Getting it right!

Hello everyone

I hope you all had a great weekend and are looking forward to a productive and rewarding week. 

We have just viewed a very interesting and challenging episode in the Greater Vancouver Real Estate markets and the ever changing and sometimes bewildering world economies. However Canada still seems to be holding it's own and Vancouver continues to be one of the most desirable places in the world to live and invest, especially in our real estate markets.

So what does that mean for us mere mortals here in the city. Well, the latest facts through from the real estate board are as follows:

October 2011 has seen us enter the lower end of a buyers market with a sales to active listing ratio of 15%. This of course means that we are still very much in a buyers market that makes it a great time to buy. 4374 new listings came onto the market in October 2011 bringing the current total to 15,377, which is 9.3% higher than this time last year. 

It is taking an average of 50 days to sell a place, 2 days less than September. The benchmark prices in the region are still very strong with an overall increase of 7.5%. But do take note:

• Overall prices have edged down 1.3% since last June
• Detached homes down by 1.6%
• Apartments down by 3%
• Attached homes down by 0.5%

This is still a great time to buy somewhere and get on the property ladder. There is so much choice out there right now and more room to negotiate a more favourable purchase price. There are also some great deals to be had on new properties as developers have become increasingly more generous and creative to sell property while we all wait for the definitive guidelines and dates as to when HST disappears and taxes become more bearable again. 

If you are planning to sell, you really must focus on getting your price right  where it is competitive, realistic and market sensitive. We are already seeing properties being taken off the market as a result of being over priced, over ambitious, unrealistic and ignoring all the market signs. So if you are serious and want to move on, do the research, take good advice and get it sold!

For all you buyers out there, don't wait until the market returns to a balanced, or even a sellers market. It will do eventually and you don't want to be caught up in competing offers or a hot market with serious price increases. There are some great deals currently to be had and record low interest rates to be taken advantage of. 

So why wait - get out there and make it work for you!