I am pleased to announce the listing of 4321 Greta Street, Burnaby.
This is a rare opportunity to purchase a quality home located on a private cul-de-sac in South Burnaby. This 2 level, 5 bedroom home has many quality features including: bright large rooms, original hardwood floors, cedar lined closets,a finished basement with a large recreation room and plenty of storage, This home features attractive landscaping, a private back yard and a detached 2 car garage with lane access.
For further information please visit: http://www.danmccarthy.ca/
Vancouver, BC – June 16, 2008.
British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports residential sales dollar volume on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in BC declined 27 per cent to $3.85 billion in May, compared to May 2007. Residential unit sales fell 31 per cent to 8,101 units during the same period. The average MLS® residential price in the province reached $475,656, up 6 per cent from May 2007.
“Rising fuel and food prices are impacting the housing market, as many potential homebuyers take a wait and see approach out of concern for their household budgets,” said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist.
While BC has one of the best performing economies in the country, slower economic growth and a spate of bad news stemming from the US housing recession is also eroding consumer confidence, causing some consumers to delay major purchases.
“Despite strong demographic fundamentals, amenity markets in the province are bearing the brunt of reduced demand as second home purchases by recreation and investor buyers are more easily delayed,” added Muir. “However, higher inventory levels may soon edge lower as homes priced in relation to the accelerating conditions of the past are either pulled off the market or re-priced and sold according to today’s market realities.”
Balance returns to recreational property markets across Canada this year, says RE/MAX.
Kelowna, BC
June 10, 2008
After an extended period of extraordinary growth, more balanced market conditions have emerged in recreational property markets across the country, according to a report released today by RE/MAX. The RE/MAX Recreational Property Report found that a substantial increase in the supply of recreational properties listed for sale, combined with fewer buyers overall, characterized most recreational markets this year.
Of the 45 markets surveyed, 91 per cent (or 41 markets) were in the transition stage, moving from strong sellers into balanced market conditions. The only exceptions were Salt Spring Island, two markets in Saskatchewan - Last Mountain Lake and Qu’Appelle Lakes and Lakes Candle, Emma, and Waskesiu - and Newfoundland’s East Coastwhere inventory levels were relatively low.
Affordability was a primary factor in 35 per cent of markets surveyed, given serious upward pressure on recreational values in recent years. “We’re coming off the longest period of economic expansion since World War II,” says Elton Ash, Regional Executive Vice President, RE/MAX of Western Canada. “Recreational property values have appreciated beyond our wildest dreams across the country. More balanced market conditions are a welcome change for purchasers.”
Adverse winter weather conditions during the first four months of the year hindered recreational activity. Sixty-seven per cent of markets reported softening in the number of sales year-to-date, while average prices remained stable or experienced moderate increases over 2007 levels for the same period. Economic concerns, fueled by negative GDP growth in the first quarter and soaring energy costs, have also played a role in the transitioning market.
“Market conditions have shifted, but don’t expect to see bargain basement prices or fire sales,” says Michael Polzler, Executive Vice President and Regional Director, RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada. “The recreational market continues to experience solid demand - a trend that is expected to continue throughout 2008. The influx of new listings has yet to translate into downward pressure on recreational property prices. Prime waterfront properties, while more plentiful than in year’s past, will still command top dollar.” For the first time in many years, in fact, a good selection of entry-level waterfront is available in markets across the country.
Eighteen per cent of those surveyed offer properties under the $200,000 price point, including; Central South Cariboo in British Columbia; Parry Sound, East Kawarthas and Kingston in Ontario; Summerside, PEI; South Shore, Nova Scotia; Shediac, New Brunswick; and the East Coast of Newfoundland. Recreational property buyers also found themselves divided between two borders this year. The housing market meltdown in the US combined with a Canadian dollar at par created serious investment opportunities for secondary properties in Florida, Arizona, Texas, and California. Some of those very same factors have spurred American recreational property owners in Canada to list their properties for sale, with many looking to take advantage of ideal market conditions here. “Many Canadians are capitalizing on market conditions in major American centres,” says Polzler.
“For some purchasers, the move is strictly a short-term investment strategy with a pay-off at the end of the day, while for others, retirement is the main objective.” The report also found that younger buyers were a factor in 40 per cent of recreational markets surveyed. “Baby boomers are clearly not the only purchasers that appreciate the recreational lifestyle,” says Ash. “Generation X is quickly becoming a force in the marketplace, spurring demand for condominium product on ski hills, oceanfront properties in good surf locales, and water frontage on trendy lakes with celebrity residents.”
