November 29 2017
Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate News
November 29 2017: In today’s news: Holiday plans changed by erupting volcano, Canada’s 3rd hottest real estate market, removing your popcorn ceiling, the predicted impact of new mortgage rules, new Digital Kitchener Innovation Lab, Canada’s most dangerous cities ranked, Canada’s coldest markets, and corned beef on rye
Keith vs the Volcano
Mount Agung on Indonesia’s Bali island erupted on Monday, the day we were scheduled to fly in. They closed the airport, stranding vacationers trying to flee. The regular mayhem ensued.
We had changed our plans ten days earlier when the rumbling volcano had been at level 3 (orange alert), arriving in Kaohsiung from Hong Kong last night – we are going to chill out (if you can say that in 26 degree heat at 8am) in southern Taiwan for a couple of weeks.
It is like going back in time, a time with swarms of motor scooters, night market food stalls, sitting on low stools on humid and smoky sidewalks, a parallel universe, so far off the beaten track that it is pure and non-conformed to most other places.
Everyone is travelling now. Travelling is just another hobby, like stamp collecting, playing golf or perhaps being a foodie – it is wonderful (but tedious to the uninvolved, so enough about that.)
Third hottest market in Canada —> KW!
According to this website, Kitchener Waterloo has the third hottest market in Canada following Niagara Region and Greater Toronto. Fourth hottest is Hamilton-Burlington followed by Thunder Bay.
How to remove that popcorn ceiling
Popcorn ceilings have fallen out of favour. Removing them is a messy job but it is not rocket science. If you want to take that on, read this first.
New mortgage rules in 2018
New mortgage rules coming into effect in January will disqualify about 10% of prospective homebuyers from buying the home they want. In expensive markets like Vancouver and Toronto, the new rules will disqualify 1 in 8.
Q&A with Digital Kitchener Lab Director Karl Allen-Muncey
The City of Kitchener unveiled its Digital Kitchener Innovation Lab space Tuesday at Communitech. Lab Director Karl Allen-Muncey does a Q&A.
KW #122 on Canada’s most dangerous places
Although our incidences seem to be rising, we are still below the national average for severity of the crimes.
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Canada’s coldest real estate markets
Since we are at it, here are the five coldest real estate markets in Canada. Here we have cities, regions and an entire province!
Corned beef on Rye, with a pickle
The world has gotten a lot smaller. Regional food has become more varied – last night at the night market, there were food stalls selling everything from chocolate brownies with walnuts to fried squid balls, to steamed dumplings, Japanese noodles, meat on a stick (with green onions), bubble tea, oyster omelettes, steak with Shanghai noodles …but sadly no shawarma. I think the shawarma, like popcorn ceilings has fallen out of favour – at least in Southeast Asia.
The great thing about traveling is that it breaks you out of your regular routines. You become very aware of your regular habits and you realize that people around the world live very different lives than we do in Canada, than we do from each other in Canada too.
I work from home. I usually skip breakfast and have a late morning lunch. That lunch, more often than not is a sandwich — tuna, cold cuts, or leftovers between two slices of toasted bread.
I haven’t had a sandwich for three weeks. I don’t miss them. I hadn’t even thought about them until just now. And that’s the point. We fall into these habits and routines because they are easy and convenient, but there is a whole world out there…
