Durham Region Real Estate Blog

Staging is big business these days. Depersonalize. Pare down. Go neutral. Well I’m one real estate agent who thinks you should go against the grain. Put up the fake spider webs and get out the straw bales. Maybe you should even hang a flying witch on the front porch. Have some fun. In our desire to please all and show how in touch we are with the current decorating trends, we are missing out on us!  I personally don’t decorate for Halloween; it’s not really my time of year.  I cringe when the scary movie commercials come out and anticipate November 1, 2009, when it’ll all be over. But if you like Halloween and your house is on the market, then decorate.  Have fun and show that your house has some personality.  Besides, you’re still living in the house and a buyer will be able to appreciate that.  Just remember that you must be diligent and remove the decorations as soon as the day passes.  Make no plans for November 1.  You have some clean up to complete.

The Durham Region Association of REALTORS® (DRAR) reported 825 sales in September 2009, down .5% from August 09’s 875, but up 9% from the 752 recorded in September ‘08’.

 Average selling prices were up 1.4% ($282,308) in September, from August’s $278,400, and up 5.5% from the $267,478 reported in September ‘08’.

Durham’s fall market is starting stronger than ever. With the reported 825 sales this September, it is the best selling September on record!

 Total active listings are down 36% (1920) from September 08’s 2989, and up 2.9% from last months 1865.

 This year’s real estate market has been a rollercoaster ride. With a weakened economy Durham’s first quarter started off rocky. Government incentives kicked the second quarter into gear and into a buyers market. Now with listings well below the same time last year the market has spun into a sellers market. In the first quarter we never would’ve anticipated setting any records, but with both June and September in the record books, the first quarter pessimism has come and gone with the changing of seasons.

I can’t wait to see what the final quarter brings!

Yesterday the statistics for Canadian housing starts came out.  New home starts fell 4.6 percent in September from August but came in ahead of expectations, increasing investor optimism that the economy is pulling out of recession, data released on Thursday showed.

The number of starts in September topped the consensus expectations of analysts who had called for 148,000 starts.
“In a broader sense, Canadian homebuilding activity is clearly beyond the worst depths of this past spring and in trend recovery mode,” Scotia Capital economists Derek Holt and Karen Cordes said in a note.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts fell by 5.2 percent to 131,500 units in September. Starts for single
family homes rose 16.8 percent to 68,800 units, while new construction for multiple dwellings such as condos and
apartment buildings decreased by 21.4 percent to 62,700.

“The decline in housing starts in September is attributable to the volatile multiple starts segment,” said Bob Dugan,
chief economist at CMHC’s Market Analysis Center.

“However, starts of single homes, which are a barometer of the trend in housing markets, climbed in September to reach their highest level so far this year.”  This is all really great news for  the housing market in Canada.  It shows that we are starting to recover, and a slow steady recovery is what we all want. That kind of recovery is sustainable in the long run and will get us back to a place of prosperity before we know it.

Helping people find a place to call home is a great way to spend the day!  A few weeks ago I was contacted by a friend I had lost contact with for several years.  She asked me if I was able to find her a place to rent.  The kicker was that she has a large family, didn’t want to spend too much if possible and needed to move in less than a month!  It might sound like a tall order, but it’s something we deal with quite often.   We went looking at rental properties and found a perfect place on the first visit.  Unfortunately this house got multiple offers on it and was rented to another family.  This was the best thing that could have happened to us because it made us really talk about what she wanted.  When I asked her why she wasn’t going to buy a place she said she didn’t think she could afford one.  Step in a fantastic mortgage broker named Steve Gilmour.  One 5 minute phone call to him and she knew that she could afford to purchase her own place.  We started looking immediately, time was ticking and she needed to find a home right away!  We found two places that would fit her family and just last week Friday we firmed up on a great house in Oshawa.  It closes today!  Just 6 days after we firmed up on the offer.

So I got to have a great week and there is a new homeowner out there, paying herself instead of her landlord! Sometimes I can’t believe that I get paid for this!