Richmond Condo News

The Personal Real Estate Corporation structure allows licensed realtors to access the business advantages of incorporation. This can include better planning of income and tax streams and is similar to options available to other professionals, such as dentists, accountants and lawyers.

British Columbia is the first province to offer this corporate structure to licensed realtors.

Personal Real Estate Corporations will have no impact on the existing regulatory oversight framework of the BC Real Estate Council, nor will they reduce consumer protection standards.

The amendments were originally requested by the British Columbia Real Estate Association, an industry association representing the interests of approximately 17,000 realtors in British Columbia on behalf of its 12 member real estate boards.

Richmond Sutton Realtor James Wong on January 23, 2008 achieved a new milestone passing the 20,000 points as an active member of the Active Rain Real Estate Network.

There are wealth of real estate marketing information for individuals who are involved in the real estate related business like Realtors, Mortgage Advisors, Appraisers, Home Stagers, Real Estate Lawyers, Webmasters, etc.

AR allows me to blog and reach out to my fellow AR members and AR helps me to position my services online through better Google Search Ranking. The benefits that I get from Active Rain Real Estate Network cannot be measured in how many deals I get out of my internet presence through AR.

It's not just the money and the deals that AR helps to connect my clients to me. AR has allowed me to connect to other like minded people. The self-less sharing by many AR members and the comradeship have made AR such as unique community. I will be forever addicted to AR and continue to be a proud member of the AR Real Estate Network.

Signed: James Wong, Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.

Below is a summary of an article by Tom Kelly  published in Inman News on Jauary 23, 2008. 

According to the National Association of Realtors, 65 percent of Florida Realtors had at least one international customer, and the trade group's "Profile of International Home Buying Activity" indicated that at least 7 percent of home sales in Florida were to foreign purchasers.

The cash group (28 percent) was much greater than that of the general U.S. home buyer population (8 percent).

• The typical international buyer purchased a single-family home or townhouse.

While the top three state destinations for foreign home buyers in the NAR study were Florida, California and Texas, significant overseas buyers surfaced in all areas of the country. The median price foreign buyers paid for a home was $299,500 in 2006 -- significantly greater than the national median sales price of $221,900. More than 20 percent of international buyers purchased a home that cost between $200,001 and $300,000. Fourteen percent of foreign home buyers paid more than $750,000 for their U.S. property, according to the NAR study.

Buyers from Canada were more likely to have purchased homes priced over $1 million. The median price of homes purchased by Indian buyers -- $292,000 -- was closest to the overall median price paid by all foreign home buyers.

Click here to real the full article... 

The following is an excerpt by The Globe and Mail on the move by the Bank of Canada cutting interest rate by one-quarter point.    

The U.S. Federal Reserve announced its surprise massive interest rate cut of three-quarters of a percentage point about an hour before the Bank of Canada officially issued its own announcement on Tuesday morning. (A Canadian official said the Fed did not give the Canadian central bank any advance notice of its surprise cut.)

"Financial market conditions have deteriorated since October, leading to a tightening of credit conditions in industrial countries," the Bank of Canada said in a one-page statement accompanying its rate announcement.

Canada's economy will be hit hard, the central bank said, especially in the export sector. The Bank of Canada will publish full details of its projections and analysis on Thursday.

In October, the central bank projected that the Canadian economy would expand by 2.3 per cent in 2008, and 2.5 per cent in 2009. The central bank's last official projection for inflation in Canada was that it would fall below its 2 per cent target this year but return to target by the second half of 2008.

As for the United States, the Bank of Canada's old growth expectations in October were for 2.1 per cent in 2008 and 3.0 per cent in 2009. With the Fed's 75-basis-point cut on Tuesday morning, there is now an appreciable gap between the American's key interest rate of 3.5 per cent and the Canadian key interest rate of 4.0 per cent.

The possibility of a US recession has affected market sentiments in the world financial markets. There is a real danger that downturn in market confidence may spill over to affect the housing market in Canada.

Do you think the Canadian housing market will take a dive if the US goes into a recession?

There are many choices for web-design and web-hosting services. I am interested in getting a domain for my real estate web-site that has the "navigation side bar", "blog rolls", "tags" and "blogging" functionality.

