November 13 2017
Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate News
Today is Monday November 13. In today’s news: living in a parallel world, a Homer Watson Odyssey, the Duke of Food, 5 local fast growing tech companies, how the stress test is good for local real estate, 3 possible outcomes of a vacancy tax, education as an economic input, selling your mom’s house, and winning by not losing.
Five days in
I sat next to a digital nomad on the plane, a Seattle-based, Taipei-living cartoon maker. Frequent flyer, like myself, we paid a little extra to have extra leg room. Sleep, a movie, a little bit of work, a couple of podcasts and a little more sleep.
Half-way around the world and a world away. I wander the the streets of Taipei. A cablecar ride and a hike down a mountain, working out the kinks, the jet lag.
Waking up at 4am and falling asleep just after eight, watching a movie on Netflix.
Not a good one, clearly.
The days stretch ahead, like a springtime prairie highway, like being above clouds over mountains. And time stretches, like a old dog, like a young yoga instructor. I lounge over coffee. I work down my to do list. I think about lunch. I change the sim card in my phone and download my text messages. I ease into travel knowing as I always do that it is not travel as much as being somewhere else. 20 degrees and rain as I read about a record cold snap we missed on the day we left.
I’m still me, just a different me, living in a parallel life.
Homer Watson Odyssey
This has always been a bad stretch and now that it has a new roundabout (or two) it is accident prone. Truth is, there were always a lot of accidents along this stretch of Ottawa Street and some bad ones at this particular intersection. We have made the problem better. That is all.
Where should we eat?
The Duke of Food, Andrew Coppolino writes about our newest eateries and drinkeries in Waterloo Region. Oh yeah, eating in Waterloo Region sure has changed and is changing.
Canada’s fastest growing tech companies
Five of them are in Kitchener-Waterloo.
Stress tests. What are they good for?
According to this article, real estate in cities outside of the GTA like Kitchener-Waterloo, Niagara Region, and London will experience higher growth since our prices are still within the so-called affordable price range.
An empty tax?
The three possible outcomes of a municipal vacancy tax are
1) no change in number of empty homes (because there aren’t any)
2) no change in behaviour, city gets tax revenue
3) change in behaviour, owner rents out or sells off empty homes
This Vancouver realtor thinks the tax is nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
Though these issues are still worth considering as other cities think about imposing their own empty home tax. My opinion? I think the tax satisfies two criteria for municipal governments
1) it shows that they are doing something
2) is adds some revenue generated through taxes and fines.
Making money off the student body
They are not just hitting the books. Students are spending on all of their life needs and providing employment, and helping us become a tech centre. I got an email that asked me to share this article. I did because I agreed with the economics (but not the opinions).
How to get your mother’s house ready to sell
One of the challenges of selling a home that is or was owned and lived in by an elderly person is making it look as appealing as possible to younger home buyers. Sometimes the homes look as if time stood still, like a little time capsule, a blast from the past.
Not losing is better than winning
There is a certain counter-intuitiveness of real estate. The best deals are the ones where both sides feel that they could’ve done better. I’m not sure why this is. It may be because the journey, not just the destination is important. What I mean is that if it is too easy, you don’t appreciate it. We need the struggle and the romance, the game, not just the outcome to know that we did ok.
