November 8 2017
Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate Update
November 8 2017. In today’s news: selling a factory, immigration statistics, condo flipping, low interest rates, high-tech cities, witch windows and I’m off to South East Asia.
$422K for former Kitchener factory
The former Electrohome plant at Duke and Shanley streets had been placed up for a $1.1-million tax sale. That amount was chosen because it was how much the city is owed in back taxes and interest. With no takers at that price, the city is looking at writing off the accumulated interest and lowering its minimum acceptable price to just the amount of the back taxes – approximately $422,000.
22% of Canadians are immigrants
This represents the highest share in 85 years.
Canada Revenue Agency probing pre-construction condo flipping
The agency says it is putting more focus on real estate deals in Toronto and Vancouver.
Interest rates will never reach 5%
Interest rates can only rise if inflation accelerates, but every force in the world is pushing in the other direction. We’re in an age of no inflation and it will completely change borrowing, lending and how the mortgage market works.
These are the 25 most high-tech cities in the world
The study chose 10 factors related to technological advancement — including the number of patents filed per capita, startups, tech venture capitalists, ranking in other innovation datasets, and level of smartphone use — weighted them, and ranked a list of 85 cities accordingly.
Selling in the winter
Although many people want to wait until the springtime to sell their home, there are advantages to selling in the winter. Or maybe you have an opportunity in another city or have family or other reasons to sell. Either way there are a few things you should know about selling in the winter.
Which is a witch window?
A witch window (also known as a Vermont window) is a window (usually a double-hung sash window) placed in the gable-end wall of a house and rotated approximately 45 degrees from the vertical, leaving it diagonal, with its long edge parallel to the roof slope. This technique allows a builder to fit a full-sized window into the long, narrow wall space between two adjacent roof lines. Witch windows are found almost exclusively in or near the U.S. state of Vermont.
Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate Update
Playing the numbers game
Real estate is cyclical. I read somewhere that 60% of real estate transactions happen before June 1. If you consider the level of activity in January and February that means that nearly 60% of real estate transactions happen in the three months —> March, April, and May. If 60% happens in three months, then 40% happens in nine months.
I’m over stating it.
But not by a lot.
I’ve been keeping track.
In the past, I’ve compared being a real estate agent to a lot of other occupations: fireman, farmer, forensic psychologist. But really it is unique and always changing.
Let’s make a long story short. One of the advantages of being a realtor is “down time”. I know a realtor that takes off to Florida for three months every winter. I know another with property in Alabama. Many realtors take off for a week or two in December or January to Cuba, Dominican, Costa Rica or Mexico. It is a perk of the job.
I’m heading off now to Taiwan and Indonesia now. I’ll be back with more real estate news in the new year.
