South-end Drives Early Spring Market

Imagine putting your home up for sale and after two days on the market you receive eight offers and sell well over asking price. I know that sounds too good to be true but that’s exactly what many fortunate sellers in Guelph experienced in February. Following a strong fourth quarter when the Canadian economy grew by 5 per cent, the biggest rebound in nine years, Canadians are feeling more positive about the economy. A recent consumer outlook index showed growing optimism last month, with 62 per cent now saying they expect the economy to improve in the next year.

Consumer optimism was evident locally as buyers willing to out-bid each other hit the streets and bought practically everything in sight. Spring had definitely come early as 33% of MLS sales sold for full price or more. But was this a city wide phenomena or did some areas fair better than others? Actually if your property was located in the south end you had a much better chance of attracting competing offers than anywhere else in the city. In fact 70% of the homes that sold for full price or more were located south of Stone Road.

Many of these purchases were likely made by investors looking for student rental properties with close proximity to U of G but neighbourhoods like Pine Ridge, Westminster Woods and Clairfields were super hot as well. Although the remainder of the city wasn’t quite as active as their neighbours in the south, those areas were strong as well and did enjoy some spill over effect where buyers intent on making a purchase in the south end were forced to consider other areas because there just weren’t enough homes for sale.

With the average MLS listing selling in 28 days and for 99.1% of asking price you wouldn’t think the market could get much hotter but the season is yet to change and nothing would surprise me at this point. As the snow melts and things begin to turn green look for hot spring market conditions to spread throughout the city.  

Congratulations to Canada and Vancouver on a fabulous winter Olympics! My family and I watched with pride as our hosts and athletes showed the world what it means to be Canadian.

Article from the Guelph Mercury, February 24, 2010 By Scott Tracey GUELPH — The city has received more than $70,000 in funding to study the feasibility of recycling grey water for residential toilet flushing. The funding comes from the Green Municipal Fund, administered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. “Canada-wide we’re the only community with this type of grey water recycling program, so it’s really quite exciting,” Wayne Galliher, the city’s water conservation project manager, said Tuesday. A pilot project to test whether reusing grey water is feasible began about a year ago. Fourteen homes have reuse systems installed, and the city would like another 16 homeowners to sign on. Ben Polley is convinced.

Click to read more ...

I’m proud to announce that Dean Manton, Real estate Broker with Re/max Real Estate Centre Inc. is Guelph’s newest Greenbroker and a member of NAGAB!  What is NAGAB? The National Association Of Green Agents and Brokers (NAGAB) is Canada's largest Non Profit association of Greerealestate™ Real Estate representatives. The Association is committed to promoting ways and means of reducing green house gas emissions, increasing building energy efficiency, conservation, overall sustainability and environmental awareness. The association offers a Greenrealestate™ program for real estate representatives leading to the commercial and residential Accredited Greenagent™ and Accredited Greenbroker™ (AGA™ & AGB™) designations. Greenrealestate®; designees provide a means by which consumers are able to find real world green expertise in their real estate representatives.

What is Greenrealestate?

Greenrealestate™ promotes the sales and marketing of real estate that:

• Preserves natural resources,
• Protects air and water quality,
• Produces less toxic pollution and waste,
• Utilize readily renewable resources,
• Utilizes recycled or reclaimed materials,
• Promotes Energy Conservation and Energy Efficiency,
• Promotes Environmental awareness,
• Reduces Green House gas Emissions
• Reduces annual energy costs,
• Promotes good design and quality,
• Reduce construction associated waste
• Minimizes the use of toxic materials to reduce the emission of poisonous indoor emissions,
• Uses adaptable materials that can be reused or recycled.
• Helps leave the world a better place for future generations

When considering a particular home, it’s important for buyers to know the energy-efficient features that keep home operating costs down and the conservation opportunities that will improve their home comfort. Conversely, sellers want to know what energy and cost-saving features buyers will value and what energy-efficiency upgrades can improve resale marketability.

Feel free to contact Dean Manton at 519-716-4663 or mail@deanmanton.com with any Greenrealestate questions or visit the NAGAB website for more information. https://nagab.org/index.php

                                       Jan. /10            Jan. /09

Active Listings                      247              419                                        

Total Sales Guelph                102                98   

Average Days on Market         26                46           

Av. Sold % of List Price           98.4%          98.1%       

Sold Full Price or More             30%            17%          

Average Sale Price               $276,170     $255,361

Guelph Get’s a B!

Calgary, Waterloo, Ottawa, Vancouver, St. John's, and Richmond Hill, Ont., top the Conference Board of Canada ranking of the country's most attractive cities to migrants, the Globe and mail reported in January.

These cities have “what migrants are looking for when choosing where to locate,” according to the Conference Board's second report on the topic. It analyzed 50 Canadian cities based on 41 indicators including health, economy, environment, society, education, innovation and housing to rank the places most attractive to skilled workers and mobile populations. “Cities that fail to attract new people will struggle to stay prosperous and vibrant,” said Mario Lefebvre, director of the Centre for Municipal Studies, in the report” The six top cities all got an “A” grade in the report.

Fourteen cities landed in the second-tier, or “B” class, with Edmonton, Victoria, Markham, Vaughan, Kingston, Oakville, and Guelph in the top half of this group. Toronto, Canada's largest city, also earns a “B” grade. Twenty-one cities ranked in the “C” grade category, including Kitchener ON. The “D” class includes smaller or mid-sized cities: in Ontario, Oshawa, Brantford, Windsor, and Cambridge.

One never knows what to expect from a January real estate market. Some years the phone starts ringing on January 2^nd and doesn’t slow down until July. Other years like this one, it takes a little time to get things rolling. Although we did get off to a slow start this year the second half of January rebounded with a vengeance. A week ago I made an offer on a home in the south-end for a buyer and we found ourselves competing with seven other offers. That well-priced home sold for $11,000 over asking price. The competing offer scenario turned out to be a common occurrence in the latter half of the month when 30% of homes sold on MLS went for full price or more and the average days on market decreased to a scorching 26 days.  One other bit of good news is that our inventory of homes for sale grew 30% from the previous month. This means that even though homes are selling at a torrid pace, buyers do have a few more to choose from.

Expect this hot “sellers” market to last well into spring but remember that New Homes, real estate commissions & lawyers fees are HST applicable. Your transaction must close before July 1^st to avoid the HST.

Mississauga, ON (January 28, 2010) – Despite limited inventory levels in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in the latter half of the year, double-digit price appreciation failed to materialize in the single-detached housing category in 2009, says RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada. In fact, an in-depth analysis by RE/MAX of 63 districts within the Toronto Real Estate Board found that detached housing values in 27 per cent of districts remained slightly off 2008 levels, while 57 per cent reported price appreciation of less than five per cent in 2009. Sixteen per cent of districts recorded an increase in average price in excess of five per cent. No double-digit gains were noted. “There is simply no evidence of a housing bubble,” says Michael Polzler, Executive Vice President, RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada. “While sales were up considerably over one year ago—and supply was tight in many of the city’s hot pocket areas—the expected surge in average price did not occur. Buyers remained cautious in their pursuit of homeownership—with most unwilling to overpay for the privilege. “

Click to read more ...