Merry Christmas! Buyers get Agressive, Sellers be Patient!

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays from mine to yours! The Christmas Holidays is an excellent time to spend with family, exchange gifts with loved ones, feast on turkey with all the fixings, and head up to Whistler to shred the slopes, but what about Real Estate?

I have received a few inquiries from clients interested in listing this December, and I have told them all the same thing, wait until the 1st or second week of January 2011. I strongly believe the first week of a listing is a critical period. In the first week all Buyers who have been searching and waiting for a property like yours with come to your open houses and request showings to view the property. If you are listed at the right price and your home is staged and shows well, then often in this first week you will receive a very good offer or ideally, multiple offers and sell for over asking. Therefor, December, when Buyers focus on their Christmas lists and entertaining guests, is not a good time to list as your critical first few weeks are compromised and when January comes around Buyers tend to jump on the New Listings while yours may appear as a dead listing with people skipping or driving by it with the assumption it hasn't sold for a reason.

As for listings that haven't sold, I would say it is personal preference to take off the market for Christmas or not. There is a benefit to canceling and re-lisintg in January as it will appear like a fresh listing and catch more eyes, but you also risk missing out on a motivated Buyer over the Holiday Season. I would cancel on Christmas Eve and re-list on the first Monday of 2011.

The other side of the game is the Buyers. There are a couple of reasons why I believe December to be a great time to write offers. Often Sellers who are listed at this time are motivated for a variety of reasons, and the thought of getting the sale over with before Christmas and New Years is very attractive. Often Sellers may need to close before year end for financial reasons. Another factor is uncertainty of the market in the New Year as December is often slow and Sellers can feel pressured to sell fearing a downturn or a slowstart to 2011. The final reason is the less likelihood for competing offers. A Buyer has a lot of power in a negotiation until another Buyer enters into the picture. Buyers, like Sellers, are busy during the Holidays and often wait until January when their lives ate less hectic and when product will undoubtedly come on the market. If you are a qualified Buyer who sees something you like then December may be the time to get an extra discount in a non-competitive situation. If you don't see the right place, then by all means wait until January and in the meantime meet with your mortgage broker to get pre-approved so you can win you dream home if a multiple offer scenario unfolds.

For all you Vancouver Real Estate inquiries please contact me anytime at 604.562.0532 or write me at stu@stubell.com.

Happy New Year Vancouver! Lets make 2011 unforgettable!

Trip to Seattle for Zags Basketball & to Study Local Real Estate Market

This past weekend I drove down to Seattle, Washington to watch my Cinderella Zags Basketabll team take on the fighting Illini. I spent the first 2 years of my University life in Spokane, playing golf for the Zags. Gonzaga is a Jesuit University with just 5000 students, an excellent academic and sports tradition, and a sister school located in Bologne, Italy. My love for Vancouver and desire to work in Real Estate brought me back to UBC to graduate from the Urban Land Economics program under Tsur Sommerville and the Commerce department. I feel blessed to have experienced 2 totally different and prestigious Universities.

Seattle is an interesting city as it is very similar to Vancouver with major ports and a very livable city center with state-of-the-art sports facilities and architectural pleasing high rises mixed with charming historical districts. I wanted to see how prices compare to Vancouver, especially after going to Arizona and Nevada where there are thousands of foreclosures and prices have plummeted.

In the attached high end, a 6000 sq ft Penthouse at the new TEN12First hotel in downtown Seattle is asking $15,600,000. In Vancouver the 41st floor of the Shaw Tower is for sale for $12,880,000. Not bad for 7500 sq ft of single level living with 8 parking stalls and jaw-dropping panoramic views!

On the attached low end, a 3 bedroom, 2 bath town-home with private garage, 1200 sq ft short sale (foreclosure) is asking $94,000. Comparatively, a 3 bed 2 bath town-home of the same age in Vancouver would go for $550,000.

For $28,800,000 you can own 14000 sq ft of Mercer Island Waterfront on a 70,000 sq ft property. In West Vancouver a 7000 sq ft Waterfront Home on a 30,000 sq ft Lot if asking $19,800,000.

Needless to say the US recession and housing crisis has affected Seattle, but not to the extremes of Arizona or Nevada. I feel there are great investment opportunities in Seattle, but would probably look to invest in California first, where comparable prices get you sea side homes in desirable communities such as San Diego.

