The Ups and Downs of the Victoria and Comox Real Estate Market.
As we have mentioned many times over, Victoria Real Estate and Real Estate in General is a long term investment and I’m sure if you have most of your money in real estate today you are very glad that you did not invested in the stock market. A recent article by Marcel Tetrault in the Comox Valley Echo talks about the real estate market in the Comox Valley. It reads:
Valley real estate: ‘We’ve been here before’ and market will rise again
There are 30 per cent more homes on the market than a year ago and prices are beginning to drop, but we’ve been here before and the market will pick up again, according to local realtor Marty Douglas.
Douglas, speaking to a full house at the 1stView economic forecasting event at the Westerly on Thursday, noted that sales fell 37 per cent last year while the price of a home continued to climb by eight per cent.
But he harkened back to the 1980s, when prices fell by about eight per cent over the first six years of the decade but, in 1986-87, began a turnaround that saw them rise by 180 per cent over the next seven or eight years.
“That’s the pattern of the Comox Valley housing market,” said Douglas, managing broker at Coast Realty Group.
“Looking ahead as to where prices may go over the next four or five years, there may be some dramatic ups and downs, but if there is an overall price decline it is most likely to be between five and 10 per cent.”
He noted that the airport remains busy, the Olympics are coming and there are a lot of good investment opportunities out there.
“I would encourage you to ignore the headlines if you can,” said Douglas. “When faced with negativity, we need to be pointing out — ya, but.”
There is daily negativity and doom in the media, he said, but then highlighted the silver lining in the economic cloud through the use of positive economic news printed in a national newspaper.
Low interest rates, cheaper big ticket items, more affordable housing, a drop in costs for building projects, lower fuel costs and likely infrastructure investments by government all point to a better economic future, he said.
“But the best news of all, and I really like this, is people in the 18 to 28 age group won’t have five or six job offers on graduation,” he said. “They’ll have to do some grunt work before they get the new BMW (and) the swank condo.”
Dan Wilson, president of the B.C. Association Appraisal Institute of Canada, said the best opportunities in the local market for 2009 include condominium resales and new home construction, while Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation senior market analyst Travis Archibald said the outlook for 2009 was “somewhat grim.”
“With the economic uncertainty still floating around here, we’re not sure what will happen in 2009,” he said. “We do expect resale activity to continue to moderate. It will probably pick up slightly in 2010.
“Until we see resale activity increase again, we won’t see new construction increase. We’re expecting new construction starts to decrease considerably in 2009, and likely to level off or decrease slightly in 2010.
“In terms of prices … we expect the moderation to continue into 2009.” End of Article.
More information can be found at www.1stview.ca. Marcel Tetrault can be reached at mtetrault@comoxvalleyecho.com
If you are planning to purchase real estate in the future, just let us know. Our team of professionals has the knowledge and know how. Contact Bill or David at Properties In Victoria Professional™ team. You can consult their Victoria Real Estate website www.PropertiesInVictoria.com or just email Bill and Dave
Cheers, Bill
Properties in Victoria Professionalsâ„¢- Royal LePage Coast Capital Realty
Bill has been a REALTOR® in Victoria since 2006. Originally from the Vancouver area, Bill moved to Victoria to attend the University of Victoria where he received his Bachelor of Science. Not only does Bill have a wealth of real estate knowledge he is also an active member of the community. He is a member of Triple Shot Cycling Club, Island Road Racers and is the Race Director for the Sooke River 10K.
