Real Estate Information

I grew up in Lethbridge, Alberta, where my parents still reside.  While attending University of Lethbridge, I studied photography, among other things.

My nephew and his girlfriend are recent arrivals in Victoria, from Calgary.  They came for Christmas Dinner and surprised me with a framed photograph.

The picture is a photographic collage and is a photo of the street I used to live on when I was a small child.  My nephew, Bradley, found it in the basement of my parents' house and it framed.  It looks really great!

In the space of a week, we have had some of the craziest weather in memory.

Last Monday started out with a light skiff of snow.  That lead to a huge dump on snow on Tuesday night.

Like all good Victorians, I hoped the snow would leave as quickly as it came.  It did.

Be careful what you wish for....

Sunday gave us hurricane force winds!  Many ferry sailings were cancelled, including the one my daughter and her boyfriend were returning to the mainland on.

However, today is another day - beautiful and sunny out with a million logs on Willows Beach.

A huge thank you to my valued clients, who have made me a DFH Team Topper for the year 2011.  Thanks to you, I have been a team topper since 2000 and this year had the third highest sales at my office.

We are now entering our sixth day with snow on the ground.  It snowed almost all night Monday and most of Tuesday.  Schools were closed and there was almost no one out and about.  My Nissan Leaf drove very well on the snow covered streets, so I was quite pleased.

Then, I called my parents, who live in Lethbridge, Alberta.  There is a ton of snow and the temperature is hovering around -33C.  Think I need to shut up!

Here is a photo of one of our dogs at Willows Beach.  There was so little traffic, we walked from our house down to the beach.  We don't often see this much snow so close to the waterline.

After what we consider to be a very cold day, my wife made a large pot of Japanese Curry with boneless short ribs, vegetables and rice.  Nice way to end the day.

The 2011 Canadian Housing Observer — Just released!
The Observer is CMHC's annual flagship publication that provides comprehensive insight into Canada's housing market and is a key resource for Canada's housing experts, including housing finance and real estate professionals, policy makers, researchers, educators and builders. This year's feature article is on Housing Finance. The chapters include:

• Overview
• Canadian Housing at a Glance — Dashboard
• Housing Finance
• Household Indebtedness
• Housing Markets
• Demographic and Socio-economic Influences on Housing Demand
• Recent Trends in Housing Affordability and Core Housing Need
• Sustainable, Housing and Communities
• Seniors' Housing
• The Evolution of Social Housing

The analysis contained in the Observer is complemented by a broad range of online detailed data tables that provide information on all of Canada's major housing markets, analytic reports, and CMHC's Housing in Canada Online (HiCO) tool. 

• Data tables
• Housing in Canada Online
• Analytic reports

New this year is the launch of additional online interactive tables featuring housing data at the local level for more than 100 selected municipalities.

For what is believed to be a first for B.C., a condo owner in Surrey has been ordered by a judge to sell her unit due to an avalanche of complaints from other owners.

The woman and her son have lived there since 2006 and have been fined over $20,000 by the strata council since that time.

In a ruling release Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice,  Richard Blair said it was a "draconian" measure,  but was necessary.

Neighbors filed affidavits about the complains, which include loud banging, pounding on the floor, doors slamming and screaming and yelling.   Verbal insults were hurled at others living in the complex.

The lawyer for the strata said "in some ways, this was the death of a thousand cuts because they're individually juvenile.  But over the course of time there have been hundreds and hundreds of times where people have been intimidated or sworn at."

The woman has 30 days to list her unit and will have conduct of the sale for a period of 90 days after the listing.  If a sale does not take place within the 90 day period. the petitioner can apply to assume conduct of the sale.

Someone needs to have a serious chat with Mother Nature!  We live in Victoria and it's not supposed to snow here.  Fortunately, it's just a light dusting in our neighborhood.

Here are my two dogs acting like they are well behaved....they are not!

Two pots of formerly pretty primula.

This is really good news.  Local Victoria cyclist phenomena Ryder Hesjedal initiated the first Tour de Victoria in 2011 and now it's back for 2012!

This year's tour will be on 24 June.  Last year, 1,350 cyclists from as far away as Nova Scotia and Texas participated.  Upward of 800 riders registered for the 140K course, about 300 for the 90K and 150 participants cycled the 4K community ride in downtown Victoria.

More than 500 volunteers were involved, including 300 road marshals.

At this point in time, it appears unlikely Ryder will participate as he is cycling in the Giro de Italia and then shortly after, the Tour de France.

This year's Tour benefits the GoodLife Kids Foundation whose goal is to make fitness a fun and regular part of children's lives.

Good times!  The photo below is the Tour on Beach Drive last year.

 Housing-related spending accounts for more than 20 per cent of Canada’s Gross Domestic Product, contributing about $330 billion to the Canadian economy in 2010 — up 7.1 per cent from $308 billion in 2009. This and other key findings are in the ninth annual Canadian Housing Observer, released today by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

“The Observer is unique in its in-depth review of housing conditions and trends, including developments — both domestic and international — that influence housing finance and housing market developments in Canada,” said Karen Kinsley, President of CMHC. “The Observer’s data provides insight into Canadian residential mortgage practices and housing market trends, while highlighting the importance of housing in this country.”

The 2011 Observer looks at other important housing data including:

• The anticipated growth in the influence of seniors on the housing market in the future as their share of the population rises from about 14 per cent to almost 24 per cent by 2036;
• How urban core housing need improved between 2002 and 2008 as 87 per cent of urban Canadian households either had, or could afford, acceptable housing in 2008;
• How low interest rates, coupled with a small inventory of existing homes for sale, helped push  the average MLS price up by 5.8 per cent in 2010 to $339,042; and
• How condominiums accounted for one-third of all housing starts in major Canadian urban centres in 2010, compared with 29 per cent in 2009.

Welcome to 2012, everyone.  It is my most sincere hope that everyone will have a happy, healthy and prosperous year.

Real estate is usually very slow in between Christmas and New Years, so we took advantage of the downtime to go to Kona.  We have not been to the Big Island for many years, so it was something we were looking forward to.

Who out there remembers the "golden era" of air travel?  How times of changed!  Crowds, huge lineups at security, cranky people and thus far, we are still on the ground!  Once on board, expect huge jostling with carry on luggage as nobody wants to pay to check a bag, inedible food and teeny tiny seats more suited for a family of mice.

That said, once we arrived we had perfect weather the entire time.  Our trips anywhere always get off on a bit of a rocky start as my wife (this is the former travel agent in her) needs to see every available condo unit to ensure she has the one she likes the best.

Real estate prices on the Big Island are not nearly what they used to be.  Many properties were bank ordered sales.  While the real estate market might have slid a bit, the food industry has not.  We discovered eating in restaurants to be not much more than eating out here, generally speaking.  But at the grocery store - prepare for major sticker shock!  Unfortunately, we discovered quite late in the trip some farmers markets that had very nice and reasonably priced produce.

And now, 2012!

This bunch of onions was, believe it or not, $2.29 in Kona!