I’m not sure if the famous nursery rhyme involving the falling sky is currently in the public domain and/or if it is royalty free, so I’ll avoid any direct references to a height-challenged, adolescent chicken…  Add to that the fact that Disney made a movie based on the same story and I am sure is copyright protected!

As usual there has been a ton of froth on the heels of recent real estate sales data from the preceding month, in this case, August.  It doesn’t really matter if the data point to a rising, falling or a sideways market, there will never be a shortage of members of the media and the public who will blow some or all of the data out of proportion, for better or worse.  In this case sales volumes are down considerably from near record highs in August 2009.

That being said, the last couple of months have seen some significant developments (HST, interest rate changes, mortgage options) which has fuelled more debate, mostly in the form of “anonymous” comments on blogs and under media stories from individuals who are sure that the end of the world is indeed just around the corner, which in turn leads a lot of nice people to ponder their fate. 

As I deal with a lot of nice people during the normal course of business I have been pondering a blog post for quite some time to discuss some of the recent questions raised from the implementation of the HST, raised from the spectre of rising interest rates, by media speculation and other topics.  The reason I have been pondering for awhile is that this is a rather expansive topic, and experience tells me that many people who read blogs tend to lose interest in a post if it rambles too long…  This is why I’ve decided to break this into several smaller posts over the coming days & weeks, rather than continue to figure out a cohesive way to cram it all into one long-winded post.

In upcoming posts I will touch on the HST, the Bank of Canada, and demand and supply, amongst other topics.  I will wrap it up with a discussion about whether the sky is falling by contrasting the events of late 2008 (the last time the sky fell) and where we are now (hint: the sky is not falling at the moment, and not likely to, but anything can happen…).

Thanks for reading, as always, please contact us for all of your real estate needs in Victoria, B.C.

Sean Farrell

As mentioned earlier this week, we have recently been busy selling homes, which is in part why I was feeling guilty for neglecting the blog posts…

I thought it was time to make an effort so at the very least I could update the blog with recent activity, so, in no particular order, here are our sales from July of this year (note that some sales are unconditional (firm) sales while some have already closed, we do not move our listings to say “sold” on our website until the sales have closed):

• 5605 Parker Avenue:  Sold for $2,000,000
• 82 Sylvan Lane:  Sold for $735,000
• 333A Stewart Avenue:  Sold for $920,000
• 225 Belleville Street, unit 708:  Sold for $444,000
• 3905A Cadboro Bay Road:  Sold for $2,000,000

Leslee also sold a Bed and Breakfast at 522 Quadra Street for $1,085,000 in July to one of her buyers.

We continue to see activity in all price ranges, despite the doom and gloom about real estate markets being reported of late in the media right across Canada — which as mentioned so many times in the past goes to show that it helps to read the details and not just the headlines in the media.

The numbers from real estate boards across the country certainly indicate a pull back in July, but remember that is a pull back from all time highs in volumes and in some price ranges that weren’t sustainable in the long term — For those eagerly awaiting “bubble” to burst we feel that isn’t likely (there are no guarantees, but not likely), rather we expect a return to a balanced market.

In the near term, we ourselves have been quite busy.

I will get into the rationale behind a balanced market in a blog post later this week.

Thanks for reading, and as always, please contact us for ANY of your real estate needs in Victoria, BC.

Sean