Robert in the Trenches June 2010

April showers bring May flowers, May flowers bring June buyers that scour. You're going to get a lot of mixed market news this month talking stats and trends. The reality is each month I comb over dozens of pages of "true" stats, the stats the papers never publish. Would you buy a paper with the headline "June Home Listing to Sales Ratio 44%!" never, but let's predict the papers today! Likely headlines will read, June Real Estate Inventory Tops 14,136! or how about Home Sales Plummet 37% from 2009. Sadly these stats are true. The balancing act is to know that all these stats since 2005 have come and gone and come and gone. So what's the true feeling on the street?

Since April of this year we have noticed a gradual decline in buyer activity, likely attributable to adjustments in mortgage rates, and the fact many buyers felt they hit the bottom in December and January and some of our run up were buyers pent up and waiting to get into the market. Now that the spring frenzy has passed, buyers are taking their time shopping, questioning values and simply put, enjoying being real estate buyers again. From me to you, and what I teach our team... buy the best area you can afford, buy the areas that show the most consistent appreciation in values and buy where you see LRT, transit, new shopping. Between you and me, my picks are Oliver, Strathcona/Garneau and Central LRT locations for condos. For single family consider, Ozerna, Bonnie Doon, Uplands of MacTaggart (Developer Plug... don't blame me) and of course Parkview and Rutherford. All areas show consistent growth, the newer areas safer to place cash, the older areas safer to reno and flip.

Beyond selling the volume of homes we do and working with so many buyers. I spent June setting up our Toronto office for our investment team and the pre-release for our two newest condo projects. Chinook Condominiums at the University of Alberta and Trademark Luxury Condominiums smack in the heart of Oliver. Both project launches are coming this month with units from the $170's, pre-release email blasts can be expected within the next two weeks, get pumped, get excited and prepare to get in line... or just tell the sales teams Robert sent you!