April 18 2018
Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate News
April 18 2018 In this week’s Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate News: first quarter home prices up, living small, DIY moving, Kitchener Tesla, tech corridor, real estate photo, GTA investors…
Transportation
This week in the news, there’s a story about our much delayed LRT being delayed again. There is a story about high speed rail to Pearson. There is a story about Uber and automated cars. There’s a story about bike lanes. There were also recent stories about Go Train service, changes to GRT routes, Iron Horse Trail upgrades and a handy dandy guide to upcoming roadwork!
On this real estate news blog, I talk a lot about transportation. Transportation and housing go together, hand in glove. The three most important things about good real estate are:
- School and neighbourhood
- Transit and transportation
- Shopping and amenities
What’s interesting is that when the internet was in its infancy, the touted wisdom of the day was that when people could work from anywhere, we would all be moving out of the cities and into the country. That didn’t happen.
1st quarter prices up over 15% in Waterloo Region
According to a recent Royal LePage House Price Survey, the aggregate price of a home in the Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge region saw a significant increase in the first quarter of 2018, rising 15.4 per cent year-over-year to $474,437.
A housing crunch is dashing dreams in Kitchener-Waterloo
Single detached homes are rising out of reach for many first-time buyers. The average price of a detached home in Kitchener-Waterloo has climbed from about $380,000 in 2014 to $580,000 last month.
Negative cash flow for many GTA condo investors
Almost everyday I get a phone call, email or chat message from a GTA area investor looking to invest in our local market. Cash flow is always top of mind. As a long time local real estate investor I have to say the golden age is over. Most of the investors that I’ve worked with this year have moved further west to London —> London seems to be hot for low priced investment properties with the potential for positive cash flow. This article says that nearly half of Toronto condo investors have negative cash flow. That does not seem like very good business.
The guy who lives in Toronto’s smallest condo apartment gives some excellent advice
The other day I was on the chat widget with a guy interested in buying into Kitchener’s latest development – DTK. During our discussion, I used City Centre Condo as an established condo in regards to where the prices and rental rates of DTK may end up when finished. One thing I noticed is that condo apartments are getting smaller and smaller. If you are living in a space not much bigger than two parking spots, compromises must be made.
Should you hire a moving company or do it yourself?
Moving from one the home of another is a major undertaking, with the main task being the real moving of possessions. Moving companies offer a variety of services, but plenty of people do it themselves. Which alternative is best depends on time, money and a host of other things.
Tesla eyeing Kitchener for dealership
The high-end electric vehicle manufacturer is planning to open a store on Victoria Street North in Kitchener where Saab of KW currently stands.
The Toronto Waterloo Region Corridor is among the top 20 technology clusters in the world
It links the country’s biggest, most diverse city with one of Canada’s leading centres for innovation, says The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2018. The corridor benefits from the leading research at its 16 universities and colleges.
8 stats that show how the Canadian housing market started to get back on its feet in March
Although KW real estate was one of the exceptions, the rest of Canada looks poised to rebound
Cambodia’s floating village
Let’s take a trip to the traditional “floating village” of Kompong Phluk on the Tonlé Sap Lake in Cambodia.
Good photography is the second most important thing about home selling
- Q: Quick question. What is the most important thing for selling a house?
- A: The price.
- Q: What is the second most important thing?
- A: The photos.
Recently I was on the telephone with a client looking at listings together, deciding which ones we should put on our showing list and which ones we shouldn’t. Naturally we ended up first describing what we saw in the pictures.
Of course, sometimes the pictures are too good. Yesterday I was out with some clients and they were very disappointed with the house. “It looks so much better in the photos”, they said. It’s all part of the buyer-seller dance.
Universally true
There are some things that are almost universally true in regard to photos.
- You get what you pay for. Good photographers are worthy of their fees.
- No photos = you probably don’t want to see this home
- Bad photos = bad Realtor (Sorry. We are going to have to do better.) Gone are the days when Realtors can borrow the office point and shoot or use their cell phone for photos.
- Your first showing happens online. Bad photos or no photos are the easiest way to get your listing eliminated.
