Kitchener Real Estate Board Statistics for Sept 2008

Here are board statistics for the Kitchener-Waterloo real estate board. Please note that the information here is only based on residential real estate. If you would like a more detailed report, please contact Melanie or Warren.

July 2008 – Sept 2008

(Single-Family All Categories (Condo, Towns, Semis, Singles), All Areas)

May 2008 – July 2008 (Single-Family Detached, All Areas)

Unit Sales and Average Price from 2000 – July 2008 (All Residential Listings)

All information deemed to be accurate and based on monthly statistics of the Multiple Listing Service gathered by the Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate board.

Thanks for reading!

By Warren McNeil

Lately I have been thinking how cool it would be if we could do all our offers electronically. Not only would this be convenient, it would also be a very “green”. Coming from a technical background, I personally would like to see this happen. I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t use tablet PC’s to do our offers. Since security and privacy are an issue, then we need to find a way to securely transmit the data. Secure webservers would be one way. Currently the following systems are all done electronically: land title, MLS, MPAC. If we can bank online then we can definitely do our offers online. Maybe Web 3.0 or 4.0 will include this feature. Come on techies get programming!

I see a future where I will go into somebody’s house with my 100GHZ supertablet PC. Internet is connected via a wireless Terabyte initernet connection that utilizes 2048,000,000 bit supercryptoamzinglythebestuncrackable encryption, dna identification challenge and repsonse verification. I am presenting the counter offer to my clients on their 2 bedroom space pod situated on planet Remaxia. The universe is experiencing incredible growth, the Canadian dollar is the offical universal currency, pigs can fly and RIM and Microsoft rule the world.

Maybe I am being a tiny bit silly here. All I am saying is that I hope we move to a model where we are doing offers on our computers and then processing them electronically instead of the current paper-based method we are currently using.

It will be really interesting to see what the next 5-10 years will do for our industry.

Anyways, thanks for reading!

By Warren McNeil

Seems like one of the most common questions people ask me these days is what is going on with the real estate market in Kitchener-Waterloo. Now being the positive person I am, I am telling people that the market is a bit soft right now but I am very optimistic that we should be able to weather the storm. One thing is for sure, people still need a place to live and as long as there are still buyers, there will be sellers.

What I am seeing happening right now is that houses are sitting on the market a little longer and some people in some areas of the city are getting less money then they would have a year ago. I think there are few of factors at play here. Some of these factors are, the US subprime situation, the current election, the time of year, banks have stopped offering 0 down or 40 year mortgages, the negative media exposure coming from the US and other areas of Canada.

Take a look at this chart:

According to the above chart, the overall average house prices consistently gone up over the last 8 years in our area. In some areas the appreciation has been alot higher. My point is, sooner or later things cool down. The hot market of the last couple of years is starting to cool. How much will it cool? Only time will tell.

I have heard news reports stating that the Kitchener-Waterloo real estate market is one of the top ten markets in Canada to invest in. I believe this to be true.

Here are a couple record postings that might cheer you up! When I read the following postings I can’t help but remain optimistic.

Housing sales on track for record year
http://news.therecord.com/article/251944

Townhouses, condos bolster real estate sales
http://news.therecord.com/article/424344

Residential sales up 10 per cent
http://news.therecord.com/article/423822

Townhouses, condos and semi-detached are currently selling well. This means that parts of our market are still strong, Hopefully this will spill over into the other areas that are not doing as well.

Luxury house sales in our area are also up:

Re-Max reports upswing in luxury home sales in major Canadian cities
http://news.therecord.com/article/237718

Luxury housing market standing its ground
http://news.therecord.com/article/420246

Luxury home sales rising in ‘unprecedented’ uptick
http://news.therecord.com/article/238144

It always gets better!

By Warren McNeil

We successfully completed the Run for the Cure as TEAM REMAX for another year. What an emotional experience. I think what really made it hit home for me was the signs on people back that said, “I am running for Mom” or “I am running for Grandma”.

My goal for our team this year was $4000 and I think we raised around $3000. We won’t know our final numers until early next year. Our team was half the size of last years so I knew we wouldn’t be able to do as well. TEAM REMAX as a whole had raised $46000 online. That is amazing and I am glad that our Kitchener-Waterloo team could be part of it. I want to congratulate Durham Region for another successful year. They are the benchmark for all of us and every year continue to do an amazing job!

I wanted to post the pictures again but unfortunately, our camera battery was dead. The best I could do for pictures was a few shots I got with my Blackberry. A friend of mine has some other pictures that I will upload as well. I am a terrible picture taker!! Sorry!

http://picasaweb.google.com/warren.mcneil/RunForTheCureTEAMREMAX2008#

Once again thanks to all our participants and the people who helped us fundraise. Your support was greatly appreciated!

Thanks for reading!

Warren McNeil
TEAM REMAX (K-W)