Other highlights: Alberta’s red-hot economy has helped boost recreational property markets in British Columbia, Atlantic Canada, and some parts of Ontario. Affordability is prompting buyers to consider back lots, riverfront, condominiums, hobby farms and leased land. -Some purchasers looking to secure an exit strategy are buying recreational properties or secondary homes in residential neighbourhoods in close proximity to the water’s edge.
Vancouver's commercial downtown goes up and out to create job space. City planners are proposing that residential development be banned from an expanded area.
Frances Bula
Vancouver Sun
June 06, 2008
Vancouver is about to radically reshape its downtown business core to create new commercial office space and keep condos at bay.
City planners are proposing that residential development be banned from an expanded new commerical district, that office towers automatically be granted 20 to 40 per cent more density, and that developers be encouraged to build as high as possible without blocking the city's designated view corridors. "When you look at the capacity for job space in the city, there's a problem, particularly in the downtown," said planner Kevin McNaney, who is in charge of the city's massive metro-core jobs study that has been examining what kinds of occupations and locations the city will need in the future. "And it really has nowhere to go but up. There's heritage on one side, strata condos on the others and then the port."
The city is also proposing that all conversions from office to residential in buildings over 50,000 square feet will be discouraged through the new central business district, which will now stretch from Bute to Beatty and Robson to Cordova. Similarly, conversions of buildings over 30,000 square feet in Yaletown, Chinatown and Gastown will also be discouraged.
That change is being welcomed by the business community, which has been raising the alarm for a couple of years about the way office development has been losing the battle to more profitable condo development.
"It's all good to walk and bike to work, but if you don't have offices for people to go to, that makes things rather difficult," said Bernie Magnan, the chief economist for the Vancouver Board of Trade. "You won't have the business and the jobs that you're asking people to move down here for."
Condominium development in the downtown core has been escalating for 20 years, ever since the city started promoting a "Living First" policy of encouraging people to move downtown. It took off in the late 1980s, after the office market collapsed in Vancouver and elsewhere and developers were looking for new opportunities to build. Since then, the size of the downtown population has more than doubled to about 90,000.
As it became clear that condo projects were selling at phenomenal rates and available sites became less and less available, residential developers started pushing into the central business district or converting former office buildings. The famous one-time Westcoast Transmission building on Georgia became the Qube condos, while prime sites, one at Georgia and Thurlow and one at Dunsmuir at Granville, were developed as the Shangri-La and Hudson, which were all or partly condos.
The city put a moratorium on that kind of conversion and development almost four years ago, because of increasing concern about the effect it was having on the price of the remaining commercial land. In the meantime, the office vacancy rate downtown has dropped to a record low.
City planners have estimated that the downtown needs about six million square feet more of office space to accommodate an increase from the 120,000 jobs that now exist downtown.
McNaney said the city will also be making changes in other parts of what it calls the metro core - everything north of 16th Avenue from Clark to Arbutus - to create more job space. He said that it's unlikely that Vancouver will see exceptionally high office towers because the business market in Vancouver isn't strong enough for that. Vancouver has no head offices and much of its office space goes to companies leasing relatively small amounts of space.
"Most will be around 400 to 450 feet. That's enough for the kind of office towers built here," said NcNaney.
Growing supply helps stabilize market conditions
VANCOUVER, B.C. – June 3, 2008
The Greater Vancouver housing market continued its re-balance between sales and listings last month. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales in Greater Vancouver declined 30.7 per cent in May 2008 to 3,002 from the 4,331 sales recorded in May 2007.
New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties increased 20.2 per cent to 7,390 in May 2008 compared to May 2007, when 6,149 new units were listed.
“With more property listings and a decline in the number of sales, prices are not increasing as rapidly, now down to single digits overall, which is good news from an affordability standpoint,” said REBGV president, Dave Watt. “The housing market is at a balanced state, sellers have more competition and buyers have more selection to choose from."
Sales of detached properties in May 2008 declined 33.4 per cent to 1,203 from the 1,805 sales recorded during the same period in 2007. The benchmark price, as calculated by the MLSLink Housing Price Index®, for detached properties rose 8.4 per cent from May 2007 to $771,250.
Sales of apartment properties declined 30.5 per cent last month to 1,244, compared to 1,789 sales in May 2007. The benchmark price of an apartment property increased 8.7 per cent from May 2007 to $389,668.
Attached property sales in May 2008 decreased 24.7 per cent to 555, compared with the 737 sales in May 2007. The benchmark price of an attached unit increased 9 per cent between May 2007 and 2008 to $478,931.
Bright spots in Greater Vancouver in May 2008 compared to May 2007:
Attached:
Coquitlam up 45.2 per cent (45 units sold from 31)
Apartments:
New Westminster up 13.6 per cent (100 units sold from 88)
I am pleased to announce the listing of 4321 Greta Street, Burnaby.
