On occasion I've provided individual people with a regular weekly update of what I thought was going on with real estate on the Sunshine Coast.  I called it my “Sunday morning musing”, and it was made up of the things I see going on in the world and in our communities that are influencing our local real estate scene. Over time, I’ve found that clients often wanted to keep hearing the musings even after they’ve bought or sold – so much so, in fact, that I've decided to make it a weekly ritual that I share with my community.  This is my first issue of what I hope is a long running blog post better known as my Sunday Morning Musings.

 

This week:

 

Lately we've heard about the market "slowing down" and this is definitely true in Vancouver where they are calling 2016 “annus horribilis”, or “horrible year”.  Poor Vancouver sellers didn't see their prices skyrocket and (shocking) had room to come down!  I guess that means the average house has come down from $1.5 to a mere $1.3 million. 

 

Okay… I'm not feeling their pain. 

 

On the Coast the situation is starkly different.  We continue to have motivated buyers who are finding it increasingly difficult to find suitable properties.  Where we had a glut of product to sell coming into 2015, this inventory is gone as we say goodbye to 2016.  In fact, after hitting a record high of listings in 2014, nearly every week has seen more sales of houses than new listings.  This has continued even though we now have a 20 year low of inventory, and despite the market "balancing" now and again. 

 

People say that it is seasonal, or that the slowdown is due to tougher financing, new taxes, etc.  However, my website continues to receive about 200 people per day suggesting demand may not be slowing down.  

 

My thought is this: until the trend breaks for a sustained period, demand remains stronger than supply. If this trend continues into the spring of 2017, we are going to see a stiff increase in pricing on the coast.  If we thought 2016 lined up to be a year of price increases, 2017 has a stronger fundamental case to justify price increases beyond the frenzy that we saw in 2016.  The point is, if you are in the market to buy, now is the time before it rises too far.  If you are in the market to sell, get your property ready to enjoy a maximum return.

 

Thanks for reading this first issue of Sunday musings.  If you have any thoughts or questions, I’d love to connect.  Shoot me an email or give me a phone call between sips of eggnog. 

 

All my best this Holiday Season!

 

Gord