|
OTTAWA — The Canadian housing market continued its decline in the last month of 2008, according to figures released Thursday by the Canadian Real Estate Association. The group said the average price of listed homes sold through registered agents in December was $281,110, down 11% from $315,880 a year earlier. Home sales in December were down 1.8 % from November on a seasonally adjusted basis to 27,357. On an actual basis, sales totalled 16,283 last month, down 32.4% from December 2007. The sales total for all of 2008 came in at 434,477, down 17.1% from 2007. Still, the real estate association cautioned that Canada is not facing the kind of housing crisis seen in the United States. Recommend this article... |
|
Why do some statistics show house prices dropping sharply, while others show prices up?
The problem with home price statistics is that there are an infinite number of ways to calculate and compare them.
New Statistics Canada numbers released yesterday, for example, give an idea of what's happening with newly-built homes (but not the resale of older homes). They show a 0.3-per-cent decrease in new-home prices in November, 2008, compared with the previous month, but a 0.7-per-cent increase compared with November of 2007.
That's only the national average, however. In different markets there are wildly different numbers. In St. John's, prices were up year over year by more than 25 per cent, while in Edmonton they were down almost 8 per cent.
Is Statistics Canada the only group that compiles house price data?
No, and that's another issue. Various organizations such as the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and real estate brokerage Royal LePage also collect and publish regular sales numbers, and these don't always agree.
Royal LePage often categorizes houses into different groups, such as detached bungalows or detached two-storey homes, so that adds another whole set of permutations. At the moment it is projecting a 3-per-cent drop in prices (nationally, on average) for 2009.
Recommend this article... |
|
If Canadian prices follow U.S. trends, certain cities will experience a major slide in house prices
Some experts are predicting a U.S. style housing crash here in Canada, saying that we're only a year or so behind them. So what would that mean for us?
We decided to take a look at how much the average U.S. housing prices rose in the last ten years, and discovered that prices in October 2008 were 54% higher than in October 1998.Since U.S. prices peaked in April 2007 and Canadian prices peaked roughly a year later, we've calculated what a 10-year, 54% increase would add up to here - 18 months past our peak. That would mean that most Canadian cities are headed for a fall in housing prices, especially those out west. The full statistics on average house prices are below:
U.S. Housing Prices Start date (Oct. 1998): US$184,300
Peak (April 2007): US$322,100
Current (Oct. 2008): US$283,400 Vancouver Start date: (Oct. 1999): $283,957
Peak (May 2008): $624,639
Current (Oct. 2008): $556,682
Predicted (Oct. 2009): $436,726 | Recommend this article... |
|
|
Every once in a while I do an analysis of the different areas of Edmonton, to see where homes are selling and where they are taking a little more time. The absorption rate is the number of listings currently on the market, divided by the number of sales in the past 30 days; it tells you how many months it will take to sell the current inventory if the rate of sales stays the same. The overall absorption rate is currently 8.4 months, which makes it easy to see which areas are above average and which areas are below. The absorption rate is longer than last time I did an analysis (August) in all areas except one. That's expected since we are late in the year. Recommend this article... |
|
* Real Estate Investment Mistake #1 - Quick Buck Schemes & Scams
Real estate wealth was the road to riches of 9 of every 10 Canadian millionaires. That's why in looking at real estate we agree you are definitely going in the right direction. But few made their fortunes in overnight changes of value, or by buying their real estate for less than it was worth when they bought it. They made their fortune in buying the real estate for less than it was worth over time as they owned it. Pre-foreclosure, foreclosure, pre-construction, fix and flip, remodeling, probate, lease options, and a million other schemes count on your buying something for less than it is worth at closing. That can happen, but the most predictable real wealth from real estate comes from appreciation from market forces over time not the stupidity or lack of knowledge of sellers at the closing table. Recommend this article... |
|
Finding hot leads is the main challenge for any real estate investor. One of the most popular and effective ways to find wholesale deals is called "driving for dollars," which simply means driving around targeted neighborhoods to locate ideal wholesale properties. Another option you can resort to is to have someone drive for you - a bird dog or a property scout. Good thing is that either way will work out depending on your resources or in other words how much time and money you have.
Gaining success in finding the right deals also depends upon how willing you are to go all the way in real estate investing. Also, you need to consider your situation. Let us say if you're a full time realtor, you can do the search yourself, find the deals on your own and discard the idea of paying a bird dog. On the other hand, if you are employed full-time, it would be difficult for you to drive for dollars and in this case you may have to hire a bird dog to do that job for you. But what really are Real Estate Bird Dogs and how can you find one?Recommend this article... |
|
|
Can real estate bird dogs make money in the real estate industry? And if so, how?
A virtual real estate bird dog is a person who finds property investment deals for real estate investors without having to buy it. It is considered a risk free method of real estate investing and a method of learning real estate investments while making money.
So how do they make money?
Successful real estate bird dogs are making good amount of money by locating deals for their investors whether in good or bad times. That is real estate "bird dogs" get a referral fee for finding good deals for other investors. This is often where people begin their investing career as there is only time at stake. They are typically paid when the deal closes. Typical fees for real estate bird dogs range between $500 and $3000.00 dollars. On the other hand, some real estate bird dogs bird dogs will structure companies and partnership arrangements as they're frequently not real estate agents and may not be able to collect a "referral fee" for their services. Recommend this article... |
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
|
| Results 45 - 58 of 168 |
Property Management Forms
2009 Feb Housing Stats
