B.C. Real Estate News

Vancouver, BC – February 15, 2012. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that the dollar volume of homes sold through Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in BC dipped 7.6 per cent to $2.1 billion in January compared to the same month last year. A total of 3,976 homes traded hands on the MLS® over the same period, down 3.9 per cent. The average MLS® residential price was 3.8 per cent lower at $527,219 compared to January 2011.

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“Increased market activity outside the Lower Mainland in January was offset by fewer sales in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley,” said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. MLS® Residential sales rose 7 per cent to 1,620 units outside the Lower Mainland, while declining 10 per cent to 2,356 units in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.

“While provincial sales activity was down in January from year ago levels, consumer demand has posted modest improvement since last fall, driven by low mortgage interest rates and gradually improving economic conditions,” added Muir.

Full article click here.

This article appeared on the CBC news website on February 15th, 2012. I found this article interesting only because I have noticed an increase in the number of court ordered sales in Kamloops over the past year or so. Kelowna is a close neighbour and some of the economic factors that affect them also are present here in Kamloops.  There is a video on the CBC news website with this story. Click here to see the video.

Home foreclosures are on the rise in B.C.’s Central Okanagan in recent months, but local real estate agents disagree about who might be losing their homes.

There are more than 170 court-ordered sale properties on the market in the Central Okanagan, more than 10 times more than three years ago.

Real estate agent Jason Neumann says according to his estimates, in the last 30 days alone 60 new foreclosures were put on the market, and he calls it a disturbing trend.

Foreclosure are up in the Central Okanagan according to local real estate agents. Foreclosure are up in the Central Okanagan according to local real estate agents. (Reed Saxon/AP Photo)

Neumann is worried the number of foreclosures will bring the overall market down, hurting anyone who wants to sell their home.

“What do you tell your sellers that are not in foreclosure that are now up against something they didn’t see coming? It’s one of those things where the bank is going to have to do what it’s got to do to get it sold.”

Neumann thinks many working class families are losing their homes, but not all real estate agents agree.

Elton Ash, the vice-president of Remax Realty in Western Canada, says most of the foreclosed properties are from people who were trying to flip homes during the hot market a few years back.

“People weren’t able to achieve their goals in doing this and so they quit making payments,” he said.

“The market in the Okanagan has really come to a standstill on that speculative investment front, and that is really what has been a major portion of the court-ordered sale thing that has increased so dramatically.”

Ash says many Canadians are now buying vacation homes in the U.S., where prices are currently low, but he predicts prices will eventually rise in the U.S., and investment home buyers will again look to Kelowna.

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Vancouver, BC – January 27, 2012. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) released its 2012 First Quarter Housing Forecast Update today.

BC Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) residential sales are forecast to increase 2.1 per cent from 76,817 units in 2011 to 78,400 units this year, increasing a further 2.7 per cent to 80,500 units in 2013. The 15-year average is 79,000 unit sales. A record 106,310 MLS® residential sales were recorded in 2005.

“While European sovereign debt concerns and a sluggish US economy will continue to impact consumer confidence, strong demand in the bond market is expected to keep mortgage interest rates at or near record lows for most of 2012,” added Muir.

Home prices in most BC markets are forecast to experience little change over the next 24 months as the supply of homes for sale more closely matches consumer demand. The average MLS® residential price in the province is forecast to edge down 2.2 per cent to $548,500 this year and remain relatively unchanged in 2013, albeit increasing 0.8 per cent to $553,000.

Link

This article appeared in the Vancouver Courier and was written by Royal Lepage City Centre Realtor Deb Abbey. The strata rules will also be applicable for Kamloops condos, townhouses and stratified properties. The changes are welcomed as it is always important that both the sellers and buyers are thoroughly informed. Article below:

2012 brings long awaited reform to the Strata Property Act that will provide greater security for more than one million strata property owners in the province.

But the biggest beneficiaries of the new regulations will be prospective buyers. Buying a condominium is a complex process in B.C. with buyers and their real estate agents playing the role of real estate detectives trying to suss out information about the state of the building envelope or running down maintenance and engineering reports trying to assess the true value of the property given any potential liabilities.

Until now, there haven’t been many, if any, safeguards for purchasers of condos that have been badly built or managed by their owners. Poor maintenance, inadequate or no budgeting for future repairs and replacements, and little or no transparency in terms of liabilities are issues with many strata corporations in Vancouver. That is about to change.

Among the changes, strata corporations will be required to prepare a depreciation report. The report will include a physical inventory of the strata’s common property including building systems such as the building envelope, roof, pipes and boilers. The report will also include an estimate of the cost of anticipated maintenance, repair and replacement of those common property items projected over 30 years.

And most important to prospective buyers, the strata corporations will be required to prepare financial forecasts of how the strata will fund those expenses from the contingency reserve fund or special levies. The report will have to be updated every three years and include an onsite inspection. The new regulations will be effective immediately but stratas will have two years to comply.

As a potential buyer, you’ll be provided with a copy of the most recent version of this report along with the Form B. Unfortunately, there’s a catch. Short-sighted stratas will be able to exempt themselves from this requirement with an annual 3/4 vote.

As a real estate agent, I hope that our industry widely adopts this report as a tool to assess risk and attribute value to the quality of management in strata corporations. Given the opportunity to buy or own a property that has future risk quantified and accounted for in this way, I know that I’d recommend those properties that have depreciation reports to my clients. The old adage “if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it” has never been more appropriate.

Contingency reserve funds [CRF] have also gotten a boost from the new regulations. In the past, a 3/4 vote was required to make contributions to the CRF if it already exceeded 100 per cent of the annual operating expenses. The new regulations will allow strata corporations to make additional contributions to the CRF, once it reaches 25 per cent of the annual operating expenses, with a simple majority vote as part of the budget at the AGM.

This may sound like an insignificant bit of regulation but many stratas with looming expenses such as new roofs, windows or re-piping do not contribute enough to their CRFs to cover those costs and then have to levy significant special assessments that have condo owners rushing out to secure second mortgages.

And finally, there will be regulations requiring Form B to provide better disclosure to new strata owners. As of March 1, the rules and current budget of the strata corporation, Form J [the Rental Disclosure Statement] and the most recent Depreciation Report, will have to be attached to the Form B. The amendments will also require disclosure of how parking stalls and storage lockers are allocated to strata lots.

The changes fall short of the recommendations put forward by the British Columbia Real Estate Association and others. They don’t go nearly far enough in insulating prospective buyers from badly built or managed condos, but they will increase accountability and transparency for owners and potential buyers.

There’s bound to be some fallout from these regulations. The requirement to provide the depreciation report will be financially onerous for some strata corporations. Especially those with owners who qualified for mortgages with a minimum down payment and are just barely able to pay their strata fees as it is. I hope that the government recognizes that this will be a hardship and arranges some kind of low-interest financing tool so that as many stratas as possible can comply with the new regulations.

In terms of the market, I expect mortgage insurers and lenders will quickly adopt guidelines that give preference to strata corporations that are measuring and managing their risk. Over time, this will mean strata buildings that provide more disclosure will sell at a premium to those that don’t. And they’ll be worth it.