-year in December. A total of 242 properties sold through the Kitchener-Waterloo MLS in December, 2009 versus 172 in 2008 for an increase of 41%. Interestingly, the median sale price declined slightly to $264 848 compared to $265 858 in '08. The average days on the market for December was a healthy ...
Posted by Jeff Gingerich
on January 4, 2010
I had the good fortune to visit Vancouver for the Century 21 Canada Conference this fall. It certainly is a beautiful city and I can definitely see the appeal of living there. However, I struggle with the cost of housing. Here is a current example. The home above is listed for sale at $795,000. It's described as "that perfect fixer upper in an amazing ...
Posted by Jeff Gingerich
on December 8, 2009