Wordpress themes have most of the above requirements and the hosting of a wordpress website is very affordable. Should I go with wordpress or other website hosts like Point2 NLS, Real Estate Webmasters, Uberto or other good recommendations?

Your comments and advice are much appreciated. 

Grant Surridge, Financial Post Published: Friday, January 11, 2008:

The Canadian economy surprised observers by losing 18,700 jobs in December, as the strong loonie continues to weigh on the country's manufacturing sector.

Agriculture lost 23,000 jobs, while the transportation and construction sectors posted relatively strong gains.
Small and medium-sized businesses account for 60% of private-sector employment in Canada.

Several economists issued reports that said the weak job numbers mean the Bank of Canada will cut rates in January.

RBC Capital Markets economist Dawn Desjardins said that "the dominant risk at the moment is that persistent financial market volatility, tighter credit conditions and the slower pace of U.S. growth will weigh on Canada's economy this year."

The troubled US housing market, mounting foreclosures and the credit crunch could drag the US into a recession. As the US is the major export market for Canadian goods, the strong Canadian loonie is now posing a problem to employment.

It is inconceivable that Canada's housing market will not be affected by a sharp slow down in the US economy. Will this trigger a correction in Canada's real estate prices?

Below is a Real Estate Articles from Inman News today, January 11, 2008:

NEW YORK -- The U.S. housing market is in bad shape, but John H. Vogel Jr. is a man with a plan.

Vogel, a permanent adjunct professor for the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College who spoke during the Real Estate Connect NYC conference Thursday, shared his proposal for saving millions of homeowners from foreclosure through a "Last Chance Mortgage" program.

He envisions a program with a fixed mortgage interest rate of 3.5 percent to benefit those families who are facing foreclosure, though he said it's not a "bailout."

Homeowners participating in the program would give up the chance to profit from any appreciation in home values, and the homes would become part of a pool of affordable housing.

Click here to read the full article... 

I think the plan has merits and worth serious consideration by law makers and various regulatory bodies connected to the US housing industry. What do you think?  

The B.C. 2008 property assessment notices sent out to home owners last week showed an increase of 10% to 20%in property values as compared with 2007.

The following is an article by Martin van den Hemel - Richmond Review - January 02, 2008:

Assessed values red hot

Most Richmond residents will find that their homes jumped in value between 10 and 20 per cent in the last year when their latest property assessment notice arrives by mail this week.

Notices have been mailed out to the owners of 99,000 local properties by the B.C. Assessment Authority, and the numbers they contain will be used by various levels of government to determine taxes.

The value of Richmond real estate rose $6.2 billion between the 2007 and 2008 assessment rolls, and the bulk of that change is attributed to changing market values for homes. A small portion, about $1.1 billion, is the result of non-market changes, such as subdivisions, rezoning and new construction.

For those living in single family homes in two local neighbourhoods, increases of 23 per cent aren’t unusual.

A Hamilton house built in 1993 is worth 23 per cent more today than it was worth a year ago, up from $525,000 to $644,000.

A Blundell area house, built in 1959, also saw a 23-per-cent rise to $645,000.

A 1997-built house in the Broadmoor area of the city, near No. 3 and Williams, edged ever closer to the $1 million mark, after experiencing a nine per cent increase in value from $912,000 to $994,000.

Townhouses and apartments also saw sharp increases in value.

A strata-title three-bedroom townhouse in the Seafair area of the city, built in 1976, saw its value grow 15 per cent, to $347,000.

A three-bedroom townhouse in the Cambie/Bridgeport area, constructed in 2000, rose 11 per cent in value, to $436,000.

A two-bedroom low-rise apartment in the Lansdowne neighbourhood experienced a 16-per-cent increase in value, from $242,000 to $281,000.

South Fraser regional assessor Mark Katz said the value of commercial and industrial properties, development lands and multi-family zoned lands also showed significant increases in value.

In particular, owners of industrial land around the Olympic speed skating oval have hit the jackpot.

“Probably 150 industrial zoned properties, in that magnitude...right in the heart of that area where based on the sales we’ve seen, the values have skyrocketed,” Katz said, noting that some have seen 200- to 300-per-cent increases.

