24 – The Marshall Report – Episode 24

Today is Thursday June 23rd and this is the 24th episode of the Marshall Report. Welcome to the podcast.


In this week’s episode:

1. A not so crazy start to summer

2. Skipping the home inspection

3. A grocery store for downtown Kitchener

4. Toronto buyers

5. Social media

6. Flash drive

7. New home construction

8. Checking in

9. Working consistently

 

Let’s get on with the show.

 

Not so crazy start to summer

I’ve said every week for the past 15 or 16 weeks that things have been kind of crazy lately. But now I think the storm has passed. I think the real estate market is heading into the summer slow down. It never stops, there are always new listing and new sales, but there is a big bell curve that is the spring market and I feel that we are sliding down the back side of it.

As Canadians, we owe it to ourselves to really try to enjoy the summertime. That is exactly what I intend to do.

 

Question of the week

Should I skip the home inspection to get the house I really want? I wrote about that here.

 

Grocery store for downtown Kitchener

Downtown Kitchener’s East Ward neighbourhood, not to mention the downtown condos, City Centre, One Victoria and the others have lead to a population boom in Kitchener’s downtown core. For the past few years, one of the main complaints of new residents there has been the lack of groceries. There are some depending on where you live and work. New City SuperMarket – an asian food store, the Central Fresh Mart in the North Ward, the grocery shopping at the Frederick Street mall and of course the Kitchener Farmer’s market. So there are some, but these for different reasons aren’t perfect.

The big news for downtown Kitchener is that it is finally getting a grocery store. It will be located at 8 Queen Street North.

 

Toronto buyers

There has been some talk in Kitchener Waterloo real estate about Toronto buyers changing things up here in KW. I wrote about that here.

 

Social Media

I’ve pretty much given up on social media.

I never did really understand twitter. I never liked where the links took me and I found the conversations too short to have meaning.

I abandoned my pintrest.

I never joined snapchat.

I liked Linked In, but then decided that it was just facebook for adults, a kind of boring business-like facebook.

I’m on Line, a messaging site that my family posts pictures and updates on. I don’t actually post anything. I just follow what the others are doing.

I don’t feel out of touch or disconnected.

I started to really dislike my facebook feed. I still visit it once in a while, but sometimes it makes me angry and most of it is totally trivial.

I’m starting to sound like a grouchy old man. I know. Soon I will be out of touch.

 

Flash drives

Ok so here is a captured thought. How many flash drives do you have? When was the last time you used one?

If you are like me, you have half a dozen in your desk drawer and you haven’t used one in years. We have the cloud now, right?

But why do we still have them? Maybe because they are small and don’t take up much room. Maybe because they have data on them and we don’t want to loose that. Maybe we will need one someday soon for something and it is good to have one handy.

We rationalize.

Earlier this year I threw away two boxes of books. I felt bad about that, throwing away books. But I know that I hadn’t read any of them in ten years and wouldn’t be reading any of them again for another ten years. Good bye books.

I should really get rid of all of my music CDs next. I have on demand music. Why mess with CDs?

And then there are flash drives. Maybe I’ll keep one, just in case.

 

Ontario leads with new home construction

Here is some real estate related news. Canadian new home construction is booming. According to Stats Canada,

“In Ontario, investment in new residential construction increased 32.7% year over year to $1.7 billion in April, largely the result of higher investment in single-family homes. All dwelling types recorded higher construction spending, except semi-detached buildings, which posted a 14th consecutive monthly year-over-year decline.”

Investment in condo construction in Vancouver is up nearly 49% in a year, while in Toronto it’s up by 28%.

And this from the Huffington Post, “Investment in detached house construction is up more than 17.% in Vancouver and 37.% in Toronto. Those percentages are even bigger than the roughly 30% house price growth seen in Vancouver, and the 15% house price growth seen in Toronto over the past year.”

 

Checking in

I was just thinking. We always remember the beginning and the end, but we rarely remember the middle. I’m talking about grocery shopping, or flying to St Johns, or even shopping for a home.

The beginning is anticipation and maybe apprehension.

The end is satisfaction and maybe exhaustion.

But what happens in the middle takes the most time and much of it is forgotten. Much of it is forgotten because it is not memorable. It is part of the process, wheels inside wheels. But it is important.

This week’s call to action is to check in. Where are you now?

It is not the destination, but the journey that matters.

 

Parting thought

Working hard at something is less important than working consistently on something.

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