Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate News
November 14, 2018
Wednesday November 14, 2018: In this week’s Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate News: top 5, transit stalls, square footage, google, household items lifespans, Apple, Amazon, China and hibernation
Top Blog Posts of 2018
Every year at about this time I look back at my most popular blog posts of the year. Knocking out the listings and the predictions, here are my top five blog posts of 2018:
- Which is the best Kitchener-Waterloo neighbourhood for you?
- Why should you use a Realtor when buying new construction.
- What are some things to consider when buying a condo?
- 22 things real estate agents wish you knew about buying a house.
- What are the big mistakes home buyers make?
Transit going nowhere
1. The launch of the LRT was delayed until the spring of next year. One of the reasons given is that the cars aren’t all ready yet. But why not just start with the ones we have? It is frustrating to see the testing cars going by (stopping traffic) empty all the time.
2. The proposed transit hub at King and Victoria Streets in Kitchener has hit a roadblock after the region and the proposed developer had a falling out. Geez Louise!
An interesting but useless metric
A recent study found that (freehold) townhouses and semidetached homes are best value in Waterloo Region when pricing by square foot. Anyone working in real estate in the region already knows this, but it is nice that someone took the time to crunch the numbers. (It is a useless metric because no one will ever buy a home based on square footage.)
Going to Google
Last week I wrote about a recent experience and what I learned through a little bit of sleuthing. Here’s why should home buyers and sellers google each other.
How long will my new deck last?
I bumbled across this article The Lifespan of 20 Essential Household Items and learned a few things about decks, garage doors, faucets and countertops…
Amazon and Apple
1. Amazon chose their second headquarters to be in two cities, neither is Toronto and area. This article tells us why that is a good thing.
2. Let’s call it the other Big Apple. Apple now owns 7,376 acres of land, tripling its size in a few short years.
Canadian housing market to moderate in 2019 and 2020
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation released its 2018 Housing Market Outlook, and it looks like moderation is the name of the game for the next two years. Moderation is no fun.
A fifth of China’s homes are empty. That’s 50 Million apartments!
I was in China a few years ago on a high speed train between Shanghai and Beijing. We sped past whole towns of empty apartment towers and wide empty roadways. China does everything big but this I thought was ridiculous. This story looks at the impact of property speculation.
Hibernation
As the real estate market winds down into the winter slumber, every year I take a break from publishing this real estate news blog. Being a realtor is like being a farmer or a fireman — when you’re busy, you’re busy. When you’re not, you’re not. I suppose I will keep it up for a couple more weeks but once December hits all bets are off. They say that money never sleeps but real estate does and I’ve got two winter project pending.
- A road trip to Louisiana
- A basement renovation.
See you next week (probably)
