February in Real Estate

Another month went by and we are seeing more listings coming on the market every day. How was February you may ask? Well, here’s a brief summary of each important market. The reason why I am including only these markets is because based on what algorithms show, most people that come to Campbell River and surrounding area, are from these cities across Canada.

Campbell River

February brought additional inventory to the table in the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) area. However, listings are still far below where they need to be to satisfy buyer demand.

“British Columbia is in the midst of a housing crisis,” says Erica Kavanaugh, 2022 VIREB President. “Organized real estate has data-driven insights into potential solutions, which is why BCREA just released a white paper on market conditions in the province.”

In a Better Way Home: Strengthening Consumer Protection in Real Estate, BCREA presents over 30 recommendations to the provincial government on how it can protect consumers today and provide affordable housing in the future. Using extensive data and expert analysis, BCREA focuses on real-life solutions in the paper instead of ineffective and temporary demand-side fixes, adds Kavanaugh. (To read or download the white paper, visit bcrea.bc.ca/whitepaper.)

Benchmark Price for a detached home in Campbell River in February reached: $699,900.

Benchmark Price for an apartment: $333,600.

Benchmark Price for a Townhouse: $514,200. 

Quadra Island
Quadra Island in February had NO new listings, 4 sold (pending) and 1 Sold.  

If you would like more details including “sold prices” go to my website and sign up and log in for free to members only area that will provide that information www.quadrarealty.ca

Cortes Island

February on Cortes Island had 1 listing “pending” and one “sold” but NO new listings.  

If you would like more details including “sold prices” go to my website and sign up and log in for free to members only area that will provide that information www.quadrarealty.ca

Calgary

Thanks to a surge in new listings, sales activity reached a record high for the month of February with 3,305 sales. The rise in new listings caused adjusted inventories to rise above last months’ levels. However, with only one month of supply, the market continues to favour the seller.

The benchmark price of detached homes in the city of Calgary hit $596,400; semi-detached: $461,400; row home: $321,100; apartments: $257,500.

Vancouver

The Metro Vancouver* housing market saw steady home sales activity, modest increases in home listings and continued upward trends in pricing in February.

“As we prepare to enter what’s traditionally the busiest season of the year, the Metro Vancouver housing market is seeing more historically typical home sale activity and a modest uptick in home listing activity compared to last year,” Taylor Biggar, REBGV Chair said. 

The benchmark price for a detached home is $2.044,800. This represents a 25 per cent increase from February 2021.

The benchmark price of an apartment home is $807,900. This represents a 15.9 per cent increase from February 2021.

The benchmark price of an attached home is $1,090,000. This represents a 27.2 per cent increase from February 2021. 

Toronto

February home sales were down compared to the all-time record in 2021, but represented the second-best result for the month of February in history. New listings dropped, but by a marginally lesser annual rate than sales, pointing to a modest move to a slightly more balanced market. Competition between buyers, however, remained tight enough to support double-digit price growth year-over-year.

“Demand for ownership housing remains strong throughout the GTA, and while we are marginally off the record pace seen last year, any buyer looking in this market is not likely to feel it with competition remaining the norm. Many households sped up their home purchase and entered into a transaction in 2021, which is one reason the number of sales were forecasted to be lower this year and a trending towards higher borrowing cost will have a moderating effect on home sales. Substantial immigration levels and a continued lack of supply, however, will have a countering effect to increasing mortgage costs,” said TRREB President Kevin Crigger.

The average price for a detached home in area (416) is $2,073,989.

The average price of a semi-detached home (416) is $1,499,489.

The average price of a townhouse (416) is $1,131,809.

The average price of a condo (416) is $822,090 as reported by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TREBB).

If you keep tracking these numbers like I do, you must have noticed that prices keep going up significantly all across the country. Even when you look at a monthly change a lot of the times it’s substantially higher. With immigration policy accepting over 400,000 new immigrants this year, and now with Ukraine conflict I’m sure that number will at least double. We can only speculate that this will drive prices even higher, especially the lower priced units.

Are you thinking of selling your home? Call me for a free home evaluation.

Roman Krzaczek REALTOR ®

Home number: 250-285-2141

Quadrarealty.ca

Spring Market.

Spring Market is just around the corner. Historically the busiest time in Real Estate starts in April and goes on until about August. Usually the busiest months are April, May and June but last couple years March was also very busy. 

As usual a lot of people considering a move and thinking about selling are calling their realtors with questions. I would like to address some of the concerns here.

2022 has just started and so far, has been very turbulent already. Rising inflation, potential of rising interest rates, illegal government overreach, covid mandates, high immigration targets and now conflict in Ukraine, to name a few.

Making rational decisions based on facts can get hard because it seems there are many variables that can change weekly.

Why is spring market good for buyers and sellers?

Simply put, curb appeal! Hopefully when spring hits, all snow is melted and spring flowers make your yards look beautiful. The trees are waking up with color and people feel more energized and wanting to move. 

Since the pandemic has started more home buyers decided to reconfigure their lives, priorities changed and also the demand for larger homes with multi purpose rooms have increased. A lot of buyers have moved out of the highly densely populated cities into the suburbs or in many cases even changed the provinces in search for more affordable prices. We are still not clear if the exodus from big cities will continue or once offices open up, people will head back to cities, or if they will continue to work remotely.   

Rising inflation will be higher than we have seen in many years. In order for the central banks to combat the rising inflation they need to raise the interest rates.

Banks saw this trend coming, that’s why they introduced the “mortgage stress test”. The extra 2% buffer needed to qualify for a mortgage gives the bank confidence that borrowers will be able to make payments once the mortgage rates go up.
How does that translate in real life?

Based on a quick Google search, the average Canadian has a $372,000 mortgage. A 5 year closed mortgage of 4.79% will cost roughly $2120/ monthly.

If the mortgage rate goes up by 2% the monthly payments will be $2,560/ monthly

$440 increase in monthly payments.

Today we are facing record low inventory but the demand is still very high.

So, is now a good time to sell?

Every person is in a different place in their lives. Don’t base your decision on fear.  

Generally, best time to sell is during a seller’s market. We are in the strongest seller’s market in a long time. This is by far the best time to sell, based on historical data.

If you are thinking of buying it’s probably not the optimal time but it depends on your circumstance. If you can afford to wait until the market changes to a buyer’s market, then wait. If you must buy now, don’t expect to find any “deals”.

It is important to listen to a few opinions, ideas before making up our minds. The most important aspect is to listen to ourselves, to the feeling we have. Sometimes it’s not all about the money or timing.

My personal litmus test when making big decisions is to ask myself: is it going to hurt someone, does it come from respect, kindness and compassion? Whatever decision I make is a decision I’m willing to live with.

Over the last couple of years, we have followed so called “leaders” telling us how we should live but I really hope we have reached the end of this. It’s time to take charge of our lives and finally return back to kindness and community.  

Are you thinking of selling your home? Call me for a free home evaluation.

Roman Krzaczek REALTOR ®

Home number: 250-285-2141

Quadrarealty.ca