I stayed with my good friend BJ who recently purchase a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom home in Seattle for $550,000. It is a heritage home that was completely renovated and he picked it up as a foreclosure. He now lives with 4 friends, all GU allumni, and his mortgage is comfortably covered by the house mates. This is very smart money management for a young adult, and the same opportunity exists in Vancouver because our rents are so much higher. If you are in your 20's and have the money for a down-payment, consider this option over a condo or apartment. With the income from housemates, you can afford a house with a yard, a mailbox, a garage, and probably a much better capital gain as the appreciation will be more substantial and you will be paying your principle down faster. A comparable house to BJ's in North Vancouver would be about $700-$800,000.

If you have any questions about Vancouver Real Estate or US Real Estate Investment please feel free to contact me by phone at 604.562.0532 or by email at stu@stubell.com.

November 2010 GVRD Real Estate Stats

December 2, 2010
November Stats MLS® stats show more sales, fewer property listings in November Greater Vancouver residential home sales improved in November compared to the previous four months, with the number of sales posted on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) coming in slightly higher than the 10-year average for that month. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that the number of residential property sales in Greater Vancouver totalled 2,509 in November 2010. This represents a 7.4 per cent increase compared to October 2010 and an 18.6 per cent decline from the 3,083 sales in November 2009. Looking back further, last month’s residential sales represent a 187.1 per cent increase over the 874 residential sales in November 2008, a 13 per cent decline compared to November 2007’s 2,883 sales, and a 6.4 per cent increase compared to the 2,358 sales in November 2006. “Housing sales numbers were fairly typical for a November and indicate a fairly balanced market. Activity on the buyer side has been stable, with slight increases, over the last few months while the number of homes listed for sale in our region has declined each month since we reached a peak in June,” Jake Moldowan, REBGV president said. Total active residential property listings in Greater Vancouver currently sit at 12,384, a 12.1 per cent decline from last month and a 12 per cent increase from November 2009. New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties declined 17.1 per cent to 3,030 in November 2010 compared to November 2009 when 3,653 new units were listed. “Home values have been relatively stable over the last five months compared to the summer period when we were seeing some downward pressure on prices,” Moldowan said. “It’s the homes priced accurately for today’s market that are receiving a lot of attention and selling right now.” The MLSLink® Housing Price Index (HPI) benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver over the last 12 months has increased 4.1 per cent to $580,080 in November 2010 from $557,384 in November 2009. This price has remained virtually unchanged since June of this year. Sales of detached properties on the MLS® in November 2010 reached 1,050, a decrease of 9.8 per cent from the 1,164 detached sales recorded in November 2009, and a 226.1 per cent increase from the 322 units sold in November 2008. The benchmark price for detached properties increased 5.6 per cent from November 2009 to $799,312. Sales of apartment properties reached 1,052 in November 2010, a decline of 24.6 per cent compared to the 1,396 sales in November 2009, and an increase of 156.6 per cent compared to the 410 sales in November 2008.The benchmark price of an apartment property increased 1.9 per cent from November 2009 to $389,168. Attached property sales in November 2010 totalled 407, a decline of 22.2 per cent compared to the 523 sales in November 2009, and a 186.6 per cent increase from the 142 attached properties sold in November 2008. The benchmark price of an attached unit increased 4.1 per cent between November 2009 and 2010 to $488,733. The Market is stable as a whole, but one particular sub market has been red hot, detached properties in Vancouver's West Side. Driven by Chinese Buyers investing in second homes abroad as the Chinese government  gives incentives to do this and the Canadian government has recently relaxed immigration laws allowing a flood of Chinese Home Buyers into the market. Thus far, they have focused on Richmond (proximity to Airport and rich chinese culture) and Vancouver West Side (Proximity and reputation as Vancouver's wealthy and historic suburb). Prices in the West Side are up 20-30% with the average home vale in the $1.8's. Comparatively, West Vancouver has been seeing slower activity and the average detached home price is in the $1.5's. If you have any questions regarding Vancouver, North Vancouver, or West Vancouver Real Estate please call me at 604.562.0532 or write me at stu@stubell.com.   Download the complete stats package by clicking here.