Well, well, well, we know that many real estate markets are in better shape than the media portrays in the headlines, but even this news was surprisingly upbeat to us. 

Ozzie Jurock reported in his daily facts-by-email newsletter yesterday that sales are up 100.8% in January of this year over January of 2008.  Let me reiterate that is year-over-year, and not month-to-month. 

I was tempted to not post this story, because some astute people will point out that the big reason for the increase in CA sales is, as Dennis Gartmann points out via Ozzie’s newlsetter, that the laws of supply and demand apparently are still working:  The median prices of homes in CA have decreased 40.5% in that same time. 

My reluctance post those statistics stems from hoping to avoid having some people come to the quick (and incorrect) conclusion that median prices must drop 40% in all real estate markets.  This will simply not be true of all real estate markets as they are heavily regionalized due to climate, economy, standards of living, taxation and so it goes.  I could write a book on this stuff, and we will invariably keep referring to this concept over time, but I am also doing my best to not write book every time I post.  Suffice to say, Canada’s banking system and economy are in much better shape that they are in the U.S., and there are many more regional differences within Canada as well.  Some markets will see price decreases of more than 40%, some much less.

Ozzie often includes a ”Major Point” in his articles, in this case, he points out that the time period involved in these numbers are YEAR OVER YEAR figures (January 2008 to January 2009), and not month to month figures, which make them statistically much more significant as they are very unlikely to just be “blip” numbers.

I’m going to follow Ozzie’s example and highlight a “Major Point” of my own.  If you remember only one fact from this post, please, please, please remember that real estate markets are highly regionalized; price drops of 40.5% in California are not indications of what is happening in other real estate markets such as British Columbia, Florida, Ontaria, Alberta, Nicaragua, Italy, and so it goes.  That being said, we’re very happy to see the increased sales in California.

If you would like to read the entire excerpt from Ozzie’s newsletter please click here.  If you would like to subscribe to Ozzie’s newsletter, you can sign up at his website: http://jurock.com/

Thanks for reading, please contact us if we can help you with any of your Victoria real estate needs.

Sean

As of today, Newport Realty already has more sales for the month of March than we did for the entire month of February, which is also more than we’ve had for any month since October 2008.  As we mentioned here, sales were way up in February over January, and February is the shortest month!

The increased sales undoubtedly has to do with the normal seasonal upswing that the real estate market usually experiences in spring (we will ignore yesterday’s snow when considering that it will soon be spring!), however, as reported in today’s Times Colonist, the strong local economy is also playing a role.

Did we mention how the super low interest rates are bringing buyers around???  Yes, we have, but we’ll continue to keep bringing it up, the lowest prime rates ever are making the entry level single family homes market very competitive right now, yet we are starting to see movement in the higher end as well.  While it may not be as brisk as the entry level market, there is some activity none the less.

All of this continues to make it a great time to buy real estate, strike while rates and prices are so favorable!

Thanks for reading, and please contact us for all of your real estate needs in Victoria.

Sean