No successful organization would have become successful in the absence of effective leadership. That’s axiomatic.
Leadership means creating a vision and planning how to execute it, securing resources and seeking and remediating errors of the past.
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Leadership is about motivating people to work together and co-operate with others as the organization hopefully moves toward its goals.
School districts or other organizations looking to fill leadership positions from outside their immediate geographic area have always encountered numerous obstacles if the objective is to hire the very best person possible, no matter where they are found.
Right now, on Vancouver Island and B.C.’s Lower Mainland, that’s all but out of reach.
Too often, the best people available simply can’t afford to move here.
To begin with, at least as far as school districts are concerned, excellent candidates for senior leadership are well into their careers, have all but paid off a mortgage and are not interested in moving from where they can afford to live into a high-priced, extremely competitive real estate market.
A version of the same applies to other organizations looking for leadership expertise that may bring a fresh perspective to their business.
The problem is that for highly qualified and experienced candidates, real estate prices here make finding an affordable place to live extremely difficult or even financially perilous for anyone moving here from elsewhere in B.C., let alone the rest of Canada.
So how big is the difference between house prices elsewhere in B.C. (or other provinces) and here on the Island and in the Lower Mainland?
According to Royal LePage, during the third quarter of 2019, the median home price in Kelowna dropped 3.9 per cent year-over-year to $617,899. In Kamloops, house prices average between $550,000 to $750,000.
The average house price in Vancouver is $1,175,500, with many going for as much as $200,000 or more over the asking price.
In fact, the price of a single-family home here and in the Lower Mainland has increased by 22% since September 2020.
On Vancouver Island, especially south Vancouver Island, quite ordinary houses are going for as much as $250,000 over asking price — and that’s with asking prices for standard houses often starting at just around $1 million.
As one Vancouver Island real estate agent explained: “We are seeing multiple offers on almost every reasonably priced detached listing. There simply isn’t enough inventory to meet the demand.”
According to another agent with whom I spoke, people who moved here from outside the province when prices were down are now cashing out in today’s hot market and taking their profits back to their home provinces.
A second influence on house prices, alien to people of my generation, is that many younger folks have been willing to incur mortgages they never intend to fully pay out and are willing to go “all in” on a mortgage no matter what happens with interest rates.
Thirdly, real estate inventory here was down nearly 30% in the early months of 2021 compared to the previous year. There just weren’t enough houses for sale over the year to meet buyer demand.
It’s a sellers’ market.
That automatically eliminates any thought for most mid-career people of moving to the Island or Vancouver.
Why is any of this problematic for the future of business organizations and school districts on the Island and in the Lower Mainland?
First, there is the business of picking up the pieces after COVID is eventually defeated by a combination of persistent epidemiologists and a population willing to make some sacrifices for the greater good.
The post-pandemic era will require organizations, especially school districts, to embrace new definitions of leadership —and apply new approaches to teaching and learning.
The COVID pandemic has also had an effect on other institutions — banks, the hospitality and tourism industries that are central to our economic system and communities are all having trouble attracting experienced leadership.
The unanswered question is about what kinds of leadership skills will be needed in order to navigate complex organizations through the post-COVID world successfully.
Sounds like time for government, the real estate industry, the affected unions and business organizations, and especially school districts, to close the meeting room door, get their heads together and address what could become a problem that redefines their mutual futures.
gfjohnson4@shaw.ca
Geoff Johnson is a former superintendent of schools.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