Homeowner who feel their assessment notice does not reflect market value as of July 1, 2007, have until the end of January to submit an appeal to the assessment authority’s review panel. The independent panel meets between Feb. 1 and March 15 to hear formal complaints.

Homeowners can for a temporary period search for the values of homes and sales by address at the authority’s website at www.bcassessment.ca.

Last January, the average assessment of a Richmond home rose between 10 and 20 per cent, while strata units rose in value between 9 and 20 per cent.

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If you are looking for a local Richmond Realtor buying or selling your home, call James Wong at 604-721-4817 for a discussion. 

Here are the December median sale prices as reported by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver:

The median price for detached houses for December was higher than in November, and the year-over-year price was about 10% higher than December 2006 price.

So far, Richmond’s housing activities on listings and sales ratio remain healthy. CMHC is projecting further price gain in the Greater Vancouver house prices for 2008.

The monthly total active listings, monthly units listed and sold for detached homes, townhomes and condos in Richmond, British Columbia are presented here.

The Greater Vancouver residential housing sales for 2007 is out. The full report is posted below: 

2007 residential housing sales rank second all-time

VANCOUVER, B.C. -- January 3, 2008 - Residential housing sales for 2007 are the second highest ever recorded by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV). The REBGV reports that residential attached, detached and apartment property sales totalled 38,050 between January 1 and December 31, 2007. This marks a 7.2 per cent increase from 2006 and a 6.1 per cent decrease from 2005, the record-setting year with 40,530 sales.

"The continued strength of the real estate market is a reflection of the economic vitality seen throughout the province. With overall wages on the rise and unemployment in decline, buyers and sellers are left with a healthy and strong climate in which to operate," says REBGV president Brian Naphtali.

Sales of apartment properties in 2007 increased 9.1 per cent to 16,456, compared with 15,088 sales in 2006, according to data from the Multiple Listings Service® (MLS®). Sales of attached units climbed 7.7 per cent to 6,799, compared with 6,310 sales in 2006. Detached property sales increased 4.9 per cent in 2007 to 14,795, compared with sales of 14,108 in 2006.

Overall, new listings for detached, attached and apartment properties increased 4 per cent in 2007 to 54,945 units, compared to the 52,818 listed in 2006.

The aggregate residential sales in December 2007 climbed to 1,897, a 12.5 per cent increase over the 1,686 December sales in 2006. These numbers are in contrast to each of the first five years of the decade where December sales exceeded 2,000.

Sales of apartment properties in December 2007 rose 21.6 per cent to 901, compared to 741 sales in December 2006. The benchmark price, as calculated by the MLSLink Housing Price Index®, of an apartment property increased 14.4 per cent from December 2006 to $377,579.

Attached property sales in December 2007 rose 1.6 per cent to 317, compared with 312 sales in December 2006. The benchmark price of an attached unit increased 11.4 per cent from December 2006 to $456,941

December's sales for detached properties increased 7.3 per cent to 679 in 2007, up from the 633 detached units sold in the same period of 2006. The December benchmark price for detached properties increased 13.5 per cent from December 2006 to $730,399.

Bright spots in Greater Vancouver in December 2007 compared to December 2006:

The Real Estate industry is a key economic driver in British Columbia. In 2006, dollar volume sales of homes in Greater Vancouver set a new record at more than $18.2 billion. Based on this figure, Greater Vancouver home sales in 2006 generated over $922 million in spin-offs. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver is an association representing more than 9,500 REALTORS® The Real Estate Board provides a variety of membership services, including the Multiple Listing Service®. For more information on real estate, statistics, and buying or selling a home, contact a local REALTOR® or visit www.realtylink.org.

^*In August 2004, the Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley boards upgraded our existing MLS systems to a common system called MLSLink. MLSLink® HPI is the latest version of the Board’s Housing Price Index (HPI) and is designed to accommodate the MLS upgrade and improve the legacy HPI product. For more information on real estate, statistics, and buying or selling a home, visit www.realtylink.org.

For more information please contact:

Eileen Day, Manager of Communications
Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver
Phone: (604) 730-3028 Fax: (604) 730-3102
E-mail: eday@rebgv.org