Went for a nice trip around recreational property land. The Gulf Islands and Sunshine Coast..looking for deals. Well we are a long way from getting deals as of yet.
Met a few Real Estate Brokers and saw some properties. Even stuff that has been on the market for a year or more without a sniff from a buyer are stubbornly over-priced.
On Saltspring Island, they are sitting on (7 x 4 months) 0f supply = 28 Months. Total inventory/YTD sales. They had a front page article on how the market had changed and sellers need to wake up to this. Despite this prices are inching down v-e-r-y slowly.
The same in the Sunshine coast.
The Real Estate Brokers all admitted things were slow. ('Dead' one of them said)
However they were all certain there would be no significant drop and one suggested that I not bid any less than 10% under listing to be sure I get the property.
Huh!?
No one else is interested but I should still pay 90% of the asking price, on something that the listing agent and seller have probably over-priced by 20% expecting the market to keep going up..
I mention to some that I was looking as assessed as a starting price. This drew some laughs..surely I must know that assessed and market are two separate things...
I then mentioned that:
1) The assessed value is decided by a fairly uninterested party. In fact they will likely err to the up-side, since the higher the assessed the more taxes that are assessed.
2) I had done my home-work and showed up with info on several recent sales which went at the assessed value.
Everyone can have an opinion..but when you back up your opinion with facts it is harder to refute it.
Recreational property has not rebounded as much as Vancouver. The further from the centre, the weaker the bounce back. I think we are in a full-out buyer's market. That is the only way you can describe any market that has over TWO YEARS of inventory. However there is a LOT of denial out there and buyers may find sellers need some more time to come to terms with the new realities.
In fact there are now some listings UNDER assessed on the Sunshine Coast.
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As many of you know, I have a special distaste for Conrad Black. He basically threw his Canadian citizenship away. Then he gets convicted for multiple cases of fraud and one of obstruction of justice, and is being sued for unpaid taxes by the IRS.
He then pays enough lawyers to get him out of jail on bail pending an appeal and now he is suing his former Hollinger colleagues in Canada who accused him of looting the company. He is suing in Canada because we have stricter libel laws. Nice to see Canada has something he wants.
Ah will the machinations of the naughty rich never end..
What did Bob Rae say about Black.."that most symbolic representative of bloated capitalism at its worst"
HEY CONRAD if you ever read this post surfing google for mentions of your name..make sure you listen to Todd Butler's song, which is just about you:
Music - click on 'Conrad' if it takes you to another song first.
