Basic HTML Version
116
Escarpment Magaz ine Winter
2012
THERE WAS NO SHORTAGE OF HEAD-
LINE NEWS
in October about global financial
market volatility and economic uncertainty, but it
doesn’t appear to have dampened homebuyers’
spirits,” said Gary Morse, Canadian Real Estate As-
sociation [CREA] President in November.
“Interest rates are at low levels and are likely to stay
that way for some time to come.”
The economic outlook is one of slower but positive
growth but with heightened caution about investment
and hiring decisions. However, the continuing
strength of the housing market speaks volumes for the
confidence of Canadians. Bank of Canada gover-
nor Mark Carney’s appointment to head the Finan-
cial Stability Board is a reflection on Canada’s
superior performance in monetary, fiscal and finan-
cial-sector policy areas writes Maclean’s under the
heading “The Canadian Hired to Save the World.”
“A number of factors will keep Canada’s housing
market in check as interest rates remain low,” said
Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist. “These in-
clude tightened mortgage regulations, high house-
hold debt levels together with slower economic and
job growth.” One key component is how consumer
confidence plays out given the global turmoil. Re-
cently, significant coverage has been given in the
media to the rising cost of housing and impending af-
fordability pressures on the consumer particularly in
major urban markets, most notably Vancouver and
to a somewhat lesser extent Toronto. The Georgian
Triangle area has not experienced the same inven-
tory shortages and frenetic sales spikes which have
been the source of market analysts’ concerns. In con-
trast, our real estate market has proven to be less
volatile with average price performance falling in line
with a strong but stable market.
One optimistic sign of long-term housing demand is
a Harris Interactive study that identified that 80% of
current homeowners plan to buy another home in the
future and 57% say owning a home is one of the best
long-term investments they can make, versus 29%
opting for purchasing mutual funds, 26% for buying
gold.
Year to date, there have been 1756 unit sales ver-
sus 1818 last year and almost all the municipality
sales were on a par with last year, signifying a stable
market. Condominiums accounted for 336 of the
2011 sales versus 319 in 2010. The strongest sta-
tistics are in Collingwood [up 5.2%], TBM [up 1.4%]
and Wasaga Beach [up 6.3%]. Sales in Meaford,
Grey Highlands andMulmur all declined in the 20%
range. Sales in the $350,000-$500,000 range
were up 11.6% and sales over $1 million up 16%.
YTD, we have sold 45 properties over $800,000
compared to 42 in 2010, 117 properties between
$500,000 and $800,000 [127 in 2010] and 16
properties were sold in the $800,000 to $1 million
range versus 17 last year. Twenty nine properties
were sold over $1 million. This compares to 25 over
$1 million in 2010. The dollar volume is on pace
with 2010 ($514,736,001 in 2011 versus
$513,310,752 in 2010]. There was a 2% increase
in listings. Expired listings are down 2% compared to
2010. One significant factor is the variation in av-
erage sale prices. TBM is a hefty $555,640 com-
pared to $289,846 in Collingwood, $275,714 in
Wasaga Beach, $294,703 in Clearview and
$286,923 in Meaford. There are currently 107
properties priced over $1 million on the market in this
area, 94 residential and 13 commercial with 28 of
these properties over $2 million. These sales figures
do not reflect developers’ sales activity that are not
posted on the real estate board. Buyers are looking
for move-in ready properties so homes that require
updating or extensive renovations are lagging on the
market.
Collingwood -
2011 Collingwood construction
values have increased over 65% since this time last
year [2011, $66,317million versus $40,180million
in 2010] with $53+ million in residential construction
[173 detached, 2 semi-detached 22 townhouses and
171 apartments], $10+ million in commercial and
$977,000 industrial and $947,800 institutional.
Blue Mountain Resorts [BMR] has acquired from In-
trawest the management contract for the 225Westin
Hotel units which means the BMR Hospitality Division
nowmanages all of the 800 rental units in the Village.
The resort has also acquired Starbucks, and the orig-
inal Village Discovery Centre which will be used for
homeowner services.
BY
A
NTHEA
W
HITE
GEORGIAN TRIANGLE REAL ESTATE MARKET UPDATES
escarpment
real estate
MARKET WATCH