Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate News
Wednesday April 1, 2020
Wednesday April 1, 2020: In this week’s Kitchener-Waterloo Real Estate News, Covid-19, Coronavirus, March April break, home values, advertising, showings, clauses, condo rules and regs, mortgage rates, keeping clean and disinfected, post-pandemic cities, heat map…
1
Real Estate taking a break
As predicted, after a flood of listings in March and after most buyers wisely decided to stay home, our local real estate market has now gone into suspended animation. We are freeze-dried, stuck-in-time, waiting on hold, paused, interrupted, isolating in place, as we so should be. Real estate will wait for us. Most of us would rather be alive than buying or selling homes. I know I would.
2
Not a drop but a flatline
The growth in home values may slow or even plateau, but they’re unlikely to drop — especially since the inventory will remain low as those contemplating selling may choose to wait until the coronavirus uncertainty lifts, according to real estate lawyer Don Travers of Paquette Travers.
3
Real estate publisher lets 70 go, blames Coronavirus impact
Advertising recession ‘highly probable’ as coronavirus hits key media owners.
4
Coronavirus & Real Estate: FAQ
I have three sections for you today:
- Showings
- Clauses
- Condo Rules & Regs
5
Mortgage rates to go upward until the market reaches a ‘new normal’
In the past few days, the lowest rates for a five-year fixed-rate home loan have crawled up from the 2%-2.5% range to roughly 2.5%-3%. The increases came shortly after the major banks’ decisions to cut their prime lending rates.
6
Keep coronavirus out of your home with these 9 top tips to clean and disinfect your home
7
The Post-pandemic City
UBC expert on how the Coronavirus will impact future cities
8
What Canadians can expect if they bought a house before Coronavirus
Thousands of people bought a home just before the coronavirus crisis set in. 130,000 families are now waiting to see whether their deals will close in the upcoming months.
9
How bad is Covid-19 in your area?
Here’s a heat map.
10
Eight weeks to six months
It is all relative, especially compared to our neighbour to the south, but I am optimistic that we will be coming out of our deep real estate slumber as early as June 1st. Once we get the number of new cases decreasing daily, we should be able to come out of hiding and cautiously restart our real estate activities. That’s my best case scenario. Worst case September 1st.
Further reading:
Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate News: COVID-19, Coronavirus, recession and real estate
PSA Safe Grocery Shopping in COVID-19 Pandemic
Real estate videos
