Archive for December, 2013

Work with neighbours to prevent break-ins – Stay safe this Christmas

Saturday, December 14th, 2013

Christmas time offers an opportunity for some nice gifts for the wrong people.  There are few things more traumatic than a home burglary. That’s why it makes sense to invest in good locks and, if necessary, a good alarm system.

There are also ways to work with your neighbor’s to prevent these crimes from occurring. In fact, police say that watchful eyes are one of the best ways to deter burglars on the prowl.

Police recommend that you know the names of all the neighbor’s adjacent to your property. Get in the habit of watching each other’s homes. Stay alert to cars and people lingering around that don’t seem to belong.

Another strategy is to set up a community Facebook page. That way, when someone sees something suspicious in the neighborhood, they can immediately notify everyone by posting a Facebook message.

Finally, don’t be a stranger. It has been proven that the better neighbor’s know one another, the lower the crime rate is in the area.

Happy Holliday’s

How a Home Inspection Helps You

Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

How a Home Inspection Helps You

Whether you’re considering buying a particular home, selling your current property – or both – a home inspection can help.

 

A home inspection is an inspection by a qualified professional who takes a close look at every aspect of a home – structure, wiring, plumbing, and more – and identifies issues you may not have noticed yourself. For example, a home inspection can reveal that a furnace will need to be replaced soon, or that there is a water leak into the basement that needs to be fixed.

You’ll definitely want to get a professional home inspection before you buy a particular property. That’s why almost 100% of offers to purchase a home are conditional upon passing a home inspection. (The last thing you want is to buy your dream home only to discover that the wiring needs to be updated!)

Some Sellers like to get a home inspection on their own home before listing it for sale.  This helps to identify issues a potential buyer may find so that you don’t lose out on any potential buyers.  This is done more when it is a Buyers market and right now in Calgary that is not the case – we are very much in a sellers market.

Many reputable home inspectors are members of a professional industry association.

• Canada Association of Home & Property Inspectors. (http://www.cahpi.ca)

• Professional Home and Property Inspectors of Canada. (http://www.phpic.ca)

• National Home Inspectors Certification Council. (http://www.nationalhomeinspector.org)

In my opinion it is not just important to find a licensed home inspector but to find someone with a construction or building background.

It’s important to note that licensing is now a requirement in Calgary and Alberta wide.  So select a home inspector carefully.

Need to find a reputable home inspector? Call today.

November 2013 Calgary Real Estate Market Snapshot

Monday, December 2nd, 2013

Want to know what’s really happening in the Calgary Real Estate Market.  The market is driven by supply and demand so here we show the inventory (supply) and sales (demand) and the effect on the price of Calgary Real Estate.   In summary the Calgary housing market is still entrenched is a Sellers Market with limited supply and strong sales.

Below are the details along with a few comments, all numbers were taken  from the Calgary Real Estate Boards Stats package for Realtors.

Calgary Listing Inventory:  Inventory levels for all categories dropped substantially this month.  In my opinion this is of no concern and is simply a seasonal trend.  We will see a further decrease in December and then in Jan it should start to increase again.   Very few people want to list their home during the holiday season.

Inventory 

October   2013   

November    2013   

Change

Single Family Home

2705

2171

-534

Condo  Townhouse

444

380

-64

Condo  Apartment

692

605

-87

Total

3841

3156

-685

 

Calgary Sales: 

Sales in November declined at almost the same as rate that inventory dropped.  Traditionally this time of year we start to see sales slowing so again I’ll call it a seasonal trend.

Sales

October    2013  

November    2013  

Change  

%   Change

Single Family Home

1336

1006

-330

-24.7

Condo  Townhouse

280

228

-52

-18.9

Condo Apartment

337

305

-32

-9.4

Total

1953

1539

-414

-21.1

 

 Calgary Real Estate Sales Prices:  

In November, the benchmark price increased for all categories. As long as our ratio of sales to listings remains the same this trend will continue.

Sales Prices

October  2013

Benchmark Price

November  2013  

 Benchmark   Price  

Change  

Single Family Homes

468,000

470,600

+2,600

Condo Townhouse

302,200

305,700

+3,500

Condo  Apartment

276,100

279,600

+3,500

 

Sales Prices “Year to Date”   

Year to date prices have increased in all categories.

Sales Prices Dec  31 2012  Benchmark Price 

November 2013

Benchmark Price   

Change  

%   Change

Single Family Homes

434,800

470,600

+35,800

+8.2%

Condo Townhouse

284,100

305,700

+21,600

+7.6%

Condo  Apartment

248,700

279,600

+30,900

+12.4%

 

Absorption Rate (Months of Inventory)   (the inventory divided by the number of sales in the last month). What does this mean you might ask?

Buyer’s Market

>4.0

Balanced Market

Between 2.8 to 4.0

Seller’s Market

<2.8

 

Absorption Rate:  Throughout November our absorption changed but only marginally. We are still in a strong seller’s market position.  In the starter home price range we are still seeing lots of competing offers.

Absorption Rate  

October  2013  

November 2013  

Change  

Single Family Homes

2.02

2.15

+.13

Condo Townhouse

1.58

1.67

+.09

Condo  Apartment

2.05

1.98

-.07

Total Calgary

1.97

2.05

+.08

**Please note that these numbers do change on a community basis and more so for towns.  If you would like to find stats or absorption rate for  your community just let me know.  If you have any questions about this summary, the attached stats package or any Real Estate questions please feel free to contact us