A neighbourhood for every budget

Yesterday, my wife Marg, and I went for a drive though some neighbourhoods in the west end for a change. Call it a hobby - we enjoy driving through different neighbourhoods as well as the open countryside.

Yesterday's destination was the Oakville area west of Ford Drive and south of Royal Windsor and the 403.
While browsing the TREB system for some noteworthy homes and areas, the following area caught my eye.
Why?

Because in that one area - denoted by the multiple push pins - there are 100 detached homes on the market, currently listed at $2 MILLION or higher!

I was pretty surprised to see that many homes in that price range on the market in one area.

That struck me as odd. But touring an area loaded with $2+ million dollar homes was still of interest so away we went. It was a perfect day for a drive - cloudy, with rain on and off, which made for light traffic.

When we got there, we drove up and down various streets, even parked and took a walk here and there on lake-front promenades to see the back sides of some of these gorgeous homes and their lake views.

Gorgeous homes. Gorgeous neighbourhoods.
So why do so many of them want out?
Well, only two reasons come to mind.
a) financial issues or
b) objection over the construction of the coming natural gas power plant which is slated to be built across from the Ford plant on Royal Windsor.

And from the large number of signs on resident lawns objecting to the gas power plant, I'm guessing that they're leaving because of the natural gas plant - although it's scheduled to be in operation less than 40% of the time because it's intended to provide additional power at times of peak demand only.

Just like the stock market, the best time to buy is when everyone else is selling.
And the best time to sell is when everyone else is buying.

So if you want to get a good deal on a house in the $2 million range, I'd be happy to show you any one of the 100+ homes for sale in that price range in eastern Oakville.

Apple "Mc-figures" it out!

This isn't real estate related, per se, but just an observation du jour.

I just read in the (online) "paper" about how some schools in the U.S. are giving iPads to students instead of text books. Talk about a "green" solution! No paper wasted printing all those text books that have a limited usefulness. No aching backs making kids carry all that extra weight around. And publishing costs should go down considerably. (wishful thinking?)

So you have to give Apple credit for figuring out what McDonald's has known for years. Create customers at the earliest age and you keep them for life.

You put that Apple brand in front of school kids and they're going to come to rely on that brand.  It becomes embedded in their minds from seeing it day after day in their text reader.
For what else? iPods, iPhones, laptops.......ebooks, downloading music, movies........

Just brilliant!

Buyers deserve the demographics

I scratch my head these days when I hear stories of buyers purchasing a home and then being surprised at either the income level or the demographics; that it's "not what we were looking for".

How can that be?

As a Realtor working in the GTA and province of Ontario, we have access to some pretty informative and detailed information just like that. And since it's available to all Ontario Realtors, I can only surmise that this issue/question arises is because other Realtors either don't know about these tools or can't be bothered to use them.

Neither one is an acceptable excuse in my opinion.
As a professional, it's up to you to learn and understand all of the tools that are available to you in your business, whatever business that may be. How else can you call yourself a "professional"?

And if you can't be bothered to use these additional tools to understand things like the demographics of the area in which you're selling a house, then you're not servicing your clients to the best of your abilities and also leaving yourself open to a lawsuit.

When you buy a house from me, you're going to learn at least the following information about your area, as compared to the the larger postal area as compared to the city overall:

• average income
• proportions of white vs. grey. vs. blue collar workers
• education breakdown
• top ethnicities
• top religions
• top langauges
• proportions of renters vs. owners

If you were buying an home and this information were readily available, wouldn't you want to be able to review it prior to making a purchase decision of this magnitude?

When choosing a Realtor to help you, dig a little deeper to find one that's willing to really roll up their sleeves to help you make a solid decision.

Q1 2010 was a record-breaker!

So the numbers are in and they indicate that for the Toronto Real Estate Board, Q1 2010 was a record breaker for total sales. March sales hit 10,430 transactions to push the Q1 total to 22,418 sales.  The average price of a home in the GTA in March was $434,696 but the increase is expected to slow over the remainder of the year as more listings come into the market, giving buyers more choices.

The sales were broken down across these major housing types

Detached homes: 47.6%
Condo apartments: 23.1%
Semi-detached: 11.9%
Condo townhouses: 8.0%
with the remaining 9.4% of sales accounting for sales of  Links, Row-Houses, Detached Condos and Co-op apartments

The highest sale price for a detached home in March goes to 45 Bayview Ridge, which sold for $12,825,000 (6+1 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, 235x666ft lot with annual taxes of $76,045)
And the bargoon of March for a detached home goes to a home in Gamebridge, ON (near Beaverton) which sold for $45,000 (1 bedroom, 1 bath house on a 66x144ft lot with annual taxes of $1,400)

And 10,428 other sales